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Larry T. Spider

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Everything posted by Larry T. Spider

  1. We drove to Rosemary Beach and back last summer. Opted for New Orleans on the way there. Wanted to knock out more of the drive on the way home so we ate an early dinner in New Orleans then stayed in Lake Charles and hit the casino. If I did it over again I would just stay in NOLA both ways.
  2. Superintendents are already coming out and saying that if we get a $55 increase to the basic allotment, expect staff reductions and programs to be cut. It’s an embarrassingly low amount, even for the clowns running our state. As one pundit put it, people passed vouchers to save the hostage and now they are returning the hostage dead, in pieces, and in a body bag. Even if a slightly larger amount gets passed, we have started negotiations at such a low number, we are going to end up in a really bad place. This is the equivalent of somebody offering you 15k for your 500k house. Two things need to happen, and neither will help the kids or the districts. 1. Every superintendent needs to be extremely transparent with their community about what this will mean. Nobody should have any doubts about where blame lies when programs get cut. They have kept quiet in the past and taken the blame for the legislature’s fuck ups. 2. Rural republicans should be publicly shamed by their communities for being little bitches that fucked over their kids and (usually) the largest employer in their area. Edit: just for some context, the current basic allotment is $6,160 so $55 is less than a 1% increase. Districts have faced massive inflation on building costs, maintenance, busses, and a million other things since the last increase 6 years ago.
  3. The people of Austin are willing to pay for mass transit. In fact, they already are, based on the promise of several new lines. What did we get? One additional line that *might* be operational by 2033. Attitude of the taxpayers is not the problem. Delivering on promises is.
  4. Republicans have very few political groups that oppose them in Texas. Public education, environmentalists and trial lawyers are about the only three. Pretty easy to predict who gets the shaft.
  5. This could be good if done correctly. Or it could cause campus disruptions and lost instructional time 3x as often. At the end of the day, if the test is tied to school ratings and keeping the state away, it will remain high stakes. One thing that’s really important to remember is that teaching to the test and test taking strategies are very effective. There are some kids that are so far behind that it doesn’t matter and a few that are going to ace it no matter what. But I’ve watched kids with teachers that were poor at test prep pass off their students to teachers that were great at test prep the next year. Kids that were scoring in the 70s started scoring in the 90s. Year after year, the same thing. Experienced administrators know this and start pushing it because the test scores are one of the few public facing indicators of success for the school. However nobody really thinks it’s making our kids smarter, our parents happier, or our teachers more likely to stay in the profession.
  6. This is 100% necessary in a declining enrollment district with funding challenges. If they play their cards right, it can potentially help with the test score issues as well. Strategically, it’s important to think about where the kids will go if their school closes. If there’s a charter across the street, it probably won’t be another AISD school. With that being said, I’ll believe it when it actually happens. They aren’t even releasing plans for another 6 months. Then the protests and cries of racism/over privileged whining starts.
  7. Played some drinking games through the delay and learned an important lesson. I’m too old for this shit.
  8. I mean, you could say the same about Texas but that also screws over the 4,835,250 of us that voted for the opposite of this shit. Red states feeling some maga pain is very leopard/face appropriate though….
  9. And there is the states game plan in a nutshell.
  10. There is a lot of anti-charter sentiment in the public education world. This is especially true in AISD where they have pulled students away and made the funding crisis much worse. My guess is the administration wants to be able to say they tried everything before going that route. It’s a political move as much as anything.
  11. Seems like the most relevant thread for this. Don Zimmerman, former Austin City Council clown, is leading protests at Cedar Ridge HS in Round Rock at dismissal each day. Evidently there is a trans teacher there, which is obviously a crime against humanity…..or the best way for ole Don to stay in the news. A friend made a FB post saying the protesters should leave the school community alone. Zimmerman lost his bid for RRISD school board and people have rejected his views. He found the FB post and wrote this response that would impress Alex Jones: “Thank you for affirming your faith in the trans cult religion of government school. Since we are being forced - by taxes - to subsidize the subversive demonic cult "trans" religion, WE WILL CONTINUE to protest until Mr. Lambert is removed from the RRISD teaching authority. I have filed Grievance # 2025-02-0439 against Mr. Andrew Roland Lambert, a man who is misrepresenting himself as a woman at CRHS: "Mr. Andrew Roland Lambert (a man) is misrepresenting himself in the high school yearbook, and as a classroom teacher, as "Ms. Alyssa Lambert" (a woman), in Violation of Educator's Code of Ethics, 247.2(1)(J), Standard 1.10. "The educator shall be of good moral character and be worthy to instruct or supervise the youth of this state." Mr. Lambert exercises "Moral turpitude--Improper conduct, including, but not limited to, the following: dishonesty; fraud; deceit; ...; misrepresentation" of his biological gender. Mr. Lambert might be exercising "base, vile, or depraved acts that are intended to arouse or to gratify the sexual desire of the actor", by misrepresenting his gender and modeling a deceptive lifestyle as if it were normal, morally correct and acceptable, which represents "modeling" by a teaching professional. Mr. Lambert "models" the behavior of pretending to be the opposite sex to young, impressionable students, which could lead them to model his behavior, which could be damaging to students physical and mental health." Here is Mr. Lambert's Texas Educator Certificate: This certifies that Andrew Roland Lambert has fulfilled requirements of state law and regulations of the State Board for Educator Certification and is hereby authorized to perform duties as designated below: STANDARD Description Effective Date Expiration Date Status Classroom Teacher Social Studies 06/23/2023 04/30/2029 Valid”
  12. AISD is advertising Burnet, Dobie, and Webb as “district-led restart” campuses. They are offering a $15,000 annual stipend. For teachers with more than 2 years of experience and good reviews, they can get an additional 5k. Sped and bilingual can tack on another 7k. I assume this means they are not going the charter route. It’s a tough job with a lot of uncertainty for anybody that takes it. You know it will all be about state testing, constant benchmark assessments, and admin living up your ass about your lesson plans, teaching style, and whatever flavor of the week initiatives they come up with.
  13. So nobody knows? Surprised Trump isn’t in the news touting how much we are “profiting” off all the “winning”.
  14. Have there been any reports detailing how much money is flowing into the US treasury from tariffs? I’m sure it will be very little compared to the stifled economic output, but would still be interesting to know.
  15. Her working in subtle digs at Harris at the end is exactly why nothing will change. These people will fuck their entire lives over just for some lib tears.
  16. Wouldn’t touristy spots, such as historical sites in Rome, be more crowded in August than late September/october?
  17. Much appreciated. We were thinking about going in August or September, unless you would recommend against it. I know August will be more crowded. Early October is also fine but would likely mean the beach clubs are closed. Viareggio is close to Florence and accessible by train. Lucrino is accessible by train from Naples. Pescara is a little further from Rome but I don’t mind the 3.5 hour train ride. Open to any other options you would recommend because I know nothing outside of some Google searches. I value simplicity over having the perfect experience since we are first timers.
  18. Superintendents won’t publicly say this, but they don’t want to ask the taxpayers to pay for these mega-complexes either. The problem they face is the rapid population growth/movement in Texas. New families are coming in and deciding where to live, and schools are a big part of that decision. A former superintendent I worked for called it the “drive by test” when families would scout out an area and be wowed by all the expensive ass facilities. If all your neighbors are building this stuff, then you are at risk of being left behind. With funding tied to attendance, it’s not worth the risk for them.
  19. Not much movement yet, but it can take a while for all the water to make its way to the lakes. The drought has been so bad in the areas that drain to the highland lakes, the land will suck up a lot of this rain.
  20. I think it’s part book banning/maga hell raising but it’s also that these types don’t have answers for the real problems. People that show up to these elections understand the challenges with funding, staffing, test scores, growth/decline in student enrollment, etc. When voters are frustrated because districts can’t hire bus drivers so routes are getting cut, they don’t give a shit about some book their kid is never going to read. When art and music classes are getting cut, people don’t care about fake litter box hoaxes. When half of the teachers being hired are uncertified, people want solutions.
  21. Thanks. What time of year was this? I’ve seen the question asked so many times but rarely a good answer.
  22. I follow Williamson county pretty closely and it had been trending more blue over the last 15 years. I personally think it will continue to trend that way despite Trump winning here in 2024. Whatever Trump tapped into at a national level applied here, but didn’t trickle down to Cruz. Donald J. Trump (50.21%) Kamala D. Harris (47.71%) Ted Cruz (47.85%) Colin Allred (49.32%)
  23. Texas will go as the burbs go. Cities are blue, rural is red, burbs swing the state. Especially true for inner ring burbs. The trends were looking good for Dems until the last presidential election. Will be interesting to see if that was a blip on the radar or something more significant.
  24. They already fucked their small towns for eternity with the voucher bill.
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