Why Rick Perry is Bad for Hispanics/Latinos

[sonias]

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/2012-presidential-election/guest-column-why-rick-perry-bad-hispanics/">Texas Tribune 4/18/11
Guest Column: Why Rick Perry is Bad for Hispanics
by Rafael Anchia


Earlier this summer, Gov. Rick Perry walked confidently into a packed hotel ballroom in San Antonio to address the Annual Conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), a bipartisan organization representing almost 6,000 Hispanic officeholders at every level of government in the U.S. As the Immediate Past Chair of NALEO, I had a front row seat and closely observed Perry, who was in a jovial mood.

After settling in behind the podium, he let loose with a series of rapid-fire one-liners, but other than a handful of his Hispanic appointees who were in attendance for just such a purpose, nobody laughed. You could hear a pin drop. As I looked up at the longest-serving governor in Texas history and soon-to-be presidential candidate bathed in bright light, his demeanor changed. He knew he was in trouble. It's as if he were asking, "How did I get here?" And many of us wondered the same thing. Trying to get back on message, he uttered the word "jobs" about a half-dozen times and quickly exited stage right.

Why the chilly reception? It wasn’t that the jokes were in poor taste — it was that Perry’s failing record on issues important to Latinos is no laughing matter. Issues like support for public education, expanded pre-K and college access are not exclusively Hispanic issues, but they represent the infrastructure of opportunity necessary for the success of Latinos, and, more broadly, the state of Texas. In fact, the futures of Latinos and Texas are inextricably linked. For years, former State Demographer and U.S. Census Director Steve Murdock has been sounding the alarm about Texas’ need to adequately invest in and educate Hispanics. Moral arguments about helping innocent children aside, Professor Murdock — a George W. Bush appointee — has appealed to enlightened self interest: If we shortchange the public education system that Latinos depend on to get ahead, Texas will become poorer and less competitive, and that hurts all of us.

A quick survey of the last legislative session exposes how Rick Perry’s tenure has hurt Latinos in Texas.

Hispanic students now account for more than 50 percent of the state’s 4.9 million children enrolled in public schools and make up more than 90 percent of school enrollment growth. Yet during the 2011 legislative session, Perry pushed for a cuts-only budget that took almost $5 billion from already under-funded public schools, including $250 million from pre-K. This means fewer teachers, larger class sizes and less investment in our state’s future human capital. As if that were not enough, Perry’s budget also eliminates state scholarships, including Texas Grants, for almost 45,000 college students. When asked about the cuts to education, Professor Murdock concluded, “This is not something that Texas can afford to do, and the risks we’re taking come with very severe consequences.”

Excellent piece by Representative Rafael Anchia. I hope to see him run and win a race for Texas Governor one day. He is more than qualified to lead.
:applause::applause::applause:

I'm with Representative Anchia on this one - Perry has not been a fiend to Latinos in Texas. He sucks - big time! :grr:

[hobbit709]

1. Minorities, women, poor, children, sick and elderly.

The only thing Icky Ricky's been good for is himself and his cronies.
Outside of that he's run TX so low that we can't even look down at Mississippi any more.

[sonias]

2. True about Mississippi

We used to look down at Mississippi. Not any more. We're at the bottom now. :(

[onestepforward]

3. I wasn't familiar with Rep. Anchia before reading this article.

Sounds like he's a bright hopeful!

[sonias]

4. He's one of our brightest rising stars

He was one of Obama's early endorsers in Texas in 2008. He served on the Texas House Elections Committee, which is how I got to know him. He's absolutely brilliant. He was our best defender on photo ID for the 3 sessions we did fend it off. And even this last session he still stood his ground in defense of voters. I love him. :loveya: Representative Anchia!

He knows President Obama personally now too. He and his family got an invite to the private Superbowl watch party at the White House this year.

Even Texas Monthly thinks he's going to be a contender some day. Here's a nice link to a past article from 2008.

Texas Monthly Feb 2008

El Gobernador

11.2018

The Texas governor’s race of 2018 was one for the history books—on a par with Lyndon Johnson’s disputed victory over Coke Stevenson in the 1948 U.S. Senate race and Bill Clements’s upset of John Hill in the 1978 governor’s race. These elections came at crucial moments in the state’s history that separated the old from the new. Johnson’s 87-vote margin certified the transformation of Texas from a rural state to an urban one and the accompanying transformation of its economy from agrarian to industrial. Clements’s victory, which made him our first Republican governor since Reconstruction, was seen as an aberration at the time, but it proved to be the leading edge of a surge that reshaped Texas from a one-party Democratic state to a one-party Republican state and produced two presidents of the United States.

Now, with the triumph of Dallas mayor Rafael Anchía as the first Hispanic governor, another watershed election has occurred, this one confirming that political control in Texas has shifted from Anglos to Hispanics. What made the 2018 race different from those in 1948 and 1978 was that the change it brought about was one the Texas political community had known was coming. The question was not whether Texas would elect a Hispanic as governor; it was when and whom and from which party.

I believe that one day we will overcome!

[onestepforward]

5. We will overcome!

He sounds just great! Thanks for the link!
:hi: