The Texas Rick Perry has created for Us!

I love Texas! I love it so much that I am willing to put up with King Perry but that patience is deteriorating fast.

A clear example of how Perry is hurtful to Texans but in particular Hispanics regardless of political affiliation is to observe how his policies affect Texas.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

“If the American Dream is upward economic mobility and arrival in the middle class, the grim statistics show only a small percentage of Texas’ Hispanics are on the road to success.

As the state’s Latino population continues to expand over the next two decades, if current trends stay the same, Texas is in danger of developing what one academic describes as a “permanent underclass.” Widespread poverty could pull down the standard of living for all Texans.”

The following is some of the daunting data that should alarm all Texans.

• Texas Hispanics not only make less money than Anglos, they make less money than Hispanics living in other states. The wage gap is broadest for Hispanics living on the border with Mexico, according to a report of Southwest Economy published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
• Hispanics make up a third of the manual laborers in Texas. But U.S. Census statistics show that even in construction trades Hispanics account for less than a fifth of skilled labor, such as an electrician.
• In February, 34 percent of all Texans receiving unemployment payments from the Texas Workforce Commission were Hispanic. The payments are not available for undocumented workers.
• Texas native-born Hispanics have a higher high school dropout rate and a lower level of college attainment than those living in other states, Southwest Economy reported. The attrition rate among Hispanic high school students was 42 percent last year.
• Hispanic girls accounted for 62 percent of all births to teen mothers in 2006, the most recent year reported by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The wage gap is not necessarily due to racism as much as it is because of education levels. It does not help that dropout rates among Hispanics is alarming.

But, who is responsible for those dropouts? That is easy … the state and federal government. One could argue that the responsibility falls upon the pupils but when dropout rates exceed personal responsibility to the degree it currently is, there has to be a flaw within the way the government approaches education.

The education of students should not be viewed as a cookie cutter format that applies to everyone. We do not learn the same regardless of socio-economic background.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, “Hispanic schoolchildren make up nearly 49 percent of Texas’ 4.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade students, according to the Texas Education Agency.”

Rick Perry is not adequately funding our public education system and that hurts Hispanics in particular those who make up almost half of the students in the public education realm. Thus, should we be shocked that Perry is creating an underclass of Hispanics while continuing to engage in hurtful practices that only diminish the Texas middle class.

This is the same governor that deregulated our higher education system because he claims it would benefit students in the long run. Instead, he has created the environment in which college is unattainable for most people and requires the rest to become subservient to student loans because of the out of control cost of tuition.

It does not help that Rick Perry has not addressed the shenanigans that is going on with the State Board of Education (SBOE). Don McLeroy, a social conservative activist board member, plans on editing Texas history books in an Orwellian fashion in order to “correct years of liberal bias.” This dentist is part of the Republican movement on the SBOE that wants to rid textbooks of minority accomplishments in Texas History.

That is exactly what we need to be teaching students, right?

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Houston Mayor Bill White adds that he “would object to the intrusion of politics into matters of educational curriculum, regardless of where people stood on the political spectrum."