Texas Blue Mailbag: Week of 5/13/07

We have some thoughtful legislative questions in this week's Mailbag, as well as yet another "behind the scenes" look about the inner workings of the Blue.

Leilani writes:

Hi Josh!

I read and enjoyed your observations about the compromise bill on immigration. This morning it was being discussed on NPR and they played a quote of Sen. Hutchison remarking that they couldn't "pull the trigger" until the security issues were dealt with first. Do you think that the vocabulary of violence that she employs in her statement further detracts from the viability of the legislation? And do you believe that funding will be the ultimate deterrent to passage?

Keep up the good work!

Leilani

Josh responds:

The difference between what Kyl and McCain have supported and what some other border Senators have been saying is informative as to how the debate will go next week. The "pull the trigger" terminology is a little odd, but KBH has been to enough rodeos where it is hard for me to think that everything she says isn't parsed beforehand. It is important for the GOP to keep as tough a facade as possible throughout the debate on the immigration bill because they are essentially giving up on what they all really want, which is a hard-line right, throw-'em-all-out solution which somehow doesn't hurt business in the process. The big secret is: they won't get that solution because it doesn't exist in any policy universe I'm familiar with.

As for money, you never know. It seems like on this issue, the politics would derail before the administrative costs would. The potential security costs are a big deal, but it is possible that they could get split out onto some other spending bill if they look like they might be a deal breaker. However, when something has significant bipartisan support and presidential backing (no matter how diminished), it usually works out in the end.

BP writes:

Re: Testing Texas' Commitment to Education

Wow. Fancy that: Texas students being tested on their understanding of a subject rather than their ability to take a standardized test. Any word on how flexible the bill will be about allowing a school district to determine the academic abilities of its own students ( a.k.a allowing schools and teachers to do their job)?

George replies:

Well, now, I wouldn't get your hopes up too quickly. The bill is currently on its way to conference committee, where the House and Senate will try to iron out the differences between what each chamber passed. The Senate's version not only replaces the four TAKS exams with 12 end-of-course tests, but also requires their being passed to graduate. The House version does not — it makes the test count for 25% of students' final grades, but they do not necessarily have to pass the test to graduate.

In my mind, whether teachers are able to simply do their job, teaching their subjects as opposed to teaching to a test, is contingent on students' academic careers, teachers' reputations, and schools' funding not being decided by the sort of high-stakes, make-or-break testing that TAKS has been used for. In that light, the House version of the bill would seem to be much more conducive to teachers once again teaching subjects instead of tests, and hopefully to a subsequent improvement in our educational system. But though both chambers have sounded optimistic about coming to an acceptable compromise, some key Senators have voiced strong support for the Senate plan. We'll be keeping track here at the Blue of what sort of balance legislators end up striking between the House and Senate versions of this bill as time goes on.

Gordon wonders:

How do you pick who gets interviewed?

Josh says:

While I have never worked on another "regular interview" type of show or publication, I imagine it isn't at all different from how a talk show or magazine does it. Our field is wide: Texas (and occasionally national) Democrats and progressives. Sometimes our desired interviews are dictated by topical subjects, but more often we seek out Democrats that are currently up to something interesting so that we can talk to them about what they're doing.

For both Who's Blue and On The Record, we also go after interviews with the reader in mind. We would like to introduce as many Democratic and progressive leaders, thinkers, activists, and professionals as possible to our readers. In a state as big as Texas, someone might be making serious rain or doing serious work for the cause in say, South Texas (like Juan Garcia, for example) or West Texas (James Belk), and our readers in East Texas may not know much about who he is.

We also try to make our stories, topics, and interviewees as geographically diverse as we can. Texas is a big state, but our methods and medium allow us to talk about a great deal of it.

Should you have any suggestions on who you'd like to hear about, let us know.