Home of Today's Common Sense

Published – Brownsville Herald 3/8/2005
On the news lately, governor Schwarzenegger went to Washington to seek financial help in balancing the $8 billion dollar budget. On the same newscast reporters described some of the uses as sex change operations for Medicare patients and cosmetic surgery for prison inmates among the many outrageous items. I certainly would not approve of spending for these kinds of things but it may happen if the federal government bails them out. You and I will have to pay for things that Californians through their legislators volunteered to pay for.
When asked how did this happen, a commentator indicated that most residents don’t pay attention to what the legislators enact they just continue to vote the party line and the same legislators keep their job and keep spending.
Does this sound familiar? It should! We here in Brownsville want “richer school districts” like Point Isabel to pay for the excesses initiated by our school board. How do these things happen? The same suspects keep being re-elected because only a miniscule portion of the folks able to vote, do.
In the next election there is every reason to believe that the students attending UT and voting, at the facility on campus, will elect the new school board members and any city commissioners or others up for election.
How many Brownsvillians know what is happening at the Board meetings, the County Court Meetings, the Navigation District Meetings, or even the PUB Meetings. Does anyone care?
Now our representatives go the the State legislature and beg for more money, to educate our young folks, that they may well need. How can we have the nerve to ask, when we still have not even addressed the Strayhorn report. A report that pointed out substantial excesses in administrators, as well as waste and duplication of functions. A committee was empaneled and it looked like something might happen. Now a lot of time has passed and our current board still thinks that they are there to provide jobs rather than educate our young.
I was told that it is public knowledge that there is even a “politico” on the BISD payroll as a teacher, who has no class and still signs in and gets paid. If that is true the school board should all resign tomorrow.
If this is the kind of thing you want, don’t vote or continue to vote for the incumbents.
I think we need a complete change; ABI – Anyone But the Incumbant.
We have an election coming up in a few short weeks and sadly too few new faces are running for election.
I pray that there will be some, to come forward to help improve the smell in local politics and I also pray that we will see a large turnout to let our rulers know that we do really care and that we are watching.