Houston School Kids Will Not Make Up Days Misssed For Hurricane

Kids in the Houston Independent School District will not have to make up classes missed because of Hurricane Ike. 

This means students will lose between seven and eleven days of the school year in Houston. Different schools opened at different times depending on when the power came back on.

Gayle Fallon, President of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said she would have taken the district to court if school officials attempted the make up the missed time. Ms Fallon said ”This is something  we would have taken them to court over because this was hardly a vacation.”  

See–Teachers don’t get enough vacation. What if teachers only got five or six weeks over the summer instead of seven or eight? And that vacation time is in addition to the vacation time already built into the school year.

The Houston Chronicle article on the issue said also that some principals and parents expressed concern about making up the missed time.

Right. It might be an inconvenience to extend the school year a couple of weeks.

Teacher and parents should be lobbying for an extended school year. These kids in Houston are already in for a rough ride in life. Instead, the message is being sent that education is not the most important thing for these kids.

Harris County District Clerk Candidate Jackson Gives Me A Shirt—I Will Wear It Where It Will Be Seen

This afternoon Harris County District Clerk Candidate Loren Jackson gave me a campaign tee shirt. I promised him I would wear this shirt while walking around Houston’s Memorial Park. There is a popular walking/jogging trail at Memorial Park and the shirt will be seen by many voters.   

Candidate Jackson obeys all laws and, unlike his opponent, does not place campaign signs on public property.  

I read as I walk around the Memorial Park trail. Today I will be reading Arthur M. Schlesinger’s Journals 1952-2000.

If you see me, please say hello.

This Blog Has Best Month—Thank You Blog Reading Public

Thanks to you, the blog reading public, Texas Liberal had its best month ever in September. The blog averaged 1275 views a day for the month.

If you punch “1275” into Google, the first listing you get is a Wikipedia entry for a Gibson EDS-1275 guitar. Look at that thing–It is quite a guitar.

My goal for 2008 is 1000 hits a day. I’ve averaged exactly 800 a day for the year. It’s not my goal, but it is nice that I can get a number of people to visit my small corner of the internet each day.

I’m also one of eight featured political reader-bloggers at the Houston Chronicle and I post at Where’s the Outrage. WTO? is written out of North Carolina.

Thanks for your support of Texas Liberal and please keep reading if you feel the blog merits your time.

Biden-Palin Debate Summary—I Did Not Watch A Minute Of The Debate

Due to other obligations, I was not home for the debate last night between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. I have it recorded, but I don’t think I’ll watch it. That would be 90 minutes of my life I’d be unable to get back.

I got home last night around midnight and saw some headlines online suggesting the debate had been pretty much a draw. Though some focus groups felt Senator Biden had done better. The two print newspapers I get each morning also said both candidates had done well enough and that no knock-out punch had been delivered.  

That tells me pretty much what I need to know. A great thing about live TV is that you can’t be sure one of the candidates won’t walk over the other and unload a kick in the shin. Once you realize that nothing like that took place, it all seems a bit less interesting.

I’ve written before that I make a point to spend only so much time following the Presidential campaign. It is not an edifying process. You’d be better off reading a good book of American political  history such as America’s Three Regimes–A New Political History by Morton Keller. Reading a book of political history provides more context about what is taking place now in politics than yet another tracking poll or debates over lipstick.

If the debate between Vice Presidential candidates has made you wonder about the history of the office and the people who have served as Vice President, the U.S. Senate has an excellent web home for the Vice Presidency. There is a history of the office and strong profiles of each of our Vice Presidents.

Above is Vice President Thomas Marshall of Indiana who served as Vice President under Woodrow Wilson between 1913 and 1921. Vice President Marshall was kept out of the loop after President Wilson had his stroke.