Magnolia ISD lost their TAX HIKE ELECTION August, 14, 2018 known as a Tax Ratification Election (TRE). They are humbly claiming that they did not message for the taxpayers their TAX HIKE correctly. Let’s us take a look at their messaging.
1) They held a clandestine public hearing on this Tax Hike at 7:30 am on a school morning. Not a single taxpayer was in attendance other than the board and school administration. I am in agreement with the district that is TERRIBLEMESSAGING.
2) The district had a professional video made promoting this TRE election claiming that there would be NO TAX HIKE and the TRE passed teachers would get raises, funds for curriculum needs and security. Note: The Security Needs was already being funded and voted on in Commissioners Court. They claimed they were just doing a “penny swap” from to one account to another though there were no pennies involved. This was all smoke a mirrors and taxpayers started waking up to this fact.
Who saw this video? The district made sure their teachers and staff watched the pro TRE video prior to summer break encouraging them to vote YES. In essence the district used the teachers as guinea pigs in hopes of winning this election. The video was then removed from public view until few weeks prior to the election. The district has zero information on the TRE election until a few weeks prior to early voting. As a matter of fact many received and mailed back their mail in ballots prior to the district posting any information regarding the election.
TERRIBLE MESSAGING (there was none)
3) The district decided to hold the election in the dead of summer while many taxpayers may have still been on vacation, giving no thought that the district was holding a TAX HIKE election. The exception was teachers and staff were starting in-service at this time just prior to school starting. (do not think that is not planned)
TERRIBLE MESSAGING!
4) School Board member, Kristi Baker takes to social media insinuating that taxpayers are just “poor unsuspecting people” and are basically incapable and lack the intellect to figure out the district is scamming. If not for a few activist working for three weeks including myself worked to get word our about the election. And the ones that were spending their time informing the taxpayers were LIARS according to Baker.
TERRIBLE MESSAGING
5) The district fails to tell the taxpayer’s that they are throwing wasting thousands on a UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM International Baccalaureate (IB) that does not value American values or Exceptionalism.
IB World Schools endorse the UN Earth Charter which contradicts our Constitution as well. Earth Charter promotes redistribution of wealth, same sex marriage, pantheism, and military disarmament. The district also just build a 6 Million dollar Event Center to rent out. That is right they used our tax money and built an event center to compete with the private sector.
TERRIBLE MESSAGING
6) This is probably one of my favorites. School Board members after taxpayers were learning the truth posed for their own personal video in an attempt to rebuttal the truth that the TRE election was indeed a TAX HIKE. Board Member, Joe Duncan stated that the “any claim that after the TRE should pass we are going to IMMEDIATELY increase the I&S is simply not true”. So they are going to do it but not immediately? How thoughtful.
TERRIBLE MESSAGING
7) School Board member, Kristi Baker within the “apology” video attempts to make the case claiming the ballot language is what confused taxpayers and that is the reason it did not pass. What she is not saying is that there is a “TRUTH in TAXATION LAW”. The ballot can’t lie. So she is apologetic to the taxpayer that ballot has to be truthful. Seriously? So is she actually saying the district would have worded the ballot in order to trick the taxpayer to vote for the TAX HIKE?
TERRIBLE MESSAGING
Truth-in-taxation is a concept embodied in the Texas Constitution that requires local taxing units to make taxpayers aware of tax rate proposals and to afford taxpayers the opportunity to roll back or limit tax increases.
Do not think for one minute the district actually thinks this election failed due to their poor messaging. Their messaging was intentional but failed this election. Thanks to the taxpayers getting out and voting.
Texas State Senator Paul Betterment is working to inform the taxpayer of these clandestine TAX HIKE elections.
Thank you Sen. Bettencourt.
Magnolia ISD’s School Board need replaced. We have three board members whose terms are up this spring.
Charlie Riley band member, School Board President, Gary Blizzard.
Montgomery County Republican Precinct Chair, Linda Stuckey’s so called “STRAIGHT TALK” is so crooked and riddled with untruths.
First I would like to say her involvement in Montgomery County politics kicked off when her cherished friend/business associate “Criminally Indicted” Montgomery County Commissioner Charlie Riley originally ran for County Commissioner. Stuckey was his appointed treasurer then campaign manager.
Linda begins her diatribe showing disregard for the Montgomery County precinct chairs that successfully ran for election during the primary. Her disdain for the electoral process is put on display here. Later in the video she comments on the fact that one of the precinct chairs replaced was “Dr. Wally Wilkerson’s” picked replacement. This two statements alone show Linda Stuckey has no respect for the rule of law and elections. Wilkerson’s position is ELECTED by “We the People” not appointed by the “chosen king”.
A comment was made that Attorney Eric Yollick directed all the precinct chairs to rewrite and vote on new bylaws stripping Dr. Walter Wilkerson’s power away. This is a HUGE LIE. Yollick has absolutely NOTHING to do with the rewrite of the new bylaws.
Another comment that precinct chairs have no power. That is incorrect as well. We have the power of a “VOTE” during our County Executive Committee Meetings. Example of that is when we had the majority to vote in new bylaws at our organizational meeting June 26, 2018.
Another lie is that the Tea Party has paid poll workers to hand out slate voter guides. The truth is the ONLY it is known that to happen is when the FAKE TEA PARTY hired volunteers when Doyal/Riley were running for office the first time.
I find it concerning that she would one individual to have sole “POWER” over the electorate with a top down approach instead of bottom up.
Make no mistake about it the precinct chairs that have the majority are advocates for Smaller Government, Fiscal Responsibility, Financial Transparency. and Republican that adhere to the Republican Party Platform.
The overburdened Magnolia tax payers beat the educrats that wanted to permanently hike up property taxes in a summer time election. They were hoping to ambush the tax payers with an August election no one was aware of but them. But they didn’t get their way, tax payers showed up and fought back.
But we have a problem….Magnolia ISD is in denial about the election results.
Even though the vote tallies are in and the tax payers won by 88 votes, the votes do not count and the election is not complete until the votes are canvassed. State law REQUIRES Magnolia ISD to canvass the votes no later than the 11th day after the election. That day is SATURDAY, August 25th.
There were many things to be concerned about during this election, getting the word out, the school district putting the ballot box in the teachers lounge, the mandatory staff meetings about the election, and the shortened early voting hours. But this is the worst by far, an UNDENIABLE VIOLATION of state election law.
Magnolia ISD officials are going to have to face the facts, the voters didn’t want to give them any more of their hard earned money. They were so stunned by this fact that they also didn’t show up for the advertised budget hearing on August 20th.
I have made several attempts to pry the canvass date from them. They refuse to set a date to make their election results officials, the deadline is fast approaching. Please contact them today, before it’s too late for them to comply with the law.
Contact the Magnolia ISD board members and demand officials do their mandatory duty. Canvassing the votes is unavoidable.
By not complying with state election law, they are setting a bad example for the children that have been entrusted to their care.
Magnolia ISD Administration Office: 281-356-3571
School Board Members:
Kelly McDonald
Sonja Ebel
Gary Blizzard
Kristi Baker
Joe Duncan
Travis Moffat
Chuck Addox
You can also email the superintendent’s secretary, Mrs. Hinkelman, and ask her to forward your email to all seven school board members chinkelman@magnoliaisd.org
Until the votes are canvassed, the results are unofficial. Magnolia Independent School District needs to obey the law. The denial process must end. We need your help to make that happen. There is still time for them to the right thing, but the clock is ticking….
Texas school district, Magnolia ISD held a Tax Ratification Election (TAX HIKE) Tuesday, August 14th. The district lost the election by 88 votes. 1598 voted for the Tax Hike with 1686 voting against. The election results are unofficial until Magnolia ISD’s governing board canvasses the vote. According to Texas Election Code 67.003 the board must canvass the vote by Saturday, August 25th. This canvass must be a public meeting with notice posted 72 hours prior to the meeting.
As of the evening of Wednesday, August 22nd Magnolia ISD has failed to post a notice of the vote canvass? Many have called or emailed the district asking when the canvass would be held. The district has refused to respond to any request for this information.
Magnolia ISD plans to hold their regular board meeting Monday, August 27th @ 6:30 pm. If their plans are to hold the canvass at that time is still up for question.
Due to school bullying we have seen a large number of students across the country taking medication for depression with many committing suicide or carrying it the extremes with school shootings. The constant barrage of bullying tactics by classmates is a sad issue and should never be allowed. Another alarming situation is the growing number of adult bullies. I was never more aware of this until I got involved as a taxpayer in fighting my government and their abuse of “WE THE PEOPLE” and their non-stop theft of our money through taxes. In our world today taxpayers and citizens can’t fight government encroachment and their policies without their hired employees (teachers & staff) behaving like high school bullies on social media, The constant berating and bullying of those who have chosen to fight government taxation and encroachment has skyrocketed.
They have taken their hatefulness and vengeance onto the social media platform for the world to see with no concern of their immaturity or who views it. What is even sadder our school district allow such behavior from their employees.
I am a taxpayer and a political activist I have a huge disdain regarding the abuse of government including the massive political machine of Texas School Districts. They have seem to acquired a large amount of power and are not accountable to anyone. This abuse of power must be reigned in.
Magnolia ISD held a clandestine” public hearing at 7:30 am May 21st, on a school morning regarding a Tax Ratification Election (TRE) a financial maneuver the district refers to as a “penny swap”. There was not one individual from the public in attendance. As as a taxpayer I pay 67.3% of my property taxes to the school district and I am not amused with this TAX scam Magnolia ISD is pulling over the taxpayers eyes. I have seen the frivolous wasteful spending on behalf of this school district and I am working to educate voters about this TAX HIKE SCAM ELECTION. With that said many of the teachers who have been promised a 4% raise if this passes could careless how this will effect the taxpayers as a whole. They want their raise and they want it NOW!
The rest of the post I will will just post some of the comments by many of the Magnolia ISD Staff and their display of childish bullying tactics and let them speak for themselves.
First we have Magnolia ISD’s Digital Learning Coordinator, Mona Johnston and friends, many being teachers. Mona also called in her mommy for assistance, Rhonda Young Pavlock. NOTE: These are in no particular order just random barrage of harassing posts.
Trust me when I tell you this is not an exhaustive list of posts where Mona, her mom and friends have taken to social media with such childish behavior. It has been constant for 3 weeks while we the taxpayer are informing others of the TAX HIKE election.
It is apparent that school district need to have bullying conferences and courses for their hired personal regarding bullying. What poor examples they are for the children they teach.
I have to admit the following Magnolia West High School teacher Katelyn Owens did make me laugh.
Kimberly Bryant is the Schools Day Coordinator for the Texas Renaissance Festival.
Nichol Sawmill first grade teacher, Kim Hotaling found it her responsibility to steal form her neighbors canvassing materials informing them of Magnolia ISD’s election.
The following peach, Ashley Axelson is the daughter of Cindi Havron. Ms. Havron was a debate coach at Magnolia High School.
School districts will NEVER have enough money, that is according to them. Magnolia ISD held a planned clandestine PUBLIC HEARING on May 21st at 7:30 AM regarding their TAX RATIFICATION ELECTION aka “penny swap”. With the room completely empty with the exception of elected school board members and Magnolia ISD administration they unanimously passed a TAX HIKE ELECTION to be held August 14th while families are off for summer break.
Of course school districts are masters of deception when it comes to passing their tax schemes unbeknownst to voters. The districts prepared a pro TRE video and showed it to teachers and staff prior to summer break and then the district removed the video from the district website. Teachers are promised raises and curriculum needs if this passes and encourages them to get out and vote YES. The district uses teachers as guinea pigs in order to pass their TAX HIKES by threatening them with no raises, cutting various services and curriculum needs. This method of operation has been utilized by school districts as long as I can remember in order to pass their tax hikes. Unfortunately for teachers they will NEVER be paid what they are truly worth and that is planned as well. If teachers were paid top notch salaries they could not hold elections over their head. As Magnolia ISD’s Superintendent, Todd Stephens makes 250,000 in salary and benefits (See Contract) and the district pays it’s administration quite well (see below) the district will threaten teachers with no raises if they do not march to the beat of their drum in voting YES on their tax hikes.
NOTE: The district claims that they are not going to raise your tax rate they are just going to move 10 cents from the I & S sinking fund to the M & O account. What they don’t tell you is the their own NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING states they need a tax rate 1.4560 to keep up with their current spending and tax debt. So to claim that we are not going to raise your tax rate is dishonest at best. They also did not tell the teachers or the public that they can come back and raise the I & S side they are planning on stealing from anytime without voter approval.
This is a TAX HIKE SCAM.
While threatening teachers with no raise in the event the TRE fails the district is currently putting the finishing touches on their new SIX MILLION DOLLAR conference center to compete with the private sector. Yes, you heard it right. They are using our TAX MONEY to build a Conference/Event facility to rent out. I was under the understanding ISD’s were to be about the business educating children not creating for profit businesses within the district using our dime to compete with the private sector. What a waste of TAX PAYER FUNDS. And the poor district claims they have no money for teachers. GIVE ME A BREAK!!
Another HUGE waste of Magnolia ISD’s government spending is the United Nations MARXIST International Baccalaureate Program that the currently two high schools are using for a handful of students. There is NO high academic criteria for a student to enter this program. It is very costly and a waste of TAX PAYER FUNDS. If their is any arbitration on a students scoring it is held under Swiss Law. If you notice both of the High Schools flaunt their IB WORLD SCHOOL EMBLEMS on the outside of the buildings. I often wonder why a global school is desired. What is wrong with an American School? Currently the district pays 11, 650 per high school just to be IB DIPLOMA PROGRAM. More about IB here. Teachers must be trained under the IB program and many are leaving the district and the district has to pay to have new ones retrained. This is not a cheap endeavor and it is another unneeded waste of tax money. Below are two former teacher comments.
I was shocked in 2013 after discovering the hidden progressive Texas Curriculum Cscope aka Common Core Curriclum implemented in our Texas School Districts. The powers at be have been working to transform of our society through our education system. Unfortunately, they are succeeding. Russian Communist Revolutionary, Vladamir Lenin quoted “Give me 4 years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted”.
The goal of the progressive United Nation’s education division, UNESCO is to transform America. A true classical education giving our children the opportunity to succeed on their own accord has taken a back seat to the progressive pedagogy of social emotional learning (SEL) The use of SEL is geared on changing a child’s attitudes, values, behavior and beliefs.
Our Texas Legislature along with the so called “Good Guys” through their votes have been instrumental in this transformation. The question as to rather it was intentionally is debatable.
I can say for a fact Gov Perry knowingly participated in this education transformation.
One of the most blatant programs in our public schools today is the International Baccalaureate Program which uses Marx’s Hegels Dialectic in rewiring the brain. More information on the IB program can be found here.
Below you see the front cover that UNESCO has published advocating the rewiring of your children’s brain.
The old adage that your sins will find you out comes to mind when I first saw this video. A former high school classmate bullied by now Katy Superintendent Lance Hindt gets his ultimate vindication at the Katy ISD March School Board meeting.
It was most disturbing to see that the Superintendent has not changed much from his High School Days regarding his bullying behavior. After the gentlemen confronts Mr. Hindt the superintendent reacts as if he were still in highschool and laughs at the man. Despicable.
Superintendent Hidht earns 375,000 a yr on top of other district benefits. CONTRACT
Unfortunately our Texas education system has changed radically in the last decade and not for the better. A good classical education has been replaced with technology and a progressive teaching pedagogy of social emotional learning in order to change a child’s attitudes, values and beliefs and behavior. We are seeing that played out across the county with a rapid decline of allegiance to our country or God.
In 2013 I discovered a curriculum system within over 90% of our Texas schools called Cscope (Common Core). Cscope encompassed the progressive pedagogy mentioned. In addition Cscope was found to promote Islam, Communism and globalism. In 2013 a Senate hearing put a damper on the program itself but the transformation of our classrooms continued at a rapid pace. Though Magnolia ISD had not purchased the actual Cscope program they had implemented the same teaching philosophy. Read HERE.
April 9, 2012 the Magnolia ISD school board unanimously signed Texas Association of Schools Board’s (TASA) resolution promoting the progressive transformation. At the time Commissioner Charlie Riley sat on the board and signed up for this. Why? Honestly, Riley was working his way up the ladder to be Montgomery County Commissioner of PCT 2. If he had known what he was signing up for he would not have taken a stand against it making waves with the administration voting block of Magnolia ISD and jeopardize he win as Commissioner. Instead in reality our children today are guinea pigs in this experiment of changing the American society to a more global one with global values not American values.
Eleven reasons not to give Charlie Riley a second term.
Voted for Toll Roads
Voted in favor of homosexual and transgender adoptions.
Voted for Common Core education transformation
Voted to limit bow hunting rights for hunter.
Is under indictment.
Is currently under Grand Jury investigation for abuse his office.
Violates Ethics laws and uses School District to campaign.
Voted himself a pay raise making 160,000+
Violated nepotism laws creating a position for his wife Deanne in Constable Hills office.
He lies to protect himself.
Bonus Refuses to call out his tribe of supporters for their abusive actions and behavior.
Unfortunately our Texas education system has changed radically in the last decade and not for the better. A good classical education has been replaced with technology and a progressive teaching pedagogy of social emotional learning in order to change a child’s attitudes, values and beliefs and behavior. We are seeing that played out across the county with a rapid decline of allegiance to our country or God.
In 2013 I discovered a curriculum system within over 90% of our Texas schools called Cscope (Common Core). Cscope encompassed the progressive pedagogy mentioned. In addition Cscope was found to promote Islam, Communism and globalism. In 2013 a Senate hearing put a damper on the program itself but the transformation of our classrooms continued at a rapid pace. Though Magnolia ISD had not purchased the actual Cscope program they had implemented the same teaching philosophy. Read HERE.
April 1, 2012 the Magnolia ISD school board unanimously signed Texas Association of Schools Board’s (TASA) resolution promoting the progressive transformation. At the time Commissioner Charlie Riley sat on the board and signed up for this. Why? Honestly, Riley was working his way up the ladder to be Montgomery County Commissioner of PCT 2. If he had known what he was signing up for he would not have taken a stand against it making waves with the administration voting block of Magnolia ISD and jeopardize he win as Commissioner. Instead in reality our children today are guinea pigs in this experiment of changing the American society to a more global one with global values not American values.
Eleven reasons not to give Charlie Riley a second term.
Voted for Toll Roads
Voted in favor of homosexual and transgender adoptions.
Voted for Common Core education transformation
Voted to limit bow hunting rights for hunter.
Is under indictment.
Is currently under Grand Jury investigation for abuse his office.
Violates Ethics laws and uses School District to campaign.
Voted himself a pay raise making 160,000+
Violated nepotism laws creating a position for his wife Deanne in Constable Hills office.
He lies to protect himself.
Bonus Refuses to call out his tribe of supporters for their abusive actions and behavior.
The so-called “Charlie Riley Band,” with Riley’s Precinct 2 County Commissioner campaign logo on the bass drum, performed for parents and students at Nichols Sawmill Elementary School on December 18, 2017, in what was clearly a campaign event for the embattled Commissioner running for re-election. Riley is in the vest playing lead singer. Magnolia Superintendent Todd Stephens is playing the yellow guitar at the left.
Magnolia, December 20 – Conservative Republican muckraker Ginger Russell caught Precinct 2 County Commissioner Charlie Riley using his so-called “Charlie Riley Band” for a political campaign event at Nichols Sawmill Elementary School on Monday, December 18, 2017, where a school official photographed Riley’s band playing with his campaign logo on the bass drums in place of the less political logo the band previously used. A photograph of Riley’s political campaign logo, identical to the new logo on the drums, follows.
Campaign logo of Precinct 2 County Commissioner Charlie Riley who is running for re-election and using his band to campaign at schools in the Magnolia Independent School District.
Russell said, “The political corruption between Commissioner Charlie Riley and Magnolia Independent School District is out of control and must be stopped. Besides being unlawful, this is is unfair to anyone else who would like to run a fair race as commissioner. Superintendent Todd Stephens has overstepped his role as a Superintendent and works with Commissioner Riley to make sure he has plenty of face time in front of the school district and its parents.”
As for the new logo on the bass drums of the band, Russell said, “Riley and his band have branded themselves with his ‘CR’ logo, which is on his campaign signs, his campaign shirts, and now it’s on his drums. Obviously, the Charlie Riley Band is nothing more than a campaign tool.”
Longtime Republican Precinct Chairman Joseph Sager prepared this photograph to show the comparison of the two logos directly.
During the morning of Tuesday, December 19, Russell called the switchboard of Magnolia ISD to ask where the “Charlie Riley Band” would play next. After the receptionist recognized Russell, she transferred the call to Superintendent Stephens’ personal secretary who asked Russell, “Do you have children that go to the school?”
Russell responded, “No. I just want to know when they’re playing.”
Stephens’ secretary then retorted rudely, “Well, then you don’t have a reason to know when they’re playing.”
Russell then said, “I’m a taxpayer.” The secretary then hung the phone up on Russell.
Russell told The Golden Hammer, “I’m a taxpayer of the Magnolia ISD. I’m entitled to know when they’re holding political events for their favored politician. No one should be treated as rudely as I was.”
A Montgomery County Grand Jury is currently investigating Riley, Stephens, Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal, and possibly others for the following allegations, among others:
For the past several years, Riley and Doyal have stored their barbecue trailers they use during political campaigns on County property in the Precinct 2 Commissioners barnyard in Magnolia behind a locked and gated fence. Riley and Doyal have not paid the County anything for the use of that storage space.
Precinct 2 employees, past and present, have confirmed that Riley and Doyal have had County employees provide automotive repairs and vehicle maintenance to members of Riley’s and Doyal’s families at no charge to them.
Riley and Doyal had the Building Maintenance Department install plumbing and electrical connections at the Precinct 2 barnyard so they could cook there for their political campaigns.
On September 14, 2017, Riley admitted in writing, “As far as the County yard storing my personal cooking trailer, that is correct.”
On October 13, 2017, Riley, his wife Deanne who is a County employee in the position Riley established for her, and several County employees spent a large portion of the County work day making preparations for his political campaign kickoff the next day.
On October 14, 2017, Riley, Stephens, and at least two Magnolia ISD maintenance workers loaded a Magnolia ISD truck at the Magnolia ISD Administration Building with Riley’s personal band equipment stored at the Administration Building for free. The school district employees then transported the equipment to the site of Riley’s political campaign kickoff, unloaded the equipment, participated in Riley’s campaign presentation, loaded the equipment back onto the school district truck, transported it back to the Administration Building, and unloaded the equipment with Riley and Stephens there to help with the unloading and re-storage of the equipment.
On October 14, 2017, Riley utilized some County-owned electrical carts as a “train” to carry passengers attending Riley’s campaign kickoff from where they parked to the site of the event. On October 15, 2017, the carts were back in the Commissioners Precinct 2 barnyard behind the locked and gated fence.
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Montgomery County “For Sale” (Part 9): Precinct 2 Commissioner Riley, MISD Superintendent Stephens Set New Employee Matej Up For Date With Grand Jury
Image: Magnolia Independent School District Director of Finance Garrett Matej, whom Precinct 2 County Commissioner Charlie Riley and District Superintendent Todd Stephens threw into the Montgomery County Grand Jury hot seat on Thursday, November 9, 2017.
Conroe, November 9 – The Montgomery County Grand Jury’s investigation into the use of government property, services, equipment, and storage facilities by Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal and Precinct 2 County Commissioner Charlie Riley will take a bit of a different direction today, Thursday, November 9, 2017, as the Grand Jury and District Attorney’s Office will explore Riley’s use of Magnolia Independent School District (MISD) property, personnel, and equipment for his political campaign.
Confidential sources inside MISD have confirmed to The Golden Hammer, Montgomery County’s leading daily newspaper, that Director of Finance Garrett Matej, only two months into his new job, received a subpoena to testify first thing on November 9 with respect to his involvement in the preparation of a questionable invoice to Riley created after this newspaper and Republican political activists Ginger Russell and Kelli Cook uncovered the corruption related to Riley’s October 14, 2017, “campaign kickoff” where he utilized MISD vehicles, equipment, storage facilities, and personnel.
Early in the morning on Saturday, October 14, 2017, Russell and Cook observed, photographed, and video-taped Riley, Magnolia ISD Superintendent Todd Stephens, and at least two Magnolia ISD maintenance workers loading a Magnolia ISD truck at the Magnolia ISD Administration Building with Riley’s personal band equipment stored at the Administration Building for free. The school district employees then transported the equipment to the site of Riley’s political campaign kickoff, unloaded the equipment, participated in Riley’s campaign presentation, loaded the equipment back onto the school district truck, transported it back to the Administration Building, and unloaded the equipment with Riley and Stephens there to help with the unloading and re-storage of the equipment.
On October 14, 2017, as he introduced members of the “Charlie Riley Band” standing among the band’s privately-owned equipment to the sparse crowd during Riley’s campaign kickoff, a political event, and standing in the Unity Park Pavilion, Precinct 2 County Commissioner Charlie Riley of Montgomery County announced,
“We ended up trying to get to places where we had to have some help, so Dr. Todd Stephens [Magnolia ISD Superintendent] gave us or let us borrow a couple guys from Magnolia ISD…maintenance guys who help us load this equipment, and move it around from place to place…and one of them’s missing, but we’ve got Mr. Louis Bennett. He’s our roady!”
Riley openly admitted that, for personal and political campaign purposes, Riley and Stephens use Magnolia Independent School District maintenance workers to help them load, unload, transport, and store their equipment.
During the October 14 Riley “campaign kickoff,” Riley also utilized some County-owned electrical carts as a “train” to carry passengers attending Riley’s campaign kickoff from where they parked to the site of the event. On October 15, 2017, the carts were back in the Commissioners Precinct 2 barnyard behind the locked and gated fence.
On October 16, 2017, Russell submitted a formal request under the Texas Open Records Act to the Magnolia ISD for any purchase orders for the use of the school district truck, equipment, and personnel and any invoices.
After waiting for eleven (11) days, the school district finally responded by October 27, 2017, letter to Russell (shown above). In the response the school district told Russell:
“Enclosed please find documents responsive to your request for public information dated October 16, 2017, a copy of the Accounts payable sent/or to be sent to the Charlie Riley campaign regarding the use of ISD equipment.” (Emphasis added.)
Unbelievably, the Magnolia ISD couldn’t even just provide the letter that was “sent.” Instead, they admitted that the invoice was “sent/to be sent”!!! Obviously, someone in the school district created the invoice after Russell sent the Open Records Act request!
Cook, who serves as the Texas Gulf Coast Regional Coordinator for the Campaign for Liberty and is a close associate of Dr. Ron Paul, the former Congressman and presidential candidate, said, “It appears Magnolia ISD has fabricated a truck rental invoice further implicating them in their gross display of political favoritism. Is this why we pay exorbitant school taxes, so they can funnel money to their favorite political candidate?”
Political activist Kelli Cook.
Russell, who is a Republican Precinct Chair and a renowned expert in public education, told this newspaper:
“Magnolia Independent School Superintendent Dr. Todd Stephens should have been fired immediately by the school board for violating school policy and law for using district vehicles to assist Commissioner Riley with his campaign event. In my opinion the Magnolia ISD School Board is an epic failure and has definitely failed the taxpayer. At this time they are spending taxpayer money on an outside attorney to represent the Superintendent. Why? We now know that the invoice created to cover for Commissioner Riley is a fake. Its creation I am sure came at the request of Dr. Stephens. One wonders how long this collusion and deception has been in play. My hope is the District Attorney puts a stop to these activities once and for all.”
The details about the creation of that invoice have begun to surface. Around approximately October 18, MISD Superintendent Stephens approached Matej and told Matej, “We need an invoice to charge Charlie Riley for the vehicle we let him use this past weekend.” Matej told Stephens that the District does not invoice private individuals like that. Stephens instructed Matej to create an invoice and provide it to Denise Meyers, MISD’s Public Information Officer (who had already received Russell’s Open Records Act request).
Matej, just beginning his second month in his job as Director of Finance, was very uncomfortable with Stephens’ request but feared that there would be reprisal if Matej didn’t accede to it. Matej created an invoice, numbered 8101, in the amount of $100 and provided a copy of it to Meyers.
Phony $100 invoice Director of Finance Garrett Matej created after MISD Superintendent Todd Stephens requested Matej to make it.
There are some interesting facts surrounding Matej’s creation of the phony invoice obviously created to make it appear as though the school district intended to charge Riley for the vehicle and services Riley received for his “campaign kickoff.”
First, Matej has told several people inside the school district that he greatly fears for his job and also has concerns that Stephens forced him to commit an unethical or illegal act. In response to a request to interview him for this article, Matej very politely responded, “Mr. Yollick, Good evening. Hope this email finds you well. While I am flattered that you would reach out to me. I must decline as we have no comment at this point in time. Thank you. Garrett Matej.”
Second, in response to an Open Records Request from conservative activist Kelli Cook, MISD’s Meyers has confirmed that there are no invoices with numbers surrounding the infamous “Invoice 8101” shown above. In correspondence on November 8, Meyers noted, “There are no documents responding to your request” for invoices 8096, 8097, 8098, 8099, 8100, 8102, 8103, 8104, or 8015.”
Third, Matej has admitted to several close associates that there are not invoices similar to the one he created for Riley upon Stephens’ request.
Fourth, Louis Bennett, the MISD Maintenance worker whom Riley recognized as the “roady” for the October 14 “campaign kickoff” event for Riley’s Precinct 2 County Commissioner re-election campaign received 5.27 hours of overtime compensation for working for the school district that weekend. It’s unclear whether the 5.27 hours of overtime would exceed the $100 invoice amount.
It’s genuinely sad that Riley and Stephens would place a young employee in a new position in such a precarious spot. An important question is why Stephens chose not to do his own “dirty work” and create the invoice in his office at MISD since he has administrative staff available to him.
The Grand Jury will hear from Matej, Stephens, and others with respect to Riley’s and Stephen’s use of MISD government property for private and political uses.
The Grand Jury has investigated the following abuses among others:
Under Doyal’s personal direction, a County employee regularly prepared his campaign reports at the Precinct 2 office.
Under Doyal’s personal direction, a County employee prepared political program ads during work hours at the Precinct 2 office.
Under Doyal’s personal direction, a County employee prepared and mailed political checks during work hours and worked on political fundraisers during for Doyal during work hours.
Other county employees in Precinct 2 worked on campaign activities and fundraisers for Doyal during work hours.
The Precinct 2 mechanics shop built platforms during work hours for Doyal’s political fundraisers.
Operations Manager Charlie Riley purchased food for Doyal’s political fundraisers during county business hours.
Doyal approved of the use of County materials, equipment, and time to work on his campaign.
Riley instructed a County employee to “do what you need to do to get it [Doyal’s political campaign reports] finished” including taking a county printer to the County employee’s home.
For the past several years, Riley and Doyal have stored their barbecue trailers they use during political campaigns on County property in the Precinct 2 Commissioners barnyard in Magnolia behind a locked and gated fence. Riley and Doyal have not paid the County anything for the use of that storage space.
Precinct 2 employees have confirmed that Riley and Doyal have had County employees provide automotive repairs and vehicle maintenance to members of Riley’s and Doyal’s families at no charge to them.
Riley and Doyal had the Building Maintenance Department install plumbing and electrical connections at the Precinct 2 barnyard so they could cook there for their political campaigns.
On September 14, 2017, Riley admitted in writing, “As far as the County yard storing my personal cooking trailer, that is correct.”
On October 13, 2017, Riley, his wife Deanne who is a County employee in the position Riley established for her, and several County employees spent a large portion of the County work day making preparations for his political campaign kickoff the next day.
On October 14, 2017, Riley, Stephens, and at least two Magnolia ISD maintenance workers loaded a Magnolia ISD truck at the Magnolia ISD Administration Building with Riley’s personal band equipment stored at the Administration Building for free. The school district employees then transported the equipment to the site of Riley’s political campaign kickoff, unloaded the equipment, participated in Riley’s campaign presentation, loaded the equipment back onto the school district truck, transported it back to the Administration Building, and unloaded the equipment with Riley and Stephens there to help with the unloading and re-storage of the equipment.
On October 14, 2017, Riley utilized some County-owned electrical carts as a “train” to carry passengers attending Riley’s campaign kickoff from where they parked to the site of the event. On October 15, 2017, the carts were back in the Commissioners Precinct 2 barnyard behind the locked and gated fence.
Magnolia ISD Superintendent, Todd Stephens can’t seem to abide by the district’s own policy and has made the local news lately due to Stephens using district vehicles on a Saturday to assist local Commissioner, Charlie Riley with his campaign event. You can read about it here. One would think the Magnolia ISD school board would immediately address the issue at hand due to Stephens violating district policy. Instead one of their school board members, Secretary Kristi Baker seeks to divert community attention to an unnamed individual (Me) claiming the children in the district are being “pursued, antagonized and exploited” on social media (post below). If these allegations were factual one would think the district would immediately alert parents of this so called abuse.
Upon being alerted of of Ms. Baker’s post on social media I filed an opens records request asking for any and all documentation alerting parents of this “suggested” abuse and how to assist their children through such abuse. Interesting enough Magnolia ISD has not addressed these allegations. Why would a district ignore such claims by a school board member and fail to alert the parents? The reason Baker thinks nothing of putting out lies and propaganda under the disguise of “These poor baby children”.
Why Magnolia ISD allows this unacceptable behavior by Ms. Baker is questionable. The board may want to get back and do their job address the issue of Stephens not only utilizing district vehicles to assist with a political event but allowing the Charlie Riley band to practice at the administration building.
Commissioner Charlie Riley and Magnolia ISD School Board Member, Kristi Baker.
Are you telling people that I ran Deanne off the side of the road with your grand baby in the car. If so, you are lying to them. I would say I am surprised but I am not. God knows the truth! Is it really so hard to do the right thing Charlie?
Now for a little history on this. The Magnolia establishment is corrupt and abusive and it has been for years. Sadly, most taxpayers are oblivious and those that are aware of it either fear for their jobs or business and many that know will sell their integrity for a bar-b-q plate courtesy of Commissioner Riley.
I suspected and was right assuming that the Riley’s would be abusing their positions as county employees in preparation for the Charlie Riley Campaign Event, Sat. Oct. 14, 2017.
I drove to Magnolia suspecting to see the Commissioners yard being utilized in some fashion in setting up for Riley’s event. I did not expect to see Mr. Deanne Riley who just returned to her office (Constable David Hill) that afternoon and rummaged through the Campaign T-Shirts in the back of her vehicle. I assume I was seen parked in Commissioner’s parking lot after witnessing Riley slamming the back door and jumping in the passenger side of Deanna’s vehicle. They drove out onto Unity Park Drive heading into the park towards 1488. Deanna turned east on 1488 and did not get in the line of traffic but proceeded up the side of the road as seen in photo below. Why she was driving so erratically and off the road is leaves room for question.
The story that Charlie Riley I know has been telling that I (Ginger Russell) ran his wife off the road with his grand baby in it is NOTHING BUT A LIE!
Proverbs 12:22 ” The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.”
Magnolia ISD Superintendent, Todd Stephens can’t seem to abide by the same ISD policy expected of his district employees. The Magnolia ISD policy employee policy states the following:
This past Saturday evening, October 14, 2017 Commissioner Charlie Riley held his campaign kickoff event at Unity Park in Magnolia. Entertainment was provided by none other than the Charlie Riley Band during the evening. In setting up for the band’s performance Riley and Magnolia ISD Superintendent, Todd Stephens utilized a couple of district employees and a Magnolia ISD Maintenance Truck to transport equipment.
Stephens, Riley the maintenance truck, another cargo van and were seen exiting the Magnolia ISD the Celeste Graves Education Support Center @31141 Nichols Sawmill Rd around 2:00 pm. The vehicles proceeded to drive down Unity Drive to Unity Park. The vehicles pulled into the park and backed up to the stage area to unload equipment. After unloading the Maintenance vehicle was then relocated to the administration building until the event was over. In relocating Stephens followed the vehicle back to the administration building and picked up the driver (district employee, Louis Bennett). They then returned to the event in finishing the setting up and practice.
Around 4pm Stephens and 3 other men returned to the Administration building prior to their band performance. The gentlemen were the only ones in the building for 1 1/2 hours. One could surmise they took the 1 1/2 break to watch the OU and Texas Longhorn game before preforming. Just prior to the end of the 4th quarter with OU leading the game Stephens exits the building to retrieve a change of clothes for the event. Within minutes all 4 men exited the Magnolia ISD administration building to return to the Charlie Riley Campaign event.
Once the event was over at 8:00 pm (1 hour early due to poor attendance) the maintenance vehicle was picked up and brought back to the park to reload the band equipment. It returned to the administration building where Superintendent Todd Stephens and some other band members along with MISD employee Louis Bennett unloaded the equipment. Louis Bennett then returned the vehicle to the maintenance yard and locked it up. He left in a vehicle that remained on the property for the day’s duration registered to Commissioner Charlie Riley.
Will the our elected Magnolia ISD elected School Board do anything about this district violation and abuse of taxpayer funds? I seriously doubt it. School boards no longer represent those that elect them they are “yes” people and rubber stamp the schools agenda.
The bigger question is will the Montgomery County District Attorney, Brett Ligon stop this taxpayer abuse or will he once again turn a blind eye to it?
In the video go to 4:20 minutes. Commissioner Riley admits to the audience that they were using Magnolia ISD equipment and employees.
If you think the Texas Home School Coalition is working to protect Texas Home School Freedom you could not be more wrong. They have aligned themselves with those that are pushing Common Core and a progressive education on Texas Children. I witnessed this first hand this legislative session when I discovered that they were taking special interest money from those pushing this progressive education agenda. To me this is serious and I consider it child abuse due to the psychological manipulation our children have to endure under this pedagogy.
In 2013 I blew the whistle on curriculum that was asking students to draw new Communist Flags, portraying the Boston Tea Party as a Terrorist Act. This program was called CSCOPE aka Common Core. After further research I and another mom, Colleen Vera discovered the corruption of a Texas Education Agency program called the Texas Virtual School Network. I recall calling the Texas Virtual School Network a few years back and asked them if they aligned with Common Core and was told YES.
The Texas Home School Coaltion has posted an article titled….
Why would THSC want to push public school at home?
Without reinventing the wheel. Please read below the articles and research done regarding the online program Texas Virtual School Network that was done myself and Colleen Vera with Texas Trash Talk. Please inform you friends and family the new direction that the Texas Home School Coalition is leaning. This agenda poses a huge danger to Texas Home School Freedom.
FYI. Texas activist with Texans For Home School Freedom have worked tirelessly on behalf of Texas Home School Freedom. Please join their FACEBOOK group page. Their website TEXANS FOR HOMESCHOOL FREEDOM.
Texans for Educational Opportunity is a non-profit organization co-founded by former Senator Phil Gramm , Stacy Hock and John Colyandro.. The organization officially filed their non-profit with the Texas Secretary of State, May 16, 2016. Here is a link to those filed papers. On the surface the organization appears to to be pushing what has been known as a conservative School Choice agenda. Unfortunately when you dig deeper they are pushing for another redistribution of wealth program. The organization’s stated purpose is shown below.
Texans for Educational Opportunity has been sending speakers across the state and working with Texas legislators in pushing School Choice during the Texas 85th Legislative session. Their Chair is philanthropist, Stacy Hock is co-owner of Hock, LLC, a financial services technology consulting firm, and manager of the Joel & Stacy Hock Charitable Fund. Previously, she held senior management positions at IBM in software services, including running the Websphere Software Services business for the Wall Street territory. Prior to that, she worked for Trilogy in enterprise software. Currently, Hock serves as a board member for Aminex Theraputics, Texas Public Policy Foundation and the African Dream Initiative. She has previously served as a board member for City Harvest and The Bowery Mission. Hock received her bachelor’s degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.
Technology is BIG BUCKS in education today and many are using our children as guinea pigs in making their fortunes. Technology is instrumental in changing HOW our children are taught and will contribute to the demise of our country. there data is collected and for sale to 3rd parties. Unfortunately our children in public schools are no longer given an education of based on solid academics giving them an equal opportunity to succeed. Progressive teaching pedagogy has been implemented seeking equal outcomes for all. Our education system is utilizing Social Emotional Learning in order to change their attitudes, values and beliefs and behaviors. How does the School Choice agenda play into this? It is about accessing all children under the same Federal umbrella of control. We have 2 avenues of government free avenues of education, private and home school. If you can get those avenues taking in govt subsidies the state will gain control of those educational choices leaving parents no government free choice to turn to.
Governor Abbott appointed Stacy Hock to sit on the Texas Commission of Next Generation of Assessments and Accountability. Interesting to note the Author of School Choice SB 3, Senator Larry Taylor sits on the commission as well. The commission just turned over their report to the governor in September asking him to align Texas State Standards with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Now why would HOCK and TAYLOR who want to align our Texas public schools with the Federal standards all the while claiming our schools are failing and promote school choice? Could it be they want every avenue of education under the same federal umbrella of ESSA? Absolutely. They want access to EVERY student.
I questioned why our supposedly Texas Conservative Governor Abbott would place a progressive like Stacy Hock on the commission as well as having no educational background. That was until I found that she had contributed to his campaign over $90,000. Here are the Hock’s contributions.
Stacy Hock
April 6th Texans for Educational Opportunity posted the following article below on their Facebook page, authored by Sharif El-Mekki. Who is Shariff El-Mekki? Mekki is a Muslim Social Justice Warrior promoting Black Liberation Theology and the Black Lives Matter movement. He is affiliated with Radical Nation of Islam Leader, Louis Farrakhan. Mekki has been highlighted in numerous articles by Louis Farrakhan’s online paper FinalCall. President Obama recognized Mekki for his social justice efforts through education.
Why would Texas Conservative Groups like Empower Texans, the Texas Home School Coalition and Texas Public Policy band together with organizations and agenda’s that are not only no conservative but radical? I find it disturbing that individuals like Peggy Venable, Mayes Middleton, (Empower Texans board member), Matt MacKowiak, Randan Steinhauser and Michael McCloud have joined Texas for Educational Opportunity speakers bureau in pushing this school choice agenda.
How and when Senator Phil Gramm and Stacy Hock tied up in pushing School Choice is to be determined. But Gramm’s shady past is not. He is riddled with financial controversy among others things as spelled out from this article excerpt. Interesting note Gramm’s wife, Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm sits on the Board of Directors of Texas Public Policy Foundation. Stacy Hock was named to the Board of Directors as well in 2015.
WAKE UP TEXAS CONSERVATIVES!!
The Purpose of “School Choice” and Common Core/College and Career Ready National Standards:
1. Shifts Education Philosophy- An education of Opportunity (Equal Opportunity) based on academics; reading, writing, math and history has moved in the United States, to an education of equity (Equal Outcomes) based on attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors.
2. Broadened Impact – The Common Core/College and Career Ready National Standards expand the target from K-12 (Kindergarten through 12th grade) to a P-20W (Pre-school through College, Trade or Graduate School) into the Workforce system.
3. Testing Based Outcomes- The Common Core National Standards shifts from the “Mental” (Academics and Knowledge Based Tests) to “Behaviors” (Performance Standards and Competency for the workforce) assessments.
4. Adjustments to Ideology- Change American’s worldview from nationalism into globalism and allow a government controlled economy known as ”Dirigisme” or the more common use–a dirigiste economy. It means essentially a state directed economy.
5. Dismantle traditional public schools in favor of charter like structures (public private partnerships) that will be forced to generate student data for corporate profit and state control.
Here is a recorded two hour call with education Activists, Alice Linahan, Lynn Davenport, Meg Bakich and Ginger Russell with Stacy Hock.
It is quite unfortunate that the Texas Home School Coalition whom most Texas homeschoolers have placed their trust in for years is now setting up the future generation of Texas homeschoolers for state registration.
How are they doing this you might ask. Tim Lambert, president of THSC has been accepting funding (see below) from some key individuals that are pushing the “School Choice” agenda which is being pushed across the country. Lambert has been very vocal making videos, posting blogs, tweeting, and speaking at meetings across the state promoting the School Choice agenda even prior to legislation being filed. The words “School Choice” sound great but once you dig a little deeper it isn’t what it seems. This “School Choice” agenda is heavily funded by the likes of Mr. Common Core himself, Jeb Bush and globalist, Bill Gates.
Tim Lambert
I would like to remind you that we already have school choice in Texas. Parents have the ability to educate their children however they see fit and thankfully two of those choices are not regulated by the government, private and home school. This “school choice” agenda the state legislature is pushing will be funded by tax dollars through “Education Savings Accounts”, ESA’s. This is not a savings account where you save your own money to educating your children. This is another government subsidy program similar to “Obama Care”. Make no mistake with government subsidies comes regulations and state mandates. The School Choice agenda and the bills filed in Texas (SB 3 & HB 1335) will allow government subsidies into the private and homeschool arena. Once your child is in the system participating in the program they will be registered with the state and their information will be placed into the Texas Student Data System.
Once you a have government subsidies streaming into those markets with state mandates and regulations we will no longer have government free choices in educating our children. NOTE: if a homeschool parent takes these funds their child will be registered with the state and their data will be collected and placed into the Texas Student Data System. Tim Lambert fails to see or admit that.
Many of those that funded the 2016 THSC Gala are HUGE School Choice proponents.
NOTE: The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a key supporter and promoter of School Choice. The following three individuals sit on the TPPF board of directors.
Kyle Stallings gave THSC $27,000.00
Mayes Middleton gave THSC $30,000
Stacy Hock “Contribution amount unknown”
School Choice Debate, Tim Lambert, Peggy Venable (pro school choice) debate Alice Linahan and Ginger Russell (pro Liberty) on School Choice.
Tim Lambert fails to see state mandated testing and data collection as regulations on homeschooolers. He compares it to what Texas have to do now in order to open carry stating those are not regulationsor infringments on our 2nd ammendment rights.
Senator Don Huffines is also pushing School Choice.
I have NEVER witnessed so much political corruption and pay to play politics as I have with the School Choice agenda in Texas. This past September, I attended a School Choice Policy Summit hosted by the the not so TEXAS CONSERVATIVE COALITION. This meeting was nothing but a rally cry to promote the agenda of School Choice in Texas through the use of government subsidies titled “Education Savings Accounts” (ESA). Both School Choice and Education Savings Accounts are misnomers. We already have school choice in Texas and Education Savings Accounts (ESA) are government subsidies.
Speakers at the Pro School Choice Policy Summit were Lt Gov Dan Patrick, Senator Larry Taylor, Senator Bettencourt, State Representatives Rick Miller, Dennis Paul, Mike Schofield, and Dwayne Bohac. Stacy Hock with Texas for Educational Opportunity and Empower Texas Board member, Mayes Middleton their “money buddies” joined them. Middleton also sits on the board of Texas Public Policy Foundation. TPPF is also a huge advocate of School Choice. Texas Public Policy Foundation provided a brochure titled “The Archilles Heel of Texas. Improving College Eligibility Rates through K-12 Education Savings Accounts.”
I could not help but notice on the bottom of the brochure was Mr. Common Core (aka) Jeb Bush’s company “ExcelinEd” listed as one of the sponsors.
Below you can see a few who fund ExcelinEd. NOTE: BILL & MELINDA GATES
STACY HOCK
DAVID MAYES MIDDLETON
I listened for almost 2 hours to them pushing for School Choice. As the meeting wrapped up they did not welcome questions from those in the audience. I approached Senator Bettencourt afterwards and mentioned to him “I as a homeschool mother am concerned about this due to Government encroachment. Also I do not like the government in my business knowing what I am doing and where I am”. When I said this to him he walked away waving his mobile phone in the air stating “you need to be more concerned about this, (the mobile phone) which always knows where your are”. I was shocked at his response and lack of professionalism and disturbed that I had paid his company thousands over the years to protest my property taxes. NEVER AGAIN.
After further research into the money. I was shocked at the thousands of dollars that Stacy Hock and Mayes Middleton combined, have contributed to Texas politicians. I am also well aware today March 16, 2017 that Mayes makes regular visits to those legislators in Austin that he has funded to encourage them to support School Choice.
NOTE: The Montgomery County Tea Party held a debate on School Choice on March 6th. Scheduled to sit on the panel in favor of School Choice was Peggy Venable and Mayes Middleton, against school choice was Alice Linahan and myself (Ginger Russell). The tea party was notified one week prior my our modeator Dale Huls that Mayes would not make the debate and Tim Lambert from the Texas Homeschool Coalition would sit in his place. Here is the video from that debate.
**NOTE** Stacy Hock recently returned from New York, She has no education experience. Her experience in Technology. With that said she has made her way up into the helms of the Texas Education Establishment. Governor Abbott, Mr. Pro School Choice advocate, appointed Stacy Hock to the Texas Commission of Next Generation of Assessments and Accountability. Senator Larry Taylor (author of School Choice SB 3) also sits on this Commission. The Commission just turned over their final report in September asking Gov Abbott to align our State Standards/Accountability with the Federal Every Student Succeeds Act.
You may wonder how Stacy Hock can arrive out of nowhere and be placed in such a position to make recommendations regarding the education of Thousands of Texas Children. Look no further.
I will highlight our new Texas Representative Briscoe Cain. Mr. Money man, Mayes Middleton and Briscoe seem to be tied at the hip on the School Choice policy issue. Could it be due to his campaign funding? Mayes Middleton, other Empower Texans board members, and unfortunately school choice advocate Texas Home School Coalition have contributed thousands to Briscoe’s campaign. Despite the fact that this is another government program reigning in Texas Home Schoolers and placing all those under the umbrella of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, through campaign donations, Liberty Caucus member Briscoe Cain is part of School “Choice” elite special interest group.
Rep. Briscoe Cain Money Trail
Representative Bricoe went on Twitter calling Texas moms that are busy schooling their children and are genuinely concerned that School Choice legislation will affect their homeschooling freedom Kool-Aid Drinkers.
David “Mayes” Middleton funded Konni Burton’s campaign $5000.00.
To make matters worse School Choice advocate, Peggy Venable, posts the following photo on her Face Book page cheering their lavish dinner this week hosted by the not so Texas Conservative Coalition. Are you seeing a pattern here?
Bricoe is holding a sign up titled EDCHOICE. EDCHOICE is a national School Choice policy pusher aligned with none other than Jeb Bush and ExcelinEd funded by Bill Gates.
So when our Texas Representatives go to Austin claiming they are conservative. I believe it will be few are far between that truly represent their constituents and adhere to their values. Sad but true.
Oh the tangled web we weave.
Afterwards Peggy posted the following on facebook. Many responded including myself of our concerns and the money ties to this School Choice shenanigan. Peggy Venable deleted all the post and blocked many of us. Some of the things we posted are below.
It is with much regret that the Texas Home School Coalition is no longer looking out for Texas homeschoolers now or those in the future when it comes to government infringement. We value our liberty and freedom in educating our children as see fit.
If there funding is not listed you can go to the Texas Ethics Commission and see all their contribution and expenditures. It is just a more time consuming. If you will go to the link on the left titled Search Campaign Finance and Lobbying Reports. You will click Campaign Finance once again and do the simple form. Enter their last/first name and your good to go. If you have trouble navigating your way through their call their office. They have always been more than willing to help.
This is a very long, but very important post. I hope you will read and consider it as our current legislative session rolls forward. Yes I wrote it.
Most of you know my political leanings. I’m not shy about sharing them. Most of you are shocked when you hear me say I am against school choice. I want to first say that this is a political issue only because it has been made one. In reality, it is a family issue, a parent issue, and most importantly a child issue. That is what matters and it matters far more than politics.
In it’s current form – or at least the form that is being bantered about in Texas in recent days, ESA (or voucher) funds would be used to provide money to charter schools, private schools and even some homeschoolers. These funds would be derived from public money – your tax dollars. There is, theoretically, a limited amount of tax dollars available to entities for the public good. ie: hospital districts, school districts etc. They operate under budgets constrained by the amount of tax money they have available to them.
Some people want to divvy these funds up, taking them away from public schools and redistribute them to private entities for the purpose of educating kids. On the surface this sounds like a phenomenal idea. Maybe some underprivileged kids could go to private schools. Maybe we can have great charter schools in our communities that will do a better job than the public schools. And even homeschoolers could afford to spend more on curriculum and online education, or hire private teachers with that money. Admittedly there are some low performing public schools, so privatizing schools will force them to compete for students, thereby shutting down the bad schools, and providing alternatives. Please bear with me here, I really want you to understand why so many think this is a great idea. It all sounds wonderful.
Before we go on – please name any instance in history where acceptance of money from the government (dug directly out of taxpayer’s pockets) has not been accompanied with strings or conditions. It does not exist. There is no free government money without restrictions, rules or regulations. Even the money you overpay to the IRS has some condition attached in that you must file a return to get it back. They don’t just hand it back willingly.
Let’s talk about charter schools first. There are some great charter schools. Now suppose that those charters will accept vouchers or ESA funds. Now they are subject to additional rules, regulations and restrictions. What might those strings look like? Limits on curriculum choices for one. Subjecting of charter students to whatever standardized testing the government deems best, and a school grading/rating system for another. STAAR. Sound familiar yet? Salary caps on teachers, excess administrative personnel. Charter schools – even the best charters with the greatest of intentions – would soon start to be just like the public schools we already have. If you love your charter school, you do not want school choice. You want it left alone. So now charter schools have rapidly narrowing profit margins. Eventually charters will begin to go belly up, as regulations increase overhead and decrease profit margins. How will that benefit our kids, or education or the public at large? And how will it benefit the taxpayers who are funding all of this? Are we to bail out these private entities with more tax dollars?
Private schools will not be left out of the red tape either. They don’t have to take the ESA funds – at least not now. EEOC, ACLU, et al will likely come into play at some point, how could they not? The funds are government funds after all. Someone is bound to deem themselves slighted. You have chosen a private school in keeping with your families religious or cultural beliefs. You have paid dearly in tuition and fees, it would be great to have some help with that. But now your carefully chosen private school will be limited to certain curriculums, chosen by the government of course. Add STAAR testing or some iteration of it to that formula. And now what of the separation of state and religion? Here we go again. Furthermore, what family who can’t afford a $16,000 a year private school can now afford it on $3000.00 to $4800.00 in voucher or ESA funds?
Homeschool? Many families do it successfully if not exceptionally well. The Texas State Homeschool Association won’t tell you this as they jump through the hoops of school “choice”, but homeschool families do NOT want government controls, interference or regulation. And the majority of them don’t want voucher or ESA funds either. The tax money paid into schools that they don’t use is frequently thought of as “just leave me alone” money. They don’t have it back now, they don’t want it back later. They simply want to be left alone to keep doing what they are doing. They do not want the state’s involvement and resultant oversight of home education. They do not want any infringement upon a child’s right to learn in a way that works for THAT child. They don’t want anyone to step on their rights to teach their kids whatever they darn well please, without the interference of entities who have no real interest in their kids or families. Furthermore, is 4k in voucher funds the deal breaker in being able to not work so you can homeschool? There are many families who do both successfully.
So lets say this all passes, and that the ESA or voucher system is a great success. We have kids learning great things in charter schools and private schools, homeschool families are scoring great on those tests. Are those charter and private and home schools required to provide special education services? If so, to what percentage of their students? At what cost? Who bears the additional cost? What if the charter (and only) school close to you can’t provide the special education services your child needs? What if the nearest one that can, is 48 miles away? Rationing special education services worked well for kids in Houston, no? So many great charters though. Specialized schools like Winston or Shelton school are only 20k a year – give or take a few thousand. Well there are so many great charter schools that your local public elementary school is now down to 72 students on campus. All in special education programs. Mainstreamed. Like a boss.
If you have not figured it out by now, I am pretty straight forward about it. I am a very conservative leaning libertarian for the most part. That means I want less government involvement in my life wherever I can get it. I find it absurd that our Republican representatives are making this a hill to die on. What part of being a true conservative involves redistributing our money and turning it into other people’s money in a card game? I am still trying to figure that one out. It has the very smelly appearance of a sham that results in the hiding or transfer of tax dollars under the tables of private entities without transparency or accountability.
Why do I care about public schools? If I am so libertarian, why do I care at all about public education? Why should the state even be allowed to educate kids at all? Less government, right? So let’s say the entire public education system – including current charters and public schools, shut down tomorrow. Would people just stop educating their children? There would be some period of chaos and confusion. Some kids would fall through the cracks for certain. But at some point, communities would work together to come up with their own solutions. It would happen. Eventually. How does that serve our kids now though? Oh – and does that mean they will then give us back our tax money? They will. Right?
I can go all the way to the conspiracy theories – Bill Gates, Pearson and the rest. It’s a conspiracy to make society obedient, dumb, dependent blah blah blah. Honestly, if we allow school choice to weasel its way in, in the way it appears to be planned, none of that will matter. What will matter is the absolute and total loss of parental input into the education of our children. Our school rating system and STAAR testing is already a glaring case of the emperor’s new clothes. Parents are beginning to remember THEY have control of their kids – they are waking up. It appears at this point however many of our legislators are resolutely and deliberately blind to these issues. They are doing a great job of creating the biggest elephant in a room I have ever seen. They are choosing instead to focus on the diversion of school “choice” instead of focusing on fixing the things that are actually wrong with our public schools. And data collection on our kids, social emotional learning… I could write an entire OTHER diatribe on these issues but they aren’t what we need to address right now. By pouring the concrete foundation first, those things get eliminated on their own, for lack of merit.
School choice is a misnomer because it is not choice at all – it is more control and intrusion in schools, it is the definancing and debasing of the public school system. It is the dumbing down of the kids in our society who most need to NOT be dumbed down. It is the overarching infiltration, like a cancer, of common core and agendaized education. There is nothing Grassroots about this school choice movement, don’t be fooled. It is being heavily funded by the entities who have a stake in getting their hands on your tax money – YOUR KIDS education money. I don’t know of any better way to say it than that. And for those who are proponents of this “free market” school “choice” solution – how is anything that the government or tax dollars is involved in, a free market, ever?
If you know me, you also know that I don’t mind speaking up about a problem, call it griping if you will. If I gripe about a problem, I also like to propose solutions. So let’s think about this. What could be the fallout if we did the following instead?
– Find a way for public schools within a district and neighboring districts, to compete against each other based on types of curriculum, innovative course offerings, sports or other activities limited to this school or that school. (Does every high school need a drama department?) and gasp – yes – even test scores and graduation rates. A real, validated, proven and experienced test like the IOWA test – not STAAR.
– Do away with federal funding in Texas schools. It is 9% of the budget. It is 100% handcuffs.
– Do away with most standardized testing – this would eliminate the need for the federal handcuff money
– LET TEACHERS TEACH. Teachers are the trained and experienced experts in this equation. Administrators and self-important small time politicians are not. Great teachers do not need a standardized test to know where their students are and what they need – this is even more true when you have smaller classes
– Privatize extracurricular activities and sports. Seems the YMCA and the local leagues are pretty good at that. Let’s let them do it. We don’t really need more coaches or million-dollar football stadiums. We need more teachers. Let’s get our priorities straight. Sell bonds to pay for those things if the place you live desires to do it. But the schools and taxpayers don’t need to fund the rest of the infrastructure and equipment. Not every sport needs to be select or elite either. What happened to fun? Teamwork? Camaraderie?
– Cut down class sizes. Send early elementary kids to class for half a day instead of all day so there can be classes of 10 or 12 kids instead of 22? Or 28, or… 30? In any case, the schools should be focused on education, not on providing taxpayer funded daycare. Schedule high school classes like college classes. There can still be afterschool care programs for parents who work, but kids should have time to be kids. More recess, fewer worksheets.
– Toss the TEA out on it’s ear. defund it, unlegislate it, sundown it, whatever it takes. Leave school districts alone to choose their curriculum and manage their affairs. After all, if they have to compete with bordering or neighboring districts, they will find a way to perform and be cost effective about it. They won’t survive if they don’t. Understandably, some will need some help to do so, and there should be a way to do that, but there should not be endless funding of nepotism, corruption or negligence. A little more stand and deliver, on all levels, a little less pomp, would go a long way towards improving the real foundations of our public schools.
– On the stand and deliver note – give teachers the tools, resources and backing they need to be THAT kind of teacher. There are a lot of them out there. It is the reason why they teach. They can’t be THAT teacher when their hands are tied and test scores are being held over their heads.
In Texas – we already have school choice. We can charter, public, private or home school without anybody telling us which of them we are required to do, and we can currently do it without a lot of government interference. The current public school system has been strangled by over regulation and the handing over of tax money to corporations who provide NO benefit to kids or education. Why do we want MORE of that? Without school “choice”, charters can be free to do what they do, private schools can carry on in private, and homeschoolers can do as they please. Parents can choose for their children whatever they think best. That is true choice. I don’t stand for “School Choice”. I stand for freedom.
PS. I am not a teacher or school administrator, I am a nurse practitioner and I am not employed in education. I am a mother of 5 kids, 4 of whom went to public schools and 1 of whom is home schooled. I have 2 grandchildren in public schools. My interest is personal, not political.
