Rick Perry: “F” is his grade in education

     Politicians have a strange DNA strand that allows them, almost at will, to insert their foot in their mouths … and still keep on talking.

     It’s too easy, too simplistic, to say that Texas Gov. Ricky Perry is dumb. He is not dumb; he is a graduate of Texas A&M, and all joking aside, that is one fine educational institution. He was an Air Force pilot that the fact that he’s still alive attests to having some degree of smarts. He was an Eagle Scout and that is not an easy task. He was a cheerleader in college … and I’ll let that great opportunity to a stinging, yet thoughtful, jibe just slide on by.

     A former cotton farmer and former Democrat, Perry proved he’s not dumb by making a living from working in the dirt and getting elected three times to the Texas House of Representatives. In 1988 he chaired the president campaign in Texas for Al Gore, and the next year he switched to the Republican Party.

     After running for and being elected state agriculture commissioner and lieutenant governor, he was pushed into the governor’s office when George W. Bush was elected president. Perry has won three terms as governor since 2000.

     I first met Perry when he was Ag Commissioner and he was on a vote-me-in march through East Texas. I remember thinking: Good hair, great teeth, strong handshake … yep, he’ll do just fine as a Texas politician

     He, as has every politician at one time or another, performed stupid politician tricks in his years in office. Perry’s claim to Intellectual Hell will forever be hinged on his executive decisions that severely harmed the state education system. (Just talk to practically any Texas teacher; they all have Perry stories.) But, as an example, when he ran for president in 2011 and 2012, one of his campaign promises was to shut down the U.S. Department of Education.)

     Texas ranks in the Bottom 10 in per student expenditures in education (at No. 9 in 2013 with a “bullet”) and Perry seems proud of that fact.                                                                                                                                  

     He is a Pisces and shares this distinction with Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington, Chaz Bono, Sam Houston, Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, Antonio de Lopez Santa Ana and Osama bin Laden. The single most recognizable trait that all of these folks, and Perry, share is extreme decisiveness.

     Being “decisive” does not always compute into “being right.” Perry’s record on “being right” has more to do with his perception of how the winds of public opinion are blowing at any particular point in time.

     His penchant for cutting funding to public education in Texas is beyond reasonable and measured explanation. While Perry is crowing about how well Texas is doing on the economic front and how much the state has in its surplus account, the state has dropped to more than $3,000 per student below the national average. (To make it clear: Arkansas and Louisiana spends more per student on education that does Texas. The only states that spend less than Texas per student are Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma, Arizona, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and Nevada.)

     Added to that stat, Texas ranks 38^th in average teacher salaries, down four spots from 2012.

     While the governor claims that “the idea his decisions about education are doing long-term damage to public education funding is just not true.” Last year Texas high school students matched their lowest average scores on the college entrance exam in the past decade; average scores dropped in math, reading and writing.

     He, like others of his party, refuses to acknowledge that the demographics of his constituency are changing at a blazing pace. California and New Mexico now have a higher Hispanic population than white; Texas is projected to join that group no later than 2020.

     As became evident in the 2012 presidential election, ignoring and/or demeaning huge voting blocs will not fly outside of a regional or state political race. Whatever Perry’s future political ambitions may be – and if his disastrous 2012 presidential bid is any indication, that’s all he has … ambitions – he has to begin rethinking and retinkering with his political philosophy.

     A good place to start would be in the area of education. In this area he has worked hard to earn a rousing, romping F. The sad part is the man seems proud of that grade.

     Which leads us back to the original thought: Can he really be that “dumb”?