TX'S RESPONSE TO FLORIDA'S HANGING CHADS--What seems to be the Leg's response to Florida's recent hanging chad problems that made the difference in Bush's promotion to Pennsylvania Avenue? The answer--BAN 'EM!! To most legislators, it only seems logical anyway. Most TX counties (mine included) now primarily utilize an optical scan system anyway that reads the marks from pencil markings on a computerized form. Only a VERY few counties in TX STILL use the punch card system that gave Florida (and the rest of us) so much trouble in the election just past [among those very few diehard "chad"- voting supporters include places like Ector (Odessa) and Harris (Houston)]. I can just see the Leg's heads swimming now--no worries about Supreme Court cases, prolonged recounts, nasty and expensive post-election turmoil, and other things like that. Doesn't our Leg have anything better to do than trying to prolong something that's been dragged into the ground enough already?...
THE TEACHERS RISE AGAIN (OR HILLARY'S HEALTH CARE DEBACLE II FOR TEXAS)--Education is yet again in the center ring of this three-ring circus. But what seems to be the big talk from the public school teachers this time around? One thing's for sure--it definitely AIN'T pay raises. I'll give you a clue through the paraphrase of a line of a famous current song: "Doctors, doctors/Whacha gonna do?/Whacha gonna do when the bill comes to you?" It seems that there's some districts (bleep forbid) that DON'T even offer adequate health insurance for teachers. Compound that little problem with the fact that around here public school teachers are just as well considered state employees BUT DO NOT get similar benefits that folks like prison guards and fat cat state bureaucrats do. Therefore comes one of the big connumdrums that faces legislators this session.
Despite the usual rallies that folks like Sen. Teel Bivins (R-Amarillo) attend promising that the situation will be promptly rectified by the Leg, it can be easily understood why the state teacher's associations might take a "I'll- believe-it-when-I-see-it" attitude. But at least one source says that the Leg isn't entirely at fault neither...seems that the teacher's associations aimed too much at salary increases at the expense of health insurance in the past. Add to that fact that some smaller districts don't even have the clout or the pounding on their doors for business to where
