Watson Wire
The Weight-ing Is the Hardest Part
Tuesday, February 07, 2012 |
Last year, in January and February, I ran two half marathons. I thought it was a great way to start the legislative session and, hopefully, not succumb to the stress-eating and typical weight gain that goes along with those 140 days.
Well, I failed. I ended up gaining about 15 pounds. I promised myself that I'd immediately get back in shape after the session. I didn't.
I was running, but not like I should. I sort of watched what I ate, but not really. I knew all of the responsible things I should be doing; I just didn't do them.
I talked a good game, denied that I was getting heavier, and promised I'd do what was right. I acted like I could be healthy without investing any time and work.
All the talk did no good. I actually gained five more pounds after the session. For the first time in three years, I missed running in a half marathon that was held a couple of weeks ago. My wardrobe didn't exactly fit like it was my wardrobe.
I was a rather rotund example of how you really can't get something for nothing.
Texas can't get something for nothing either
I wrote last week about the effects of the budget cuts imposed on our schools, teachers, parents and kids last year by those in control of Texas government. These problems are directly impacting people in very different parts of the state.
Well, we’re seeing that the problems are becoming too big for even the state to deny.
Last week brought two remarkable declarations from the appointed chiefs of the state’s health and education agencies. In both cases, they said, the budget decisions made during last year’s legislative session are having profound consequences on Texas’ ability to serve its people.
Start with education
On Tuesday, Education Commissioner Robert Scott declared that Texas school funding is so out of line with students’ needs that he won’t enforce rules requiring kids to pass standardized tests before they’re promoted to a higher grade.
According to this Dallas Morning News story (subscription required), Scott “said he does not believe students should be subjected to the promotion standards unless they are offered remedial classes to correct academic deficiencies. ‘I cannot and will not certify the ban on social promotion unless there are resources to provide interventions to students who need to pass the test,’ he said during a conference sponsored by the Texas Association of School Administrators.”
In other words, the failure to fund schools – to the tune of a $4 billion cut for Texas school districts, along with another $1.3 billion cut in state educational grants – is undermining the laws designed to hold students, teachers and schools accountable. After all, how can you punish students for failing to learn when you aren’t providing the resources to teach them?
Now, the thing about losing weight is that you have to do more than talk. You have to do something – like reduce calories and increase exercise. Same thing with budgets: they force people to either put their money where their mouths are, or to admit that words without actions are pretty much worthless.
A new "D": Denial
Naturally, Scott’s declaration wasn’t exactly embraced by the folks who simultaneously lead the fight for better government services while protesting efforts to pay for them.
You know, for a while now, I’ve been trying to put a spotlight on the state’s terrible habit of balancing its budget through a toxic combination of Debt, Diversions and Deception. But after all of this, I think we need to add another “D” as well: Denial.
At some point, if someone says they care about schools, healthcare, roads, water supplies and other basic necessities that Texas’ future depends on, then they have to take a similar interest in actually paying for those necessities. And if they say that we don’t need these, y'know, needs – or, even worse, that we can just dig up a free lunch to cover them – then at best, they’re in denial about the challenges facing our state and what it will take to meet them.
Unless, of course, they’re not in denial. I guess it’s possible that they’re simply being deceptive and irresponsible. But I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.
It doesn’t stop there
That notion of deception reminds me of something? What is it?
Oh, right – my putting on pants with a bigger waist to deliberately make me feel like I wasn't gaining so much weight.
And one more thing: it also reminds me of the decision by those in control of the Capitol last year to deliberately understate costs Texas faces so they can pretend the state’s budget is balanced.
In addition to refusing to fund school enrollment growth for the first time anyone knows of, those in control ignored about $5 billion in projected Medicaid healthcare costs that’ll build up this year and next.
By ignoring those costs, the folks who control the budget could call it balanced without having to come up with the $5 billion they know they’ll need for children, the elderly and others who depend on Medicaid.
How’s that working out?
Well, the Medicaid shortfall waiting for legislators when they come back to Austin next year will balloon to somewhere in the neighborhood $17 billion – at least, that’s according to Tom Suehs the executive commissioner for Health and Human Services.
Speaking last week, Suehs said that last year he “basically said something to the effect, ‘I don’t see how the Legislature’s gonna get out of this session without some form of revenue.’ I got in trouble for that. And I’m going to say the same thing today.”
So the people running some of our most important state agencies are warning that those in control of the Capitol have got to own up to the consequences of past actions, stop denying the challenges Texas is facing, and do something to fix the state's broken budget.
I hope everyone's listening.
A happy ending
I recently stopped denying my weight gain and trying to deceive myself.
As I write this, I've been training hard, paying attention to food and drink, and losing weight – 19 pounds, so far.
It's hard. I'm hungry. I've got some sore muscles. But it's the responsible thing for me to do to assure a healthy lifestyle and longer life.
Texas needs to do the same.
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A Sobering Snapshot of Texas Schools
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 |
If you want see how tough things are getting for the children, parents, teachers and administrators who are all trying to make Texas schools work, I'd like to point you to one thing:
Last Thursday.
Or, more specifically, the school news that bubbled up on Thursday. It was a harrowing day.
The bad news didn’t start last week, of course. It dates back in part to last year’s legislative session, when those in control of the state’s budget decided to slash about $4 billion – I say again, FOUR BILLION DOLLARS – from what local school districts were promised and needed to pay for increasing costs and numbers of students.
Now, $4,000,000,000 is a big number. It’s tough to get your arms around all of those zeros – particularly when legislating is all mixed up with politicking, and when ostensible leaders are running around the state and the country ignoring or denying the damage they’ve caused to our kids and Texas’ future.
The problems are huge, too. Hundreds of Texas school districts have sued the state in an effort to create a better and more fairly funded system. That in itself is extraordinary – those in control of the Capitol have so bungled their responsibilities to our kids that local school boards have been forced to bypass their representatives, senators, Governor and Lieutenant Governor and start asking judges to clean up the mess (more on this later).
Inevitably, the human costs of misplaced priorities were going to surface. A lot of them came up late last week.
Dallas: School closures
Let’s start off in Dallas, where Dallas ISD trustees voted Thursday to shutter 11 schools.
The decision was teed up by the legislature’s budget cut – Dallas ISD had already cut $76 million from the current budget, according to the Dallas Morning News, “largely by offering employees incentives to resign and increasing class sizes.”
But despite that fairly extreme action, the board still had to cut another $38 million for next year. And, as one trustee put it, either the 11 schools had to be closed, or 171 teachers would have had to be fired.
Heck of a choice for anyone who cares about helping kids learn.
You can read more about it in this article (subscription required) or get a blow-by-blow from this blog.
South Texas: No sports
Also on Thursday, the Texas Tribune brought word of the tiny Premont ISD in South Texas, a district of 570 students that was already struggling. Then those in control of the state’s purse strings yanked more than $400,000 out from under the district – which, as the article points out, was already among the most poorly funded districts in Texas.
So, again, faced with a handful of very painful options, the district went for a clearly radical approach that, it hopes, will nevertheless cause the least amount of damage – it put all sports programs on hold for a year.
In the article, some students raise the prospect of fleeing Premont for a district that continues to field teams. Others clearly worry about losing the activity that helped keep them out of trouble.
But most students and parents, it seems, are resigned to the decision. After all, given the circumstances, what else can the district do?
The Houston Chronicle followed up over the weekend with a great column looking at funding inequities among Texas school districts. It showed that districts rated "exemplary" by the state receive over $1,000 more, per student, than those rated "academically unacceptable."
If you're looking at the students that districts are working the hardest to teach – and the costs of meeting those kids' needs – the numbers are even more sobering. Just 17 percent of the kids in exemplary districts qualify for free-and-reduced lunch programs (based on federal poverty guidelines), the column said. In academically unacceptable districts, that figure's around 85 percent.
Keep those numbers in mind if someone – particularly someone who's part of the power structure at the Capitol – tries to lay the blame for these problems on Premont or other victims of the state's school finance system.
Texas: A broken system
That equity issue was the focus of an editorial by James "Kal" Kallison, the president of the Eanes ISD school board, that the Austin American-Statesman published on its website Thursday.
The editorial goes into some detail about the lawsuits I mentioned earlier that school districts are pursuing against the state. You should read the whole thing, which you can find here. This, to me, is the key passage:
“School districts represented in two of the lawsuits believe that ... the finance system still does not produce complete equity among districts. Regardless of the equity issue, most districts do agree that the current amount of revenue ... afforded to all districts in the state is simply not enough to provide for an adequate education of our children, as required by the Texas Constitution and defined in statute.”
Those questions – whether the school finance system is equitable, and whether it’s adequate to educate the children of Texas – are going to be litigated over many months, and it’ll probably be more than a year before the courts finally settle the issue.
But after a day like Thursday – after seeing so many of the issues that our schools have been left to deal with – does anyone believe that the state’s doing right by our schools and our kids?
Austin: The achievement gap
Finally, in Austin, business and civic leaders sat down at a summit on Thursday to talk over the state of early childhood education, particularly pre-kindergarten programs.
Of course, Pre-K has become one of the most important factors that educators look at in gauging how successful students will be. The numbers show that kids who show up to kindergarten with basic language, problem-solving and other skills are far more likely to pass achievement tests in later years – and far less likely to drop out of high school.
So what did those in control of the Capitol do with this inside knowledge about what works in education?
They ignored it. They eliminated a critical grant program and the $200 million it would have contributed to make Pre-K programs stronger and more accessible across the state.
It was a devastating decision – and that devastation was front-and-center at the business and civic leader summit Thursday. There, the United Way Capital Area discussed results of a report it produced as part of its "Success by 6" initiative.
The report found that for children as young as 3 – barely older than babies – an achievement gap already can be seen between kids from low-income families and students as a whole.
As the Statesman summarized, “Fifty-two percent of Central Texas children entering kindergarten are ready for school, according to the results. But in Dove Springs, Manor and Quail Creek [three generally low-income neighborhoods that were studied for the project], the proportion considered well-prepared for school ranged from 12 to 15 percent.”
It's a giant problem. All of these stories demonstrate giant problems. And the problems will only grow as this cruel budget and broken finance system settle over the parents, teachers and administrators who are trying to cope with it all.
So the worst thing about Thursday might not even be Thursday. It might be that there'll be more days like it.
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A Good Old Fashioned Goat Rope
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 |
K. R. "Doc" Vanderslice was a true cowboy. He was also my maternal grandpa.
He grew up in Northwest Oklahoma working as a cowboy. When I was a kid, my brother Kyle and I spent time on his place getting to do "cowboy" stuff.
Grandpa was a cattle guy. I don't recall him ever having a goat and am certain he never thought too highly of what my mother called "goat ropers."
Now, most folks know that a "goat rope" refers to a big fiasco and mess. While he never would have allowed his grandsons to participate in a real goat rope, Grandpa did get a kick out of putting us in situations that led to utter chaos, particularly when he was partnering with my dad. Those two loved to make each other laugh, including at the expense of their progeny.
One of my strongest memories is of being 6 or 7 (heck, I might have been all of 8), when Grandpa had picked up a new Shetland pony named Dusty. Somehow, it was decided that I'd be perfect to "break" the horse.
I chased that mean little jackass of a horse around the corral, occasionally caught him without help, and tried to avoid getting bit as I fought to crawl on his back. Every time, over and over, he'd jump and buck and throw me hard to the ground.
All the while, as I'd get up, I'd look to Daddy and Grandpa, two men I loved who were, uh, keeping an eye on me – probably to make sure I didn't get hurt, but certainly to have a little fun, too. They were ceaselessly encouraging (and not just a little teasing), telling me "You almost had him that time," or "I think he's worn out," or "Hang on. You'll get it."
But, no, this was a goat rope, only with a pony. It had all the signs:
- It went on forever and seemed to get worse and worse.
- There was no end in sight.
- Nothing seemed to work.
- What I thought I knew one time didn't work the next time.
- I couldn't figure out what success was supposed to look like.
- It really hurt.
- I was covered in filth and it stunk.
A goat rope with, y'know, democracy.
Redistricting is the process of redrawing lines for districts represented by state legislators, Congressional reps, and other elected officials. Basically, people move out of one place and into another, so district lines have to shift with the population (legally every 10 years, though you can try doing it more often depending on how little shame you have) to make sure that an elected official represents about as many constituents as his or her colleagues.
If that sounds boring and technical, well, that’s probably how it should be. The problem is that it’s a very political exercise – always has been – that can affect which political party controls a particular legislative delegation or chamber. So things have a way of getting unpleasant and nonsensical really fast.
And that’s before the folks running the redistricting process in the Texas Capitol decided to make this goat rope even more messy.
Take this redistricting. Please!
A number of us argued at the time, over and over, that the maps frequently failed to allow minority voters in some parts of Texas to elect candidates of their choice. Those in control ignored us.
The state, which is required by the federal Voting Rights Act to get preclearance before using the new maps, had a choice to seek approval from either the U.S. Department of Justice or a three-judge federal court in Washington, DC. The state chose to seek this preclearance from the court instead of the Department of Justice.
At the same time, some folks sued the state, claiming – quite persuasively – that some parts of the maps violate the U.S. Voting Rights Act. That case ended up being before a different three-judge federal district court in San Antonio. So the Texas redistricting process was falling apart in two federal courtrooms about 1,500 miles away from each other.
The DC federal court denied the state's request for a quick, summary decision approving the maps. It said that the court needed more time to investigate if there was discriminatory intent or effect, and that there needed to be a full trial to do so.
The court opinion said the state needs to use a more comprehensive definition of what it means for a group of minority voters to have the "ability to elect" the candidate of their choice. The full trial finally started last week. It's still going on and won't wrap up for a while.
Then, last fall, the federal judges in San Antonio – sensing that the legislative maps would not be approved or denied in time for Texas' 2012 primary elections – drew some so-called "interim maps." That shuffled all of the timelines for when candidates have to file for office and even required new election dates.
And last week, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the maps that the San Antonio federal judges drew – yes, the same maps that replaced the not-quite-legal maps that those in control of the legislature drew. The Supreme Court sent the San Antonio judges back to the drawing board.
Good news and bad news
But there was some good news: the Supreme Court ordered the judges to keep Voting Rights Act-related concerns in mind as they work through this. That’s a big deal, because some had worried that the Supreme Court would use this case to throw out vital portions of the Voting Rights Act. That doesn’t seem likely to happen at this point.
The bad news, however, is that almost everything else is up in the air right now, particularly when it comes to this year’s legislative and Congressional elections:
- We basically have no maps.
- Thus, if you live in Texas, you have no way to know for sure who you’ll be voting on this year to represent you in the legislature or in the U.S. House of Representatives.
- The primary elections, which had already been postponed from March until April, now probably can’t be held until sometime after that – unless both of the courts in San Antonio and Washington really hustle.
- The whole mess is now split between a court in San Antonio, which is trying to draw interim maps that the Supreme Court will like, and the court in Washington DC, which is evaluating the legislatively drawn maps in the context of the Voting Rights Act and trying to figure out a permanent solution.
I’m missing Daddy, Grandpa and even Dusty right about now.
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Healthcare, H2o and How to Keep the Lights On
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 |
The momentum doesn't surprise me. After all, people want to improve the opportunities for uninsured people to get the quality medical care they need. And we clearly need more doctors, including those who are training, so that the underserved aren't left at the end of the line, waiting and hoping to get needed care.
Central Texans also want us to do better with psychiatric care, which is in bad shape, and to take action so we can become a major center for cancer care and research. They want the medical assets that will allow them to get the treatment they need in Austin, not necessarily force them to go to Dallas, Houston or some other city far from home.
And they want the roughly 15,000 new, permanent jobs and nearly $2 billion in economic activity that this investment in our knowledge-based economy has been projected to create.
This community initiative – to build a medical school, 21st Century teaching hospital, uniquely Austin health clinics and research resources that will make Austin a health science center – will build on the Austin way of life that values intelligence, inclusiveness and community well-being.
It's all part of the process for achieving my 10 Goals in 10 Years, which represent a transformative investment in our health, neighborhoods and economy.
If you haven't already, I hope you'll take a moment right now to sign up here to be a part of this vital community effort.
Will electrical current run through water? The shocking answer
What isn’t always clear, though, is just how much is at stake in whether or not Texas meets this challenge we know is coming.
For instance, what does our water picture mean to our electricity grid? At what point does trouble getting water when you open a faucet become trouble getting light when you flip a switch?
This was the question I put before the Senate Business and Commerce Committee last week for a hearing on, in part, the state’s power supply. There were a couple of good articles about the hearing you can find here and here.
Nearly 40 percent of Texas' river and lake water is needed to generate our electricity. As things stand, the state is already projected to fall below recommended power reserves before new power plants could come on-line. A long-running water shortage, obviously, could make this bad problem even worse.
(By the way, this capacity problem shows exactly why Texas needs a long-range energy plan. I’ve filed bills that would start the process for writing such a plan, but they’ve never even been given hearings in the legislature. I also asked the Public Utility Commission last week to reconsider its decision not to create more opportunities for solar and other renewable power projects that could help fortify the state’s power grid without relying so heavily on our water supply. But that’s a big topic for another time.)
The costs of doing nothing
If there’s any good news here, it’s the quietly growing awareness at the Capitol that the water plan isn’t the sort of document we can just throw on a shelf and ignore.Folks are beginning to wake up – finally – to the stark consequences for failing to act.
Think of it this way: The population of Texas is projected to double in the next 50 years or so. But our basic amount of water will, at best, remain about where it is now.
So how do we spread the same amount of water among twice as many people? The water plan suggests about $53 billion (over about 50 years) in projects and strategies. Unfortunately, those in control of the state haven’t funded the plan in a way that begins to recognize the size of this challenge.
And the costs of doing nothing are back-breaking. Right now, the water plan says, Texas is losing more than $11 billion in annual income due to water shortages. And if we fail to prepare for future growth and droughts? Then the losses jump to $115 billion – per year – by 2060.
Already, a harsh, historic drought is strangling many parts of this state. Local governments and water suppliers are scrambling for strategies to meet our most basic needs – for our economy as well as our day-to-day lives – should this drought continue (as many predict it will).
Doing something
I’ll be talking more in coming months about legislation and strategies to help the state build out the water plan and prepare for its future. Filling out this approach – and passing it through the legislature – will require a lot of hard work and tough choices by a whole lot of different people in every part of this state.
But the principles and values of any meaningful solution should be clear to everyone:
- We’ve got to be as innovative and technologically savvy as we possibly can about the cheapest, most straightforward, least controversial water supply strategy there is: Conservation.
- We’ve got to take a hard look at every dollar the state spends on water and make sure the projects we’re funding align with the priorities we share.
- We’ve got to bring every possible partner to the table and explore public-private partnerships to stretch our resources as far as possible.
- And we absolutely must stop pretending and promising that Texans can get something for nothing. We’ve got to have a realistic, mature conversation about what it will take to build our future, what that will cost, and how we can responsibly cover that cost without hurting our economy or our people.
It probably goes without saying that water will be one of my most important priorities as I prepare for next year’s legislative session. But it also should be among the top priorities for every legislator and every Texan.
After all, excuses will mean nothing to our children and grandchildren – particularly in the face of a long-foreseen catastrophe.
Luckily, we still have time to act. Let’s not waste it.
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Join Our Healthcare Community
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 |
I hope you’ll check it out. But even more than that, I hope you’ll sign up to help us make this happen.
As you probably remember, I've called on the community to rally around 10 Goals in 10 Years. The list includes a medical school, a teaching hospital, uniquely Austin health clinics providing preventative care and helping folks in our neighborhoods, enhanced psychiatric facilities, an effort to make Austin a center for cancer treatment, and cutting-edge research facilities.
The response has been extraordinarily positive, enthusiastic and exciting. People see the immense value of such a vision and want to be a part of it.
And I hope you'll be a part of it too. Please go to www.kirkwatson.com/austins-health, where you can get news, information and background on the community’s effort to make this wise investment that will help generations of Central Texans live better, longer, and more prosperously.
Please sign up
But more than that, you’ll join the community of Central Texans who support better health and healthcare through education – not just of doctors, but also patients, kids, seniors ... everyone.
Medical education means better access to doctors and nurses for everyone – those who have health insurance, and those who don’t. It means cutting-edge cures and products that will supercharge our economy just as they help make people better. It means opportunities for diagnoses, treatment and cures in Austin for those who currently seek help in Houston, Dallas and other cities.
It also means, by one estimate, roughly 15,000 permanent jobs and close to $2 billion in economic activity. And it means innovative public-private partnerships to build and sustain it all.
Get your friends, too
So go on over to www.kirkwatson.com/austins-health. There, you’ll find information about:
- The “10 in 10” goals.
- The diverse organizing committee helping to implement them.
- The committee’s mission statement.
- News and updates about medical education in Texas and beyond.
- Reports on the economic impact of a medical school in Austin.
There will be more features to come; we’ll keep you posted as we add them.
And, of course, we have the sign up page. Please go there now and put your name down, and post the page on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere so others can sign up too.
Please be part of our healthcare community. It’s one of the best things we can do for our health, our lives, and our economy. We’ll need your help to do it.
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