BJJ-Blue
01-27-2011, 08:23 AM
This one is golden!
First, I need to explain some Austin demographics. North Austin is cheaper than South Austin, but not by alot. This is new, as up until about a decade ago the roles were switched. West Austin is fairly sparse, but in Westlake alot of doctors, lawyers, and Drew Brees ;) live there. However Westlake is not in the city limits, so they cannot vote in Austin elections. Central Austin is where politics is. It is extremely expensive to live there due to property values. It is densely populated with rich, white liberals and they pretty much decide elections as they are a huge voting bloc and very politically active. East Austin is the bad part of town, low property values, high crime, etc.
Our City Council and Mayor are voted on by an 'at large' system meaning anyone who resides in the city limits can run for Council or Mayor, it is not done by giving each section a Councilmember and the Mayor is voted on at large. So the council is full of Austinites who are mostly Central Austin residents, with a few from North Austin thrown in at times. South and East Austion rarely are represented by a Councilmember.
So the Austin Independant School District (AISD) is facing a budget shortfall and cuts must be made. They cut teachers and some admin jobs, but had to go deeper. So now they are proposing closing schools, around 7 last I heard. 2 of the schools slated to close are high performing 'magnet' schools in Central Austion (magnet schools are schools that attract kids out of its area as long as it has capacity to do so, ie schools parents want to send kids to). So now the rich, white liberals are up in arms over this! They are protesting, storming AISD and Council meetings and whining like crazy about closing 'their' schools. So why would Austin close high performing schools instead of low performing schools? Because of "Robin Hood" legislation signed into law in 1993 under Democrat Governor Ann Richards. It's goal was to 'spread the wealth around', from rich districts to poor districts. So if Austin does not close these 2 high performing 'rich' schools, the district actually becomes 'richer' and thus must give more money away which will force even more cuts to be done!
I so love it when people who vote in people whose policies sound so 'fair' and 'equal' yet when said legislation affects them, they scream NIMBY at the top of their lungs. NIMBY is a term coined by George Carlin meaning Not In My Back Yard. They never whined when other districs and schools had to sacrifice to 'spread their wealth around', but when came time for them to make sacrifices, suddenly the Robin Hood laws are unfair. And now the rich, white Austin liberals are demanding the State repeal the Robin Hood laws!
First, I need to explain some Austin demographics. North Austin is cheaper than South Austin, but not by alot. This is new, as up until about a decade ago the roles were switched. West Austin is fairly sparse, but in Westlake alot of doctors, lawyers, and Drew Brees ;) live there. However Westlake is not in the city limits, so they cannot vote in Austin elections. Central Austin is where politics is. It is extremely expensive to live there due to property values. It is densely populated with rich, white liberals and they pretty much decide elections as they are a huge voting bloc and very politically active. East Austin is the bad part of town, low property values, high crime, etc.
Our City Council and Mayor are voted on by an 'at large' system meaning anyone who resides in the city limits can run for Council or Mayor, it is not done by giving each section a Councilmember and the Mayor is voted on at large. So the council is full of Austinites who are mostly Central Austin residents, with a few from North Austin thrown in at times. South and East Austion rarely are represented by a Councilmember.
So the Austin Independant School District (AISD) is facing a budget shortfall and cuts must be made. They cut teachers and some admin jobs, but had to go deeper. So now they are proposing closing schools, around 7 last I heard. 2 of the schools slated to close are high performing 'magnet' schools in Central Austion (magnet schools are schools that attract kids out of its area as long as it has capacity to do so, ie schools parents want to send kids to). So now the rich, white liberals are up in arms over this! They are protesting, storming AISD and Council meetings and whining like crazy about closing 'their' schools. So why would Austin close high performing schools instead of low performing schools? Because of "Robin Hood" legislation signed into law in 1993 under Democrat Governor Ann Richards. It's goal was to 'spread the wealth around', from rich districts to poor districts. So if Austin does not close these 2 high performing 'rich' schools, the district actually becomes 'richer' and thus must give more money away which will force even more cuts to be done!
I so love it when people who vote in people whose policies sound so 'fair' and 'equal' yet when said legislation affects them, they scream NIMBY at the top of their lungs. NIMBY is a term coined by George Carlin meaning Not In My Back Yard. They never whined when other districs and schools had to sacrifice to 'spread their wealth around', but when came time for them to make sacrifices, suddenly the Robin Hood laws are unfair. And now the rich, white Austin liberals are demanding the State repeal the Robin Hood laws!