| Hold On School Bond! |
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| by Rufus Shaw | Tue, Dec 25, 2007, 07:38 PM |
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I am going to say this early and I will be writing about this often. March is too soon to ask During the Trinity River toll road vote, I warned Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway of the risks he was taking by aggressively pushing the toll road when many of the backers of the toll road were the same Citizens Council types who have never delivered on their past promises to southern Mayor Tom Leppert, with the help of Mr. Caraway and political consultant, Willis Johnson, has forged a strong alliance with a section of the Black electorate. However, the Mayor’s continued credibility with the Black electorate will depend on his ability to deliver the southern sector development he has promised when he was running for Mayor and during the Trinity toll road campaign. March is too soon to evaluate whether or not Mayor Leppert can deliver on his promises to the Black community. Thus, March is too soon for the Mayor, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Caraway, and Willis Johnson to ask the Black community for our vote for the school bond. Then there is the question of illegal immigration. The fact is many The Dallas Morning News recently ran a front page story questioning the DISD’s financial management and their accounting practices. The questions the article raised have not been fully answered. There is concern that the problems may not be solved before the March election. Given the fact that the DISD has been faced with a number of financial scandals in recent months, once again one has to wonder about the wisdom of asking the voters in March to pass a massive school bond package. The March school bond package will probably total $1 billion. The total campaign budget for the southern sector to push the bond to Black voters will probably be about $250,000. In the past, the Black political leadership has delivered the Black vote for the $250,000 with no thought of the billions of dollars that includes all kinds of contracts and jobs that could benefit the Black community. Part of the problem is political campaigns represent a large segment of the dollars that come to the Black community. As a result, the Black political community has become addicted to political campaign money. I don’t fault Willis Johnson for getting paid for his consulting services. He is in the business of selling candidates and issues to the Black electorate. However, there is a line between community leader and political consultant. One looks at the big picture for the Black community. The big picture in this case is making sure the Black community gets southern
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Comments (15)
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written by Sharon Boyd , December 26, 2007 I live in NW Dallas, and I will not vote for another school bond election so long as Michael Hinojosa is the Superintendent. I have supported and not supported Dr. Blackburn, but he is right to challenge Dr. H and demand more accountability. It's not just the Southern Sector that is getting short changed by the DISD. Our neighborhood school was drawn out of our district by Joe May. That school has almost 20 "temporary" buildings that have been there since I bought my home in 2001. The children who live in my neighborhood must cross Walnut Hill to attend Calliet Elementary rather than Burnet Elementary. The teachers & principal at Burnet are fantastic, but the school remains problematic because of the overwhelming immigrant population from the apartments south of Park Lane. Rufus, I'm with you on this one. We have got to present a citywide front against any new bond elections until the trustees stop experimenting with our kids. Bilingual education is not working and diverts too much in dollar and personnel resources from all the children in the DISD. Please keep this issue on your front burner. It may take a failed bond election to finally make the trustees and the Citizens Council take DISD taxpayers seriously. Our slogan should be -- no results, no bond money!
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written by Jonathan Green , December 27, 2007 Apologists for illegal immigration try to paint it as a victimless crime, but the fact is that illegal immigration causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal immigrants, particularly those in the most vulnerable sectors of our population — the poor, minorities, and children. Illegal immigration causes an enormous drain on public funds. The seminal study of the costs of immigration by the National Academy of Sciences found that the taxes paid by immigrants do not begin to cover the cost of services received by them. The quality of education, health care and other services for Americans are undermined by the needs of endless numbers of poor, unskilled illegal entrants. Additionally, job competition by waves of illegal immigrants desperate for any job unfairly depresses the wages and working conditions offered to American workers, hitting hardest at minority workers and those without high school degrees. Michael Hinojosa was handpicked to use tax payers dollars to educate the children of immigrants. Dr. Blackburn and Ron Price have stood strong to ensure that DISD is turned in a new little Mexico ISD. In conclusion, There must be a comprehensive effort to end illegal immigration. That requires ensuring that illegal aliens will not be able to obtain employment, public assistance benefits, public education, public housing, or any other taxpayer-funded benefit without detection.
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written by Jonathan Green , December 27, 2007 Correction Dr. Blackburn and Ron Price have stood strong to ensure DISD is not turn into a little Mexico ISD under the leadership of Michael Hinojosa.
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written by Gehrig Saldaña , December 27, 2007 NOTE: Looks like Rufus finally pushed a button that might resonate among Dallas' Black and white voters whenever the next DISD Bond Election is held: 'Then there is the question of illegal immigration. The fact is many Dallas voters, Black and white, will not support a school bond vote if they believe that illegal immigrants will benefit. Recent figures show that the DISD is predominately Latino and a large number of the district students will be part of the illegal immigration debate. With illegal immigration being one of the key issues in the March presidential primaries, and this issue being far from resolved, one would think that a school bond election to benefit a school district that is predominately Hispanic could be in jeopardy. And let’s not forget there is serious friction between Black and Hispanic school board members. Furthermore, it is a political fact that Black voters will be essential to passing the school bond.' Rufus touched on a tender spot that may be quite troublesome for bond proponents. However, Rufus also touched on another subject I feel will mirror the same challenge to bond proponents, the DISD Credit Card Fraud Scandal. Big mistake for the DISD School Board and DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa to not attempt to RECOUP as much of those millions of DISD taxpayer dollars which were in effect, either stolen and/or misused during the DISD credit card fraud scandal. The big question is why not recoup this money? The simple answer is undergoing a huge recoup effort related to the DISD credit card fraud scandal for those hired to run the campaign for the next DISD School Bond Election and for those who stand to financially benefit from the next DISD bond program will be problematic. Back to my question, why not recoup this money? Can you imagine trying to recoup millions of DISD tax dollars from over 700 DISD employees while trying to hold a school bond election? And who are these employees? How does one explain why hundreds of DISD employees who collectively purchased personal items/food at expensive clothing stores, upscale book stores, and restaurants have yet to repay millions of DISD tax dollars they spent at these locations using their DISD issued credit card? Why has a current DISD Executive Director has thus far gone untouched after using the DISD credit card over 6 times at Wal-Mart to the tune of over $6,000 in order to purchase gift cards? Allen Gwinn's Dallas.Org website gives a full accounting of all of this and not a word about recouping DISD tax dollars stolen and/or misused via their credit card scandal. Ask Jesse Diaz, President of Dallas LULAC Council 4496 who he thinks were the majority of DISD employees who either stole and/or misused their DISD issued credit card? Bet he'll tell you a great majority of those who either stole and/or misused their DISD issued credit cards were not Hispanic. I am certain he'll share his thought on this subject with greater clarity than I can therefore I'll gladly defer to him on this subject. To me, it does not matter who did those dirty deeds with their DISD issued credit card. Regardless of who you are or what position you have with the DISD, those who either committed theft and/or misused their DISD issued credit cards should at the very least, pay back the DISD tax dollars meant to educate all DISD school children, regardless of race. After discussing Rufus Shaw's article below with Mr. Diaz over the holidays I am certain Mr. Diaz is ready, willing and able to touch on another tender spot related to the upcoming DISD bond election that could easily spiral to another political level not only within the DISD but throughout Dallas. That is, according to Mr. Diaz, he stands ready to further opine on exactly who were the majority of those DISD employees who either committed theft and/or misused their DISD issued credit card? So, according to Mr. Diaz, make illegal immigration an issue in the next DISD bond election at the risk opening up another can of worms. Only this time, those worms will be much harder to put back in the can. Sounds like Mr. Shaw has been keeping up with Houston ISD's school bond election. For a moment, I thought Mr. Diaz sounded like "Make my day" Clint Eastwood. You realize Mr. Diaz has already coined the phrase "The Oppressed have become the Oppressors." Happy New Year!!!
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written by Wick Allison , December 27, 2007 Jonathon, the Academy study is a little more balanced than you make it out to be, to wit: "The basic bottom line of the concurrent descendant formulation is that immigrants are a net taxpayer benefit to native-born households. This net benefit takes place exclusively at the federal level and not at the state level. Consequently, residents of some immigrant-intensive states (such as California) experience higher taxes due to immigration." California is a generous welfare state, and Texas is not, so it remains unclear if there is a net transfer from natives to non-natives here. As for employment, Dallas is currently enjoying one of the lowest unemployment rates in its history, with an estimated 125,000 illegals among us. I agree with you that we need comprehensive immigration reform. What baffles me is why Republicans refused to enact it when they had the chance. But that's another story.
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written by Jonathan Green , December 28, 2007 To Wick Allison; They need to fix the system, Not only do they need to make the enforcement commitments work, they need to reduce immigration ... and eliminate the nepotistic family chain migration system that fuels the seeds of unmanageable immigration growth."
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written by Realists , December 28, 2007 Unfortunately, there is a state of non-enforcement of laws , made possible by politicians, greedy corporations, and racially motivated industries that represent less than 10% of the US population, yet wield a great deal of power and influence. Simply put, America needs to enforce existing laws. Political and media pundits are constantly expounding upon our need to send the right messages to terrorists. Why is it then that many of those same pundits send the wrong message to illegal aliens? Only by reversing the flow of illegal aliens can we lower pressure on the border. The message we need to send? That America is not open, accommodating, or receptive to those the disrespect our laws and citizenry by entering as illegal aliens. The best messengers to carry this news will be millions of illegal aliens returning to their legal homes, to the nations they are citizens of. Those that favor open borders and unrestricted immigration into America are constantly offering false dichotomies. They say "Well, do you want to secure the border or focus on interior enforcement?" or "Why are you not focusing on fining employers that hire illegal aliens?" The truth is that we should and must do all of the above. These same apologists for illegal aliens are the same political forces that are sending the message "Come to America and we will not enforce our laws. In fact, we will simply legalize you with the stroke of a pen and enroll you into a Guest Worker Amnesty Program. There you have it! No more illegal aliens." We need to do many things to reverse the flow of illegal aliens and create the proper market pressures for many of them to leave on their own volition. Our efforts must be on every level of government: federal, state, and local. The four things we must do are: (1). Secure our Borders. (2.) Crack down on employers that intentionally hire illegal labor. (3.) Remove all benefits such as licenses, in-state tuition, and welfare for illegal aliens. (4.) Empower local police to enforce immigration law. Broad consensus exists for these measures, as multiple, national and local polls show over 80 % support for each one. From these multiple examples of support, we can see that the American public not only supports these measures, but American citizens are dismayed to discover that each facet has been compromised by an influential political minority. The current administration in Washington is quick to point out that we are spending more than ever on border security resources. They do not like to mention the fact that over two thirds of our border patrol agents have poor morale because they are being prevented from doing the job they have been sent to do. We can secure our borders by mounting pressure for the White House to rescind the current orders for our border patrol to only "catch and release" illegal aliens caught at the border. Mexican nationals caught entering the US should not be dropped off just across the border so they can try again the next night. They should be detained, identified, told that a 2nd crossing attempt is a felony. They should then handed over to the Mexican government to be returned to their homes. A Congressional inquiry is needed to ascertain why these insane and useless directives are in place and why most of the border sensor technology the taxpayers have paid for is not in place or operational.
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written by randye , December 28, 2007 Always good to hear from the Pauline Kael of the Park cities. In Wick's world as opposed to that of Rufus, illegals pack up their yard stuff and leave when finished, the sevants hit Dart and are out of town by dark. Wick doesn't have to deal with a hugely overstressed public healthcare system. Doesn't have to send one's kids to a school system forced to spend already meager resources on children, however worthy, who shouldn't be here in the first place. And remains baffled why 70% of the country that actually has to live with the problem sank that pathetic "reform". I don't have to the suffer the consequnces much either, but there is one hell of a lot more to it than net tax cost/benefits. That said I'm not sure how Mr. Shaw's "show us the money or we"ll take it on our kids" plan benefits anyone.
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written by Sol Villasana , December 28, 2007 Rufus Shaw was the consumate and ill-advised Scrooge as he delivered his Christmas present to DISD students: a lump of coal. His argument that folks won't support a proposed school bond program because it might provide educational benefits to undocumented children is wrong, and only evidences his prejudice against Hispanics. Most Dallasites want to obey the law, and since the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyer v. Doe (a Texas case), it is unconstitutional to deny any child, documented or undocumented a free public education. While immigration is a complex, unresolved issue, that aspect of the matter is well-settled law. By bringing up the topic in the context of public education and as a way to extort some perceived political advantage, Mr. Shaw is just fanning the flames of xenophobia and whistling Dixie. Mr. Shaw should kick-back, take off his hate-tinted glasses, have an egg-nog and re-read Brown v. Board of Education where the justices of the Supreme Court gave American children a true Christmas gift when they wrote, "...where the state has undrtaken to provide it [education], it is a right which must be made available to All on equal terms." Happy Holidays.
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written by Sol Villasana , December 28, 2007 Rufus Shaw was the consumate and ill-advised Scrooge as he delivered his Christmas present to DISD students: a lump of coal. His argument that folks won't support a proposed school bond program because it might provide educational benefits to undocumented children is wrong, and only evidences his prejudice against Hispanics. Most Dallasites want to obey the law, and since the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyer v. Doe (a Texas case), it is unconstitutional to deny any child, documented or undocumented a free public education. While immigration is a complex, unresolved issue, that aspect of the matter is well-settled law. By bringing up the topic in the context of public education and as a way to extort some perceived political advantage, Mr. Shaw is just fanning the flames of xenophobia and whistling Dixie. Mr. Shaw should kick-back, take off his hate-tinted glasses, have an egg-nog and re-read Brown v. Board of Education where the justices of the Supreme Court gave American children a true Christmas gift when they wrote, "...where the state has undrtaken to provide it [education], it is a right which must be made available to All on equal terms." Happy Holidays.
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written by Maria Rodriguez , December 29, 2007 Until the issue of illegal immigration is resolved, we cannot deny these CHILDREN an education. We must continue to provide the BEST education to ALL registered students in DISD no matter what. To say that we should not support a School Bond Program because "too many illegal immigrants will benefit" and "...a school bond election to benefit a school district that is predominantly Hispanic..." is ludicrous. I can certainly agree with your 1st and 3rd reasons for not supporting the school bond. Let's leave the children out of our politics and go forth with what will benefit ALL CHILDREN. Mr. Shaw, my fellow mustang, do you want to draw up another Southern Manifesto to keep the children of illegal immigrants from going to good schools?
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written by john k. , December 30, 2007 I find that the children of Mexican Immigrants learn English then teach it to their parents. They actually insist that they speak English. Who benefits by this? We all benefit.
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written by Realists , December 31, 2007 I find it very hard to understand that I an American Citizen goes to Parkland Hospital and have to stand in line behind immigrants her illegal. I cannot understand why illegal immigrants have filled my School I call myself a proud alumi and now it predominately hispanic, children of illegal immigrants? Sadly, the children of illegal immigrants have tried to rid the fabric of Dallas Schools the African American Middle Class teacher from the class room citing they be bi-lingual. Hinjosa must go!!!! Rufus has valid points I support.
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written by Betty Culbreath , December 31, 2007 The school Bond election should be held up. DISD has to many problems. I can not support it:1.DISD does not work from a budget.2.Spent $3 million in credit card scandal and it did not raise red flag 3.Attempt change of residency policy for one employee who was on school board in Weatherford when hired.4.Has lowest exemption amount in County and highest tax.5.Students in certain schools are not getting education.6.Teacher concern at Roosevelt High are true but nobody cares Mr. Williams say he's going over now.7.DISD attorney representing student at employee hearing.8.DISD paid $24,000 to outside firm to represent District in hearing with fired employee before a DISD employee hearing committee appointed by .Hinojosa.9.Race relation are bad again between Board members.10. No attempt to collect any of credit card scandal money from employees using cards.Punishment should have been the same for all. There is a big difference between a community leader and a paid consultant only in the Black community do paid consultant become community Leaders. Leaders are not paid for supporting an issue or project they do it (should) in the best interest of the public. Mr.J.S DCC new President please help something is wrong! Write comment
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