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Connecting the Dots
...
December 29, 2006
Click on the links to "connect the dots" ...
Education ... Public Officials ...
Private Attorneys
... Lobbyists ... TASB ...
Related link:
Good Friends in High Places
Let's get
started ... I requested
this document in September 2005 and
when Eanes ISD did not provide a single document in response to my public
information request, I
asked again in January 2006. I received the attached document eight (8) months
later in September 2006.
Brad Shields
is former Eanes ISD board member. He is now the
Eanes ISD paid lobbyist. He is
also a paid lobbyist for Raptorware - read Susan Bushart's
Community Update #5.
Mr. Shields also lobbied for
HB 2264, a
bill that would increase charges for obtaining public information. I received
this information in response to my public information request to
Todd Baxter
(sponsor of HB 2264) listing
Nola Wellman
(Eanes superintendent) and
Thomas Ratliff
(lobbyist) as the "source" of HB 2264.
Baxter's only claim to fame was his introduction of legislation that would
weaken school districts' accountability to the public by weakening Open
Records Act requirements, a bill so blatantly wrong that it never even made it
out of committee.
During his time on the Eanes ISD school board, Brad Shields
was a
Texas Association of School Boards (TASB)
board member and a lobbyist as well. Here are
receipts
showing that Eanes ISD paid for Mr. Shield's TASB trip to Washington, D.C. when
he was a TASB board member and a lobbyist ... (Shields Legislative Associates). I
wonder why our school district paid these expenses instead of TASB? When
Eanes ISD parent Susan Bushart (see
Community Update page of this site)
contacted Mr. Shields to inquire about this reimbursement ...
click here.
Eanes ISD taxpayers are still
funding Mr. Shields ... Click
here to inspect checks provided to Mr. Shields by Eanes ISD. And one
more thing? Guess who served Todd Baxter as Campaign Manager when Baxter
ran for State Representative? Brad Shields, Eanes ISD school board member.
---> 2008 Update:
Brad Shields and Eanes
ISD (No receipts for his travel reimbursement.)
---> 2010 Update:
Superintendent Nola H. Wellman (Now she's figured out a way to
hide her travel receipts ...)
The
2006 Lobby List posted by the
Texas Ethics Commission
lists Bill
Ratliff, former Texas state Senator and acting Lt. Governor as TASB lobbyist. He is also father and business partner of lobbyist Thomas Ratliff
... Ratliff and Company. Apparently, Bill Ratliff serves
as
"adviser to the firm and its clients." Want
to learn if your school district hires a tax-funded lobbyist? Click
here.
Apparently
Shannon Ratliff worked 35 years for McGinnis, Lockridge & Kilgore and then
switched to
Akin Gump.
More here. McGinnis, Lockridge and Kilgore represents Eanes ISD in many areas including attempts to withhold
public information from the public and writing amicus briefs about "Vexatious
Requestors." Who coined that phrase? Keep reading.
There's another Shannon
Ratliff, too. Apparently,
Shannon Ratliff II works with
Dave Thompson, Bracewell Guliani attorney who is leading the charge to sue
Lake Travis ISD parents for using the Texas Public Information Act "too much."
Find Shannon II and Dave together on the "Texas
Lobby Power Rankings." Akin Gump made the list, too. And
yes, McGinnis, Lockridge &
Kilgore as well. Click
here to review a sample of tax dollars dispersed to that law firm by Eanes
ISD ... information obtained from Eanes ISD check register ... available only on
www.keepeanesinformed.com.
Back to
Eanes ISD ... Board president
Robert Durkee wrote a
letter to TASB requesting the issue of open records as a legislative priority
for TASB. Seems to me that school boards should work together as a "body
corporate" and not as a single individual. Maybe Mr. Durkee should brush
up on his ethics (and board policies) before forwarding letters on behalf of the
Eanes ISD school board without the knowledge of the Eanes ISD school
board. The Eanes ISD board
ratified the letter (after the fact) during the October 2006 Eanes ISD board meeting. That
letter is the subject of a
pending public
information request. Also
in October, the Eanes ISD board meeting
minutes reflect an
invitation to meet with another ISD board and
I am interested in
learning more.
Update: More links soon.
The Texas Ethics Commission website
lists Brad Shields,
Dave Thompson (attorney representing Lake
Travis ISD suing parents in that district for use of the Texas Public
Information Act), and
Randall (Buck) Wood
(representing lobbyist
Thomas
Ratliff who is suing the Eanes ISD) ... all lobbyists for Open Records and Open
Meetings ... here.
I wonder if who will "defend" Eanes ISD in this lawsuit. I wonder if Eanes
ISD is insured for litigation such as this though TASB. SEE
UPDATE BELOW. The Eanes ISD
05-06 check register reflects
these tax dollars
expended to TASB ... no description currently available.
Speaking of civil rights, I am a volunteer advocate for children with disabilities. Back in 2004
when my attempts at informal resolution within the district failed, I submitted
a complaint against Eanes ISD to the Office of Civil Rights. The district
retained outside legal counsel. When OCR substantiated my complaint, Eanes
ISD Superintendent Nola Wellman called that federal agency and attempted to have
the decision reversed: OCR
phone log here.
So, who coined the phrase
"Vexatious Requestor?" I submitted my first public
information request in 2003. One full year prior to my first
request, in
2002
the TASB "legislative agenda"
included the following statement:
TASB shall support amending the Public
Information Act to address an abuse of the process by vexatious
requestors, who use repetitive requests solely to harass
and cause excessive financial costs to governmental entities.
And Todd Baxter?
Connect the dots ...
Dianna Pharr
Link to EdNews.org:
Connecting the Dots - Education ... Attorneys ...
Lobbyists
More Dots ...
Update
-
January 5, 2006 TASB insurance ... and Eanes ISD legal representation ...
Eanes Independent School District
Special Meeting
Monday, January 8, 2007
7:30 AM
Board Room, S. Don Rogers Administration Building, 601 Camp
Craft Road
TASA lobbyist - Dave Thompson, Bracewell and Giuliani
TASA Legislative Committee Member - Nola Wellman, Eanes ISD
superintendent
Texas Association of School Administrators
406 East 11th Street Austin, TX 78701
Thompson, John David III (00035306)
Bracewell and Giuliani LLP 711 Louisiana Suite 2300 Houston, TX
77002-2770
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Amount: $10,000 - $24,999.99
Client - Start: 01/01/2007 Term Date: 12/31/2007
Veselka, Johnny L. (00012683)
406 East 11th Street Austin, TX 78701
Type of Compensation: Prospective
Amount: Less Than $10,000.00
Client - Start: 01/01/2007 Term Date: 12/31/2007
Protecting the status quo, good 'ol boy
network, business as usual ...
Speaking of "finagling," Buck Wood is also the
attorney/lobbyist who represented lobbyist
Thomas Ratliff (son of
professional lobbyist Bill Ratliff) in a very friendly
lawsuit "against" Eanes ISD back in 2006 ... timed just
before the legislature met in 07. Eventually, Ratliff
dropped the sweetheart lawsuit but not until a
law was passed to make obtaining public information
cost-prohibitive.
Ratliff lobbied hard for this bill, testified, and wrote a
congratulatory letter to the superintendent when it passed
and then, of course he and his attorney Buck Wood dropped
the lawsuit.
Interesting that just a few months before Ratliff filed the
lawsuit, KeepEanesInformed gathered Eanes ISD public
information, specifically Ratliff's emails between and
among a school principal and fellow booster club members.
KeepEanesInformed had already confirmed that
Eanes ISD was
not complying with board policy that requires the provision
of a financial audit to the superintendent
annually from each booster club. The emails obtained by KeepEanesInformed
(immediately before Thomas Ratliff and his buddy
Buck decide to "sue" the district) indicated that
apparently $2900 was missing from one booster club bank account.
Further, there were multiple bank accounts and no one could
figure out who the accounts (and money) belonged to ... the
district or the booster club. In emails between and
among the school principal and booster club board, Ratliff encouraged the others
to "keep this under our hat." (Sorry, folks, Ratliff's hat
is "invitation only.")
Well, as 'ol Buck
would say, "This kind of thing has been going on forever."
Ghost busting
Brownsville
Herald - TX United States
"This kind of thing has been going on forever," Buck Wood,
an Austin ethics attorney and former Capitol worker, told
The Associated Press last week. Such misuse of funds is
outright theft, as it takes money from unwilling taxpayers
and diverts it from projects that might actually benefit the
public, instead of only those people who have finagled such
sweetheart deals.
"The Wrong Man for the Job --
Bill Ratliff"
by Donna Garner
July 2, 2007
I want to leave no doubt in
anyone's mind: Texas definitely does not need Ex-Texas Senator Bill
Ratliff as the next Commissioner of Education. In yesterday's
Austin American-Statesman (AAS), the editorial board recommended
Ratliff for the position. Why am I not surprised? During the
1990's it was Ratliff, Mike Moses (Ex-Commissioner of Education),
and the AAS who ran the show. Ratliff and Moses came up with their
miserable ideas, and the AAS advertised them free of charge!
Now that the public is
looking more objectively at education in our state, they are
beginning to realize we have major problems with our public schools;
and the people who helped to create this chaos are trying to
distance themselves from the mess they created.
Ratliff is not just a
"private citizen" with a big heart for the schools. Besides his
legislative retirement benefits, Ratliff makes large sums of money
as a taxpayer-enriched opportunist. Ratliff is a registered
lobbyist (http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/dfs/loblists.htm)
with many clients including the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).
Having retired from the Texas Senate in 2003, he began representing
TASB on May 10, 2004. That year he received up to $99,999.99 from
TASB, and again in 2005, and 2006.
We taxpayers paid
Ratliff's rich lobbying fees because the membership dues that
education entities pay to join TASB come from our taxpayers'
dollars.
Because the TASB dues come
from public funds, we taxpayers are actually paying TASB to lobby
Legislators for more school funding so that our taxes will
increase. We are paying to lobby ourselves!
Ratliff is also a paid
lobbyist for Raise Your Hand from which he is to make $49,999.99 in
2007:
http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/tedd/lobcon2007d.htm.
The Austin paper did not
bother to mention Ratliff's many lobbying allegiances and conflicts
of interest nor did the paper mention other important facts about
Ratliff. Not only did he author the failed and oft-maligned
Robin Hood Plan, but he also drafted SB 1 in 1995 which stripped
local teachers of control over what they taught.
Due to SB 1, Texas teachers
have lost control over their day-to-day instruction and instead must
follow the poorly constructed Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
standards.
The English / Language Arts
/ Reading TEKS are particularly egregious because they are not
explicit, measurable, or specific for each grade level; and the
curriculum requirements listed in the ELAR/TEKS are much too
numerous for a teacher to cover thoroughly in a year's time.
Therefore, teachers flit from one TEKS element to the next, never
really having time to make sure students gain mastery.
It is these poorly written
standards (the opposite of back-to-the-basics curriculum
requirements) upon which the much-despised TAKS tests are based.
As the author of SB 1,
Ratliff is also responsible for taking the authority away from
elected local school boards and placing that power into the
hands of unelected superintendents.
No longer do locally
elected school board members have any real control over the
all-important issues of personnel hiring and district curriculum
decisions.
Local school board members'
duties have basically been reduced to (1) hiring and firing
the superintendent, (2) buying and selling property, and (3) setting
board policy (e.g., those items which involve board
members themselves -- elections, vacancies on the board, travel and
reimbursement policies, etc.).
Ratliff is also responsible
for the loss of control by the elected State Board of Education. At
the state level, Ratliff tried for years to replace the elected
State Board of Education (SBOE) with an appointed one.
Appointed boards really do not care what voters want. They will do
the will of whoever appoints them and of the lobbyists who
orchestrate from a distance.
Ratliff's SB 1 reduced the
authority of the elected SBOE and enhanced the power of the
unelected Texas Commissioner of Education who at the time was
Ratliff's joined-at-the-hip ally, Mike Moses.
Ratliff always pretended
that the SBOE had lost control over textbook content; and until
Attorney General Greg Abbott's 2006 opinion, the SBOE was shut out
of fulfilling its lawful responsibilities. For eleven years the
Board labored under Ratliff's false interpretation; and during that
time, numerous inferior textbooks were placed in front of our Texas
students.
Because of Ratliff's
influence on SB 1, elected SBOE members cannot even elect their own
chairperson; the Governor appoints one.
I certainly trust that Gov.
Perry will completely ignore the Austin American Statesman's
endorsement of Ratliff as Commissioner of Education. The future of
true education reform in this state depends upon this appointment.
PUBLIC SCHOOL ADVOCACY GROUP PROPOSES NEW ACCOUNTABILITY
MODEL IN TESTIMONY TO INTERIM LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
Jun 17, 2008, 08:38
Dallas, TX, June 16, 2008 – A new
system for holding public schools accountable for the
success of their students has been proposed by Raise
Your Hand Texas, a statewide business-based group that
supports public education...
Former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, who chairs Raise
Your Hand Texas, said a new public school accountability
standard should focus on improvement rather than
labeling. It should provide true, meaningful
accountability that is fair in addressing the diversity
of educational settings and challenges across Texas,
Ratliff said...
<< snip>>
============================================================
"Raise Your Hand for a
Hand Out"
by Donna Garner
February 18, 2007
Ex-Texas Senator Bill
Ratliff and Ex-Texas Commissioner of Education Mike
Moses must believe that Texas citizens are all brain
dead. These two men evidently think we have
forgotten their role in Texas' public school
problems.
NEW SPECIAL INTEREST
GROUP FORMED
Ratliff and Moses are
continuing to swill from the education trough by
forming a new organization called Raise Your Hand to
pressure the people for more tax dollars for Texas'
public schools. Have these two gentlemen any
credibility on the subject?
William Murchison said
it best in the 2.16.07 Lone Star Report,
"...keep a country mile away from Raise Your Hand,
and from Bill Ratliff, and from Mike Moses, whose
solution for dealing with a sinking boat is to pour
some more water in the gunwales."
Before we citizens put
our trust in Raise Your Hand, let's do a quick study
of its leaders, Ratliff and Moses.
RATLIFF: ROBIN HOOD,
LOSS OF LOCAL CONTROL BY TEACHERS
Not only did Ratliff
author the failed and oft-maligned Robin Hood Plan,
but he also drafted SB 1 in 1995 which stripped
local teachers of control over what they taught.
Due to SB 1, Texas
teachers have lost control over their day-to-day
instruction and instead must follow the poorly
constructed Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
standards.
The English / Language
Arts / Reading TEKS are particularly egregious
because they are not explicit, measurable, or
specific for each grade level; and the curriculum
requirements listed in the ELAR/TEKS are much too
numerous for a teacher to cover thoroughly in a
year's time. Therefore, teachers flit from one TEKS
element to the next, never really having time to
make sure students gain mastery.
It is these poorly
written standards (the opposite of
back-to-the-basics curriculum requirements) upon
which the much-despised TAKS tests are based.
RATLIFF: LOSS OF
CONTROL BY LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS
As the author of SB 1,
Ratliff is also responsible for taking the authority
away from elected local school boards and
placing that power into the hands of unelected
superintendents.
No longer do locally
elected school board members have any real
control over the all-important issues of
personnel hiring and district curriculum decisions.
Local school board
members' duties have basically been reduced to (1)
hiring and firing the superintendent, (2) buying and
selling property, and (3) setting board policy
(e.g., those items which involve board
members themselves -- elections, vacancies on the
board, travel and reimbursement policies, etc.).
RATLIFF: LOSS OF
CONTROL BY ELECTED SBOE
At the state level,
Ratliff tried for years to replace the elected
State Board of Education (SBOE) with an appointed
one. Appointed boards really do not care what
voters want. They will do the will of whoever
appoints them and of the lobbyists who orchestrate
from a distance.
Ratliff's SB 1 reduced
the authority of the elected SBOE and
enhanced the power of the unelected Texas
Commissioner of Education who at the time was
Ratliff's joined-at-the-hip ally, Mike Moses.
Ratliff always
pretended that the SBOE had lost control over
textbook content; and until Attorney General Greg
Abbott's 2006 opinion, the SBOE was shut out of
fulfilling its lawful responsibilities. For eleven
years the Board labored under Ratliff's false
interpretation; and during that time, numerous
inferior textbooks were placed in front of our Texas
students.
Because of Ratliff's
influence on SB 1, elected SBOE members cannot even
elect their own chairperson; the Governor appoints
one.
RATLIFF:
TAXPAYER-ENRICHED OPPORTUNIST
Ratliff is a registered
lobbyist (http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/dfs/loblists.htm)
and has made large sums of money from a number of
clients including the Texas Association of School
Boards (TASB). Having retired from the Texas Senate
in 2003, he began representing TASB on May 10,
2004. That year he received up to $99,999.99 from
TASB, and again in 2005, and 2006.
We taxpayers paid
Ratliff's rich lobbying fees because the membership
dues that education entities pay to join TASB come
from our taxpayers' dollars.
Because the TASB dues
come from public funds, we taxpayers are actually
paying TASB to lobby Legislators for more school
funding so that our taxes will increase. We are
paying to lobby ourselves!
MOSES: HIT-AND-RUN
ARTIST
As Texas Commissioner
of Education, Mike Moses oversaw the creation of
course standards (TEKS) which have proven
dysfunctional, particularly in English / Language
Arts / Reading (ELAR). Now the Texas State Board of
Education and the Texas Education Agency are trying
to undo the damage by rewriting these TEKS.
MOSES: THE TAKS MONSTER
The public tends to
vent its wrath against the TAKS tests, but TAKS
tests are based on the faulty TEKS. If the
foundation (TEKS) is weak, then the house (TAKS)
built upon that foundation cannot stand.
Mike Moses was directly
responsible for the entire TEKS process, thus making
him responsible for the TAKS. Students, parents,
and educators dislike intensely the unfair
accountability system built on these tests.
Parents, students, and
educators are obsessed with the TAKS --TAKS units,
TAKS practice tests, TAKS preparation tools, TAKS
information booklets, TAKS activities, TAKS
projects, TAKS data, TAKS testing strategies, TAKS
benchmarks, TAKS tutors, TAKS tests.
This constant emphasis
on the TAKS is destroying teachers' creativity and
students' interest in school, thus contributing to
the drop-out problem. According to Jamie Story,
education policy analyst at TPPF, "Every hour of
every school day, 93 students drop out of Texas
public schools."
It is disingenuous of
Moses to expect the taxpayers to pour more money
into the public schools to fix the mess that he
helped to create.
MOSES: TAINTED
ADMINISTRATION IN DALLAS ISD
The Dallas Morning
News
has
found multiple dubious behavior patterns during Mike
Moses' watch as Dallas ISD superintendent.
Allegations have
surfaced about out-of-control spending with school
credit cards, lost dollars for health plans, abuse
of federal e-rate funds, irregular technology vendor
contracts, misspent federal bilingual education
funds, costly deals with Kinko's, apparent conflicts
of interest involving Voyager Expanded Learning,
contributions by computer vendors, questionable bond
sales, multiple teacher grievances, eyebrow-raising
private consultancies, lucrative Coca-Cola
contracts, and special privileges for vendors
participating in the Education Research and
Development Institute (ERDI) conferences.
MOSES: GOLDEN PARACHUTE
Meanwhile, Moses
received the highest superintendent's salary in the
nation ($340,000 per year, excluding benefits) even
though eleven school districts in the country were
larger than Dallas ISD.
When the DISD problems
began to surface in 2004, Moses resigned and walked
away with an additional $480,850. Along with his
ongoing and lucrative superintendent search
business, he now receives a yearly TRS
pension of $224,400 per year. Note that Moses'
wealth comes from taxpayers' dollars.
MY RECOMMENDATION
Instead of expecting
the taxpayers to pour more millions into our public
schools, why not expect the schools to live within
their means.
Before the last
legislative session, Texas was already spending over
$10,400 per public school student (http://www.governor.state.tx.us/priorities/education/facts_figures),
and those figures have increased substantially since
then. I agree with Peggy Venable of Americans for
Prosperity who has said, "Texas
schools do not have a funding problem. We have a
spending problem." Case
in point: The education dollars heaped upon Ratliff
and Moses by our state --
MY QUESTION TO RATLIFF
AND MOSES
Sen. Ratliff and Dr.
Moses: Before we taxpayers decide to support Raise
Your Hand with you two altruists at the helm, how
about disclosing your lobbying contracts (and
benefits) with the companies who stand to profit if
more taxpayers' dollars are given to the public
schools?
Donna Garner is a retired Texas teacher and served
on the TEKS writing team for English / Language Arts
/ Reading (ELAR). She is also the lead writer of
the Texas Alternative Document for ELAR. She is
presently the writer/consultant for an online
tutorial to help people (ages 10 through 100) to
improve their ELAR skills. She can be reached at
(254) 666-2798;
wgarner1@hot.rr.com.
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