Mercer Opposes $2 Billion Raid of Childrens Fund!

I strongly disagree with two of my colleagues on the State Board of Education Bob Craig (R Lubbock) and freshman Thomas Ratliff (R Mt. Pleasant) who led an effort to change the Texas Constitution and take $2 billion away from the principal (e.g., corpus, assets) of the Permanent School Fund (PSF). (Placido Salazar note: Wasnt former Senator Joe Bernal charged for this same offense? Does the law apply only to Demos?) Ratliff believed to be the only elected state official who is also a registered, full-time professional education-related lobbyist to the Texas Legislature testified before the April 19 Senate Finance Committee on the proposal. He stated that we (meaning the SBOE members) had discussed this item. (Placido: Ratliff being a lobbyist is LEGAL? No conflict, here?) As a matter of public record, that proposal to raid the PSF of $2 billion was never posted as an official agenda item for the April 13 15, 2011, SBOE meeting; there was no public comment; and it was never publicly discussed or debated by the full membership of the SBOE. The proposal lobbied to the Senate Finance Committee was an initiative discussed and signed behind closed doors. I believe the closed-door meeting of SBOE members to discuss the $2 billion raid of the PSF may be a direct violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act. (Placido: Never publicly discussed? Are the Texas Rangers awake?) The PSF is commonly known as the childrens textbook fund. The states early-day founders created the endowment to help fund public education; and since 1919, the PSF has been used to ensure that Texas schoolchildren receive free textbooks. However, because of the economic downturn after the Civil War, the original fund was raided and depleted by the 1865 Legislature. Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson reminded the Senate Finance Committee at its April 19, 2011, meeting that in 1876 Texas changed its Constitution to forever protect the childrens textbook fund from any future raids. That is why the legal term today is the Permanent School Fund. When I took my oath of office as a State Board of Education member, I promised to uphold the Constitution, which demands that the SBOE protect and preserve the PSF for future generations, and use any proceeds to provide free textbooks for our 4.8 million public schoolchildren. The Texas Constitution provides a key tenet of American exceptionalism: the separation of powers. Permanent funds are managed by the executive branch, separate from those who appropriate funds, i.e., the Legislature. This Constitutional separation should prevent any attempt to raid an endowment fund meant to be permanent.

I firmly agree with Sen. Kevin Eltife (R -Tyler) who correctly painted the PSF proposal as both a raid of the childrens fund and bad public policy! In the Senate Finance discussion, Sen. Florence Shapiro (R Plano) and Sen. Dan Patrick (R Houston) both correctly noted that such a one-time $2 billion proposal would move authority for PSF spending decisions away from the executive branch (the SBOE) to the legislative branch. That is a bad precedent to set. Sen. Ed Lucio (D Brownsville) also expressed a concern that the proposal, if passed, could impact the rating of guaranteed school bonds that are backed by the value of the fund. Thomas Ratliff, with just three months of SBOE service, concluded his testimony to the Senate by stating, We could not sit back and not do anything. I take exception to Ratliffs comment. In 2010, under the leadership of SBOE Chair Gail Lowe (R Lampasas) and then-PSF Committee Chair David Bradley (R Beaumont), critical discussions were held with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and Land Commissioner Patterson to help ensure the SBOE could pay out the most PSF funding possible while still being prudent in managing the endowment for the long term. The results were a payout from earnings, as allowed by the Constitution, of $1.2 billion for the current budget and another commitment of $1.8 billion for education for the upcoming biennium. The careful management by the members of the SBOE had resulted in protecting the principal (e.g., corpus, assets) of the fund. This was a major accomplishment by the SBOE. Next, conservatives on the SBOE joined with Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Republican Congressional delegation to call for a repeal of the federal budget amendment authored by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D Austin) that withheld $830 million from Texas schools. Texas now has that $3.0 billion from the PSF payout from earnings plus the $830 million that the Doggett amendment held back from our Texas schools. This adds up to $3.8 billion in new education funding. Thomas Ratliffs public comment to the Senate Finance Committee in which he accused the past SBOE members of sitting back and doing nothing was truly out of line. The proposal led by Craig and Ratliff to raid $2 billion from the principal of the Permanent School Fund to meet a budget deficit is both bad public policy and bad precedent. The unprecedented promotion of the idea of robbing $2 billion from the PSF without the issue being posted on the SBOE agenda, without public comment or debate, and without any advice from legal or investment counsel, may be a direct violation of the Open Meetings Act and an unauthorized, if not outright illegal, action. Posted on May 29, 2011 at 12:55 am

With NATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL RANKINGS such as these, why is Rick Perry recruiting business in other states, wasting valuable tax dollars which should be used to improve our BELOW AVERAGE ranking? What parent in his/her right mind would want to relocate to Texas, which has a BELOW AVERAGE SCHOOL SYSTEM RANKING? Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 State SERI Massachusetts Minnesota New Jersey New Hampshire New York Virginia Maryland Connecticut Indiana Maine Florida Illinois South Dakota Wisconsin Colorado Kansas Kentucky Vermont Georgia Washington Utah Pennsylvania Tennessee Ohio Delaware Michigan Oregon 4.82 4.06 4.04 4.01 3.94 3.73 3.57 3.28 3.28 3.24 3.13 3.08 3.08 3.06 3.04 3.00 3.00 2.93 2.88 2.86 2.85 2.80 2.67 2.64 2.60 2.60 2.58

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Wyoming Montana Idaho Texas North Dakota Missouri California Rhode Island North Carolina Hawaii Iowa Alaska South Carolina Arkansas Oklahoma Nebraska Nevada Arizona New Mexico Alabama Louisiana West Virginia Mississippi --

2.58 2.53 2.47 2.45 2.40 2.39 2.38 2.38 2.34 2.29 2.25 2.20 2.20 2.14 2.01 1.97 1.93 1.91 1.72 1.60 1.59 1.58 1.11 2.82