These words, or some similar, were mouthed by vacuous vessel perched atop a hi-boy shirt collar. That vessel and the body that supports it has a title: Governor of Texas. It also has a name: Rick Perry.
You may recall that Rick Perry was the anointed one after George W. Bush jumped on Karl Rove's back and rode to the White House. Since then we've been saddled (pun intended) with Governor Goodhair and his band of merry toadies who operate every government office in the state including public education.
This diary is a summary of the work all these people have done and why it is so scary to the rest of the country.
To the relief of many readers I am not a native Texan. But that does not exclude me from paying attention. I live here and enjoy the hill country life style immensely. That said I also want to announce that I am proud of where I live and with whom I interact. In fact, I am so enthused about living in Texas that I am highly motivated to point out to my fellow Texas residents and natives that our elected and appointed leaders are making a mockery of our state in just about every way imaginable.
Below is a summary of our ranking among the fifty states in a variety of categories:
Texas' superlatives are nothing to brag about, according to the fifth edition of "Texas on the Brink," summarized by Emily Ramshaw, an annual review that ranks the state on dozens of factors ranging from health insurance to voter turnout.
Despite having the highest birth rate, Texas has the worst rate of women with health insurance, and the worst rate of pregnant women receiving prenatal care in the first trimester, according to the report commissioned by the Legislative Study Group, a research caucus in the Texas House. While Texas has the second-highest public school enrollment, the state ranks last in the percentage of people 25 and older with a high school diploma. And though Texas has the highest percent of its population without health insurance, the state is 49th in per capita spending on Medicaid, and dead last in per capita spending on mental health, according to the report.
Here's a look at how Texas compares to other states:
- Tax expenditures per capita (47th)
- Percent of population 25 and older with a high school diploma (50th)
- Percent of poor people covered by Medicaid (49th)
- Percent of population with employer-based health insurance (48th)
- Per capita spending on mental health (50th)
- Per capita spending on Medicaid (49th)
- Percent of non-elderly women with health insurance (50th)
- Percent of women receiving prenatal care in first trimester (50th)
- Average credit score (49th)
- Workers' compensation coverage (50th)
- Number of executions (1st)
- Public school enrollment (2nd)
- Percent of uninsured children (1st)
- Percent of children living in poverty (4th)
- Percent of population uninsured (1st)
- Percent of population living below poverty (4th)
- Percent of population with food insecurity (2nd)
- Overall birth rate (2nd)
- Amount of carbon dioxide emissions (1st)
- Amount of toxic chemicals released into water (1st)
- Amount of hazardous waste generated (1st)
It doesn’t take a genius to see which “brink” they’re talking about. What was implied but not listed is Texas’ bottom five ranking in secondary school national tests. This begins to gall me when I hear “…great state of Texas…” emitting from politicians. Sorry about the negativity, but waking up to real problems is the first step in fixing them.
Why is our legislature trying to cut even more social services when we’re already last? Why is our legislature trying to cut public education funding when we’re already last? Why does our legislature and governor refuse federal money for education or refuse federal law to improve our rates of pollution when we’re last? Why don’t Texans want to pay for anything that benefits the people of the state, the state’s ability to compete for high quality businesses, the quality of educating its children, or cleaning up its polluting industries?
Last November the state’s voters who turned out elected many Republicans who now think they have a mandate to cut waste and bureaucracies. Well, Rick Perry received about 55% of the vote from only 48% of the registered voters who voted. Thirty percent of our eligible voters are not registered. That means that 17% of the people of Texas voted for Rick Perry. It also means that only 24% of those eligible to vote voted for him. Does anybody out there not breathing helium see this as a mandate to further worsen our state?
Our state’s return to greatness will not happen until its citizens assume responsibility for its government and its social obligation to pay for the services the majority of its people deserve and need. If this is how Texas will lead the country for the rest of the century, the whole world is in deep, deep trouble.