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Samson's Wig
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Everything posted by Samson's Wig
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Solid point. Although, as much as folks around our age don't want to hear it, I think your timeline is being generous. It wasn't exactly tough to get into UT as recently as the late 1990s and early 2000s. It may have been rising in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, but it didn't really hit "public ivy" status until the last fifteen years or so. It may indeed be a reversion to the mean in terms of quality of education, but I don't like the thought of every state university in Texas having its hands tied by a political party. This is generational fuckery that didn't exist even back when UT was just another state school. Texas (the state) is headed down a very dark path.
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Kind of crazy. And this is round one. A&M and Texas Tech will sign this in a heartbeat if asked, and if the administration gets traction with UT, they will be asked. The less important state schools would all sign as well, if given the opportunity. The options for a decent university education in Texas are about to dry up completely.
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It's a weird pocket where a bunch of relatively affluent people receive almost no standard educational offerings for their kids (in terms of location), and never could seem to muster the influence to force any through. Over the years, they have always run into the nonsense of "you can't spend money on the west side and not the east side" that gets spewed (despite the reality of a massive gap in spending per student that weighs heavily to the east side), and nothing ever got done. Fast forward to massive overcrowding on the west side and the current budget crisis due to weak district management over the years. No one was ever willing to make the tough choices, and now it's a disaster.
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That was always weird. Anderson isn't really that much closer ~9 miles v. ~11. At a minimum, there should be an elementary school serving Jester and the communities across 2222 along City Park Road, like Greenshores. There are likely enough kids there to have a couple of elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school. When such a thing was suggested many years ago, it was shouted down by the usual suspects. God forbid we build schools where the kids are actually located, or close schools where they're not. The district took its de facto stance and said, fuck it. And now here we are. The new plan has those kids going to Anderson next year, assuming it is approved.
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I suspect they're about to be flooded with even more transfer requests, along with every other neighboring district. I suspect we'll see some changes to transfer policies soon.
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Under this plan, my property taxes should go down to about 20% of their current rate, and my kids might be able to attend a decent public school. Okay, I'm in. Austin letting go of the tax base west of Mopac is a pipe dream, of course, but I've often wondered if there is a way for homes west of 360 to figure out a way to get rezoned to a different school district, as AISD never saw fit to build any schools out here where a bunch of kids live. I know that will never happen, but a guy can dream.
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Sharia law combined with even more paid time off. 6 months paid vacation, but no more wine. It could get interesting.
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Meh. That's admitted to hospital numbers, not mortality rates. Keep riding!
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Whoever he is, I hope his cardiologist is at the top of his favorites list on his phone.
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Completely agree. The way we finance education is insane. The district's shitty leadership for decades is every bit as much to blame as the state, though, in my opinion. They have been put in a tough spot, but have failed to deal with it in even a marginally professional manner. Now the reckoning for decades of inaction is here, and current students and families will pay for it. The district admin should not get a pass for their failures just because the state shares the blame.
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Public academic institutions, from grade school on up, stopped giving a shit about history at least two decades ago.
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I'm not sure how anyone can believe that the rubric they put together has anything to do with the decision making. Any pretense along those lines should be dropped, and any arguments made trying to use the rubric data as a baseline will not work. They made it clear, in writing, when they released the rubric data that it was not dispositive and their decisions would consider other factors. Just glancing through that report was enough to know it was nonsense anyway. Whatever went down behind the scenes to reach where we're at doesn't really matter as we'll never know for sure, but the rubric, along with any public input they claim to welcome, is nothing but gladhanding. The only thing we know for certain, and it has been the case for decades, is that educating students does not even crack the top ten priorities for district leadership (or state leadership for that matter). It's shameful, but it's been that way for a very long time. Matias is in over his head more than perhaps any public figure I've ever seen. Part of me sympathizes with his situation, as he isn't the one who created this mess, although he has had his hands on making it worse for a long time now, predating his interim and formal role as supertindent. However, his knee jerk response to everything is to lie, lie, lie, and that's where he loses any of my respect. He lies even when he doesn't have to, as it's just his default response when he feels pressured. This school district is in really sad shape, and he's representative of it. Incompetence from the top down. I was at the meeting at Lamar this past spring when they tried to ramrod their hamfisted plan to dump Dobie kids into the already overcrowded (and dilapidated) Lamar building. Segura lied every time he opened his mouth, and he received a farily nasty response from the parents and teachers on hand, because even though he lies all the time he's not good at it. He'll get more of the same at his appeerances now. He's not a good liar, nor is he quick on his feet, but he is really good at not letting angry people who call him out for the stupid things he says bother him. Water off a duck's back. It would almost be impressive if it weren't so pathetic. One of my favorites lies he tells is when he mentions how long he has been superintendent. He always leaves out the year and half when he was interim superintendent because he didn't have the necessary qualifications to be a superintendent yet. He does it in an attempt to shift blame to past leadership, even for things that happened on his watch. He's slimy as fuck. He'll probably be POTUS someday. Consolidation has to happen. The economics deem it so. Schools have to close. This district is an abject failure from top to bottom, and all anyone in leadership seems capable of doing is deflecting blame. But this plan is just another form of busing, which has been attempted a number of times in this district in an attempt to blend test scores and dodge the state. They tried hard to push busing through when Cruz was superintendent, and even Elizalde made references to it in her short stint. I was at a meeting at Hill Elementary about a plan to start busing kids ~2018 where a member of Cruz' staff referred to concerned parents as "rich white racists". This wasn't an aside, but over a microphone while addressing the crowd. The pathetic part about that comment, aside from the base vitriol of it, is that the plan to bus kids had nothing to do with inclusivitiy, equity, or anything else that most Austin parents would support. It was about blending test scores and protecting the disctrict leadership. That's it. But that fucker was more than happy to play the race card when people called them out for their obvious bullshit. The only answer they've ever come up with to their failure to educate kids in socioeconomically depressed areas is to blend kids together to fudge the state requireements for test scores. It has nothing to do with finding a way to better educate those kids who are falling behind. They don't give two shits about those kids. They actually believe that hiding those kids amongst other students who perform better is some kind of solution. The same kids will fail. But the numbers will look better. Fuck these people. They are the ones responsilbe for failing the kids on the east side of town, but when faced with that fact they do their best to pin east and west against one another. Property values are going to take a hit. Families will continue fleeing the city. Nothing about this is unique to Austin. It's happened in every large city in America. It sucks for those with kids in the sytem now, as they've already suffered through the terrible handling of the pandemic, and will now face their kids dealing with a TEA takeover for high school.
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Will this first meeting involve anything beyond a regurgitation of what was released on Friday? Isn't this just the presentation of the plan to the board? Will they have community speakers to liven things up with some good old-fashioned mindless ranting? I want to fast forward to the board approving whatever they're going to do, so we can decide what to do with our kids. I don't think anything is going to look substantively different than the plan they've had cooked up for well over a year now, regardless of the mandatory dog and pony show they have been putting on to feign giving a crap about community input. I've got zero interest in the mud-slinging and cat-clawing that will go on between now and then. It will be the same old pile of nonsense, with a mix of race-baiting, misdirected anger, false entitlement, and virtue signalling from middle-aged white women, all while any sensible commentary is wholly lost in the wash.
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Do you know who storms out of business negotiations to create a sense of urgency? Morons with bad negotiating skills. I do tend to agree that this will all amount to nothing, but mostly because most Americans don't give a shit one way or the other. He's not going to do anything if he thinks no one will pay attention.
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So, exactly like it's always been.
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Youth Minister's (and other pervs) Thread of Shame
Samson's Wig replied to tx 3 putt's topic in Daily Texan
These are the individuals who are currently dictating policy in this country. I don't understand how anyone can be stupid enough to be a member of this political cult. -
I went to the game last night. 50/50 is about right.
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Version 2 it is. I hope everyone's loins are girded. War commences on Monday.
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I completely agree, and left out the other prong of state governments taking advantage of the situation by dropping the subsidizing of tuition to almost nothing to avoid bogging down my comment too much. But you're absolutely correct that this is an essential aspect of what happend. State governments felt more comfortable dropping funding, because of what happened after the bankruptcy reform act. They were already reducing prior, but you saw it fall off a cliff after 2003.
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You know with this cand-ass Friday after-hours info drop that it's going to be good. I'm just ready to see what version of busing rezoning they come up with, so parents can start making plans for next year. I don't think there is anything they can do that won't result in a 25% or more reduction in enrollment. It's all putting lipstick on a pig at this point, as anything short of school finance reform won't materially change a damn thing.
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My former law professor. Brilliant man who I had the chutzpah to argue with way more than I should have. He was a bit younger in those days, as was I. Still get together once every couple of years. I've been arguing with him over a couple of points in his con law text book since he first published it back in the 90s, but despite seven or so revisions to it he has held strong against making any changes based on my arguments.
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Tuition rates can be fixed with one simple bill. In ~2003 Republicans passed a bill that was nothing more than a windfall to the financial industry when they made student loans nearly impossible to discharge in bankruptcy. You can run up massive debt buying cigarettes, cable television, gambilng, and fritos with bean dip and make it all go away if things get bad enough, but get in over your head with student loans and you're fucked forever. Overnight, student loans became the most valuable product lenders can offer, and this is what caused the insane spikes in tuition. Money was made freely available to people too young and too ignorant to handle it, all backed by the federal government. The schools took advantage of the lenders taking advantage of the kids. If this administration is serious about tuition (it's not), that is the only thing that will fix it. Tighten up the money supply, and the rest will follow. Those assholes fucked an entire generation with the bankruptcy reform bill.
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Closing schools is a no-brainer. It has to happen. The problem lies in the irrational way it will be handled, closing schools in high-volume areas to appease interests in zones with very few students, thereby forcing a mass daily migration of students for no reason beyond "feelings." The economic impact this will have on home values in certain areas is going to lead to some interesting litigation as well. The impact on traffic as busses crisscross the city for no reason will also be fun for all residents. My larger concern isn't with the necessary closures, even if it's evident that Segura and his team are completely in over their heads and incapable of handling it professionally. It's with the redrawing of boundaries and the closing of programs. That's where the absolute fuckery will take place. Dumping this late on a Friday (notwithstanding Segura's on-brand lies disguised as reasoning) tells you all you need to know about how they expect it to be received.
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With all of the other amazing news in Texas education lately, my wife is ready to hand the keys to our house over to the bank and get the fuck out, depending on what these nimrods come up with. We all know it's going to just be bussing wrapped up in a different package. Bussing is all this district has ever come up with to improve test scores. Whatever is coming will be a version of it. I'm not too concerned, but if the end result is my kids having to ride the bus for an hour+ each way every day, see you later AISD.
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The brain drain being created by the evangelical-driven people in charge is going to tank the state, and fast. Professors all across the south, including Texas, are looking for ways to get the fuck out. Fewer top students will be applying to Texas schools overall, and the decline will accelerate exponentially. 25% of professors in Texas have already applied for jobs elsewhere, and another 25% plan to do so in the next few months. 60% of them do not encourage their graduate students or colleagues to seek employment in Texas. This shit will have serious consequences. How many educated parents in Texas will encourage their kids to stay in the state for university? Especially their daughters? Even if all of this comes to an end in 3 years, the damage will take a long time to fix. The silver lining for some folks? Children of Maga people will have a better chance of getting into college as the more talented applicant pool dries up and looks elsewhere. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/05/texas-faculty-university-political-climate-survey/ At the grade school level, TEA just brought in a guy who still thinks AIDs is god's punishment for homosexuals to determine curriculum for social studies classes. He'll get along well with the woman on the science committee who thinks satan planted dinosaur fossils to trick us.
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