Taking Texas educators for a ride

Sometimes, there is a very thin line between being political and being disingenuous, and the Republicans who purport to represent the best interests of Texas taxpayers in Washington have crossed it.

First, they thumb their noses at thousands of Texas educators and millions of Texas school kids by voting against the $830 million allocated to Texas in emergency federal education funding because of a Democratic amendment to ensure that the education dollars are actually spent on education.

Thanks to a Democratic majority, Congress passed the bill a few weeks ago anyway. But Texas’ money is still held up because Gov. Rick Perry has refused to assure the federal government that the education dollars will be spent on education.

What’s wrong with spending education money on education? Absolutely nothing, unless, apparently, you would rather monkey around with your constituents.

Now, the congressional Republicans are pushing for an amendment to strip the “education dollars for education” requirement from the funding law and allow the $830 million to begin flowing – sooner or later to Texas.

The ploy may work. But without a written restriction in the federal law, there will be absolutely no guarantee of a net gain of $830 million for Texas classrooms. The current state leadership – barring significant changes on Election Day more than likely will deduct at least part of that $830 million from state education funding, which is what congressional Democrats were trying to prevent.

Trust us, the Texas Republicans in Congress are saying.

But why should anyone in the education community trust the GOPers? First, they voted against educators. Now, I suspect, they are trying to fool them.