Every abuela knows it takes a village to raise a child, and Texas children are no different. This year, Republicans want you to believe that we don’t need to invest in our children’s education, health care, or employment future. In Texas, Republicans haven’t invested in our children for the last 16 years. Texas ranks 44thin education expenditures per student.
Texas families cannot afford another year, let alone four, of irresponsible leadership by Perry and Dewhurst. Under their guidance:
• Texans lost 34,200 jobs in August
• The unemployment rate rose to 8.3% in August (The unemployment rate is even higher in the Hispanic and African American communities).
• The majority of jobs available are low performing, minimum wage positions
These minimum wage jobs, created under incentive programs backed by Dewhurst, don't include benefits for workers. To make matters worse, most of the companies creating these jobs bail out of the state once the tax incentives end. A recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tells the real story; Texas has the highest share of minimum wage workers in the nation.
Why is this a problem? Perry and Dewhurst are providing incentives to companies for jobs that do not provide for Texas families or move our economy forward. Instead of investing in an education system that prepares students for advanced jobs, Perry and Dewhurst see nothing wrong with selling out our children’s futures. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, by the year 2014, over 2 million jobs will be created in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
Texans need leadership that will bring us together.
We are a proud state, and together we must create and sustain jobs we can be proud of. Texas needs a workforce that is educated to compete for jobs that will move our state forward.
However, Texas public schools are failing to graduate one out of every three high school students.We need a community to help raise our children. Texas is ranked 36th in the U.S. for dropouts, and in South Texas the drop out rates are among the highest in the country. What have Perry & Dewhurst done for South Texas?
Nothing.
I’m running for Lt. Governor of Texas because every Texan needs a voice in their government and every child needs a village to support them and their education. For every $25 donation to my campaign, supporters will receive a free Linda the Riveter poster.