The town halls, which are being held throughout El Paso County, focus on increasing citizen participation in the democratic process, and how El Paso residents can get more involved in forming legislation. Additionally, there will be an opportunity for members of the community to make suggestions regarding Senator Rodríguez’s 2013 legislative agenda.

In addition to Saturday’s town hall, two more Town Halls will be held in May. The schedule for the town halls is as follows:

Saturday, Mary 19, 2012
10:00am
Central El Paso
Pat O’Rourke Recreation Center
701 Montana Avenue

Wednesday, May 30
6:30-7:45 p.m.
Upper Valley
IBEW Union Hall
311 W. Borderland Road

Thursday, May 31
6:00-7:00 p.m.
West Side
El Paso Police Department
West Side Regional Command Center
4801 Osborne Drive

The hearing will begin at 8:30am and the public is invited to testify.

WHAT: Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs and Military Installations Interim Committee Hearing

WHEN: Monday, May 21, 2012; 8:30am

WHERE: El Paso Armed Forces Reserve Center, 11701 Montana Avenue, Room 225, El Paso, TX 79936

WHO: Senators Leticia Van de Putte (Chair), José Rodríguez, Brian Birdwell (Vice Chair), and Wendy Davis; invited testimony and members of the public

The charges to be discussed are as follows:

· Consider establishing a “Commander’s Council” in conjunction with the Office of the Governor’s Texas Military Preparedness Commission, to allow commanders of Texas’ military forces and installations to better coordinate and communicate with the Texas Legislature and state leadership. Develop a comprehensive communication plan with Texas military installations, and recommend any legislative initiatives necessary to support the installations, active-duty service members and their families on and around the installations, and the partnerships between the defense community and the community within which the military installations reside.

· Study the use and impact of Veterans Courts throughout Texas. Make recommendations relating to potential funding sources, staffing requirements, additional direct services not provided by the Veterans Administration, and possible expansion.

· Monitor the implementation of the administration of the Veterans Housing Assistance Program by the Texas Veterans Commission’s Fund for Veterans’ Assistance.

Public testimony will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker. Those testifying and submitting written testimony, are asked to provide 10 copies with their name on each.

“We teach our children to be responsible, productive citizens, yet there are many in our community who do just that and are then denied citizenship. These are young people who have worked hard and played by the rules; they sit in our churches and go to our schools, and now they’re graduating from universities in our state. We must show these kids that we support them by supporting the DREAM Act.

“The population of our state is rapidly changing — we live in a New Texas — and if we are to succeed, we must allow the estimated 258,000 DREAM Act beneficiaries to succeed.  I strongly support our state continuing to allow undocumented students who have been raised in Texas to go to state colleges and universities and pay in-state tuition rates. Once they graduate, they need to be given the opportunity to become U.S. citizens.

The DREAM Act would help an estimated 2.1 million young people in the country earn a path to legalization through a higher education or military service. An estimated 258,000 – or 12 percent – of total DREAM Act beneficiaries live in Texas.

According to a UCLA study, over a 40 year period, DREAM Act beneficiaries would generate between $1.4 trillion and $3.6 trillion in income.

Texas state law allows undocumented students who have been raised in Texas to go to state colleges and universities and pay in-state tuition rates. Although this law has been in the books for over 10 years, many promising college students in Texas continue to graduate and cannot practice their professions in the U.S.

The El Paso Democrat grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and went to UTPA. He told the graduating students of his childhood in a migrant farmworker family and recalled the time he invited Cesar Chavez to speak at UTPA. And, in a speech titled “Preparing for the New Texas” he talked about the changing demographics of Texas.

“Unfortunately many of the battles I face as a Senator from a border district originate from a stubborn refusal to see, or accept, the present reality and the coming change. Too many people, including those in control of the Legislature, cling to old ways, dated priorities, and bygone beliefs,” Rodriguez said.

“They fail to understand that each generation remakes itself, standing on the shoulders of the giants before them. As it was with the Irish, the Italians, the Eastern Europeans, and others, so it will be with Latinos, all unique and all uniquely American.”

Rodríguez said Texas will be new again, and the New Texas must continue to be a place of opportunity for all, but with smarter and more innovative approaches to public investment that reaches everyone and creates the framework for continued growth and prosperity for the generations ahead.

“Texas will only be as successful as you are, and you have begun to show what you can do today! Armed with your new knowledge you can help tackle the many challenges we face in this border region, such as attracting new industry to increase our tax base — necessary for the economic growth of a community; obtaining access to health care for the one-third of our population without health insurance and without a sufficient number of doctors to provide care; getting adequate financing for our public schools; creating new job opportunities for everyone; also, importantly, making the convincing argument for the value of our communities, we are — as much as Dallas or Austin, or Houston — we are all Texas,” Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez referenced the fact that Steve Murdock, the former state demographer, used to say that “the future of Texas will be increasingly determined by minority populations, particularly Hispanics, and that how well they do (in terms of educational, economic, and other terms) is how well Texas will do.”

Rodríguez noted that Murdock started saying that in the 1990s. “Some of us were saying that 20 years earlier,” he said. Rodríguez said that Texas has changed and will continue to change.

“We are a majority-minority state, a term that will become obsolete. At some point in the next ten years Texas will have more Latinos than any other race or ethnic group. In fact, the President of the University of Texas at El Paso, proudly declares at every opportunity that UTEP’s students represent a “21st Century Demographic,” meaning our border institutions reflect the growing Latino population,” Rodríguez said.

“Those of us who live in this international border region, who accept ethnic and cultural diversity, and who appreciate its richness, know that the future is upon us, and while we respect our history we must embrace change.”

Rodríguez’s speech, given to students graduating from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Science and Mathematics, and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is reprinted in full at the end of this story.

Introducing Rodríguez, UTPA President Robert S. Nelsen said there was nowhere he would rather be than at the university’s 2012 Spring Commencement. On Saturday, UTPA awarded 1,600 degrees. In total, Nelsen said, Pan American has awarded 70,000 degrees.

“Every one of those degrees makes a difference,” Nelsen said. He urged those graduating to help “transform” the Valley, Texas and the country. Nelsen said the graduating students have positioned themselves for a brighter future, noting that, on average, students with a Bachelor’s degree will earn $2 million in their lifetime and those with a Master’s degree will earn $3.7 million in their lifetime.

Nelsen also referenced the recent VISTA Summit held at UT-Brownsville and UTPA. It brought together some of the largest philanthropic foundations in the country. “They know we are transforming the Valley,” Nelsen said of the foundations. “They came down here to plant a stake in the Valley, to plant a flag and say, we are going to come because we are getting it right in the Valley. We are doing the right things. We are moving towards transforming this place.”

Nelsen told the graduating students that they have a “moral responsibility” to reach back and help. “You will walk out as role models and mentors for many people. Help them. Do not forget to reach back and be there at all times.”

And, in a final piece of advice for the students, Nelsen quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

After Rodríguez’s speech, Nelsen noted that the senator had confided in him that when he dies, Rodríguez wants his ashes scattered in the cotton fields of the Valley where he toiled as a child and young man.

Here, in full, are Sen. Rodríguez’s prepared remarks:

Preparing for the New Texas

Good morning. It is with great pleasure and tremendous pride that I welcome the graduates and your families to today’s ceremony.

I would like to thank President Robert Nelson for giving me this opportunity to speak to you as you reach this memorable milestone in your life. I also wish to extend my appreciation to former Pan Am educators without whose support and encouragement I might not be standing here today: Newman Center priest Mike Allen; Dean of Students Glen Morgan; and Literature Professor Edward Simmons.

As someone who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley as a migrant farm worker, who faced many of the challenges you have faced, and then graduated from Pan American, I can truly appreciate what this moment means to you and your families. And, like many of you, I had the distinction as well as the pressure of being the first in my family to pursue a college education.

I am grateful for choosing to do so at Pan Am. The memories and lessons I learned have been instrumental in nearly every part of my life. My professors reinforced my love of learning and my drive to succeed; I am grateful for the opportunities I was offered at this institution. That’s what I’m going to talk about today.

From childhood, in the 1950s and 60s, I was part of the great migrant stream, flowing across the country, from California to Idaho in the west to the great plains of Montana and North Dakota, from Michigan and Indiana in the Midwest back to the cotton fields of Texas and our home base in the lower Rio Grande Valley. In my teens I faced a choice: Do I work and help my family, or do I continue my education? Some of my friends told me, “come on José, you’re already 16 years old; you’re too old to be going to school; drop out and help your jefitos like the rest of us.”

But my mother saw it as an opportunity for me to get out of back breaking labor and get a job in a “tienda”, “afuera del sol”. For her, success was me getting a job where I could wear a white shirt.

I stand here before you as the only one of seven children to graduate from college; one who decided to take my mother’s dream a little further. I became a lawyer and advocate for farm workers, and have continued the struggle to improve the educational and economic opportunities in our state.

Let me tell you a story. In 1971, I was student body president here at Pan Am, as well as president of M.e.Ch.a. (Movimiento estudiantil Chicano de Atzlan). At the time, the struggle for equality of opportunity was loud and vigorous. Among the icons of the struggle was César Chávez, who we invited to speak. This was in 1971, the height of the national grape boycott, and inviting him to speak was not without controversy.

Back then, people would yell at him, “Go back to Mexico!”

Sound familiar?

Chávez persevered with dignity. And he understood the value of education and individual effort. He said: “Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves — and be free.”

With freedom comes responsibility, and we were responsible ourselves and for each other. We struggled for freedom and for inclusion, fighting not only for basic rights but also for increased opportunity, for our rightful place at the table of decision-makers. Many scholars referred to us as the invisible minority – we were kept in the shadows, where some would still have us today — but we always knew history was on our side.

As Steve Murdock, the former state demographer, concluded, “the future of Texas will be increasingly determined by minority populations, particularly Hispanics, and that how well they do (in terms of educational, economic, and other terms) is how well Texas will do.”

He started saying that in the 1990s. Some of us were saying that 20 years earlier.

Yes, Texas has changed and will continue to change. We are a majority-minority state, a term that will become obsolete. At some point in the next ten years Texas will have more Latinos than any other race or ethnic group. In fact, the President of the University of Texas at El Paso proudly declares at every opportunity that UTEP’s students represent a “21st Century Demographic,” meaning our border institutions reflect the growing Latino population. Those of us who live in this international border region, who accept ethnic and cultural diversity, and who appreciate its richness, know that the future is upon us, and while we respect our history we must embrace change.

Unfortunately many of the battles I face as a Senator from a border district originate from a stubborn refusal to see, or accept, the present reality and the coming change. Too many people, including those in control of the Legislature, cling to old ways, dated priorities, and bygone beliefs. They fail to understand that each generation remakes itself, standing on the shoulders of the giants before them. As it was with the Irish, the Italians, the Eastern Europeans, and others, so it will be with Latinos, all unique and all uniquely American.

Texas will be new again, and the New Texas must continue to be a place of opportunity for all, but with smarter and more innovative approaches to public investment that reaches everyone and creates the framework for continued growth and prosperity for the generations ahead. Texas will only be as successful as you are, and you have begun to show what you can do today! Armed with your new knowledge you can help tackle the many challenges we face in this border region, such as attracting new industry to increase our tax base — necessary for the economic growth of a community; obtaining access to health care for the one-third of our population without health insurance and without a sufficient number of doctors to provide care; getting adequate financing for our public schools; creating new job opportunities for everyone; also, importantly, making the convincing argument for the value of our communities, we are — as much as Dallas or Austin, or Houston — we are all Texas!

And who knows what else you will do? The challenges are endless, as is your potential, and you are limited only by your dreams and imagination. All of you will play an important role, some working for change in your own communities, others taking a global approach, helping to solve the world’s seemingly intractable problems. You might:

• Ease poverty and hunger
• Find cures for cancer, diabetes, and other diseases
• Eliminate the threat of climate change and develop renewable energy resources
• And yes, find ways for humankind to meet our challenges without resorting to the violence of war

It is time to take that next step and work to improve the world we live in. You have already demonstrated some of what you are capable of by graduating from this amazing university.

Now, take advantage of the opportunities that will be afforded to you; use your knowledge, skills and talents where needed; assert leadership as others look to you for it; continue the quest for life-long learning; and above all, strive for excellence in all that you do as you prepare to lead us proudly to a brighter future.

For what you have gained here at Pan Am is both a testament to your individual struggle and a commitment to others. Again, to quote César Chávez: “It is not enough to teach our young people to be successful…so they can realize their ambitions, so they can earn good livings, so they can accumulate the material things that this society bestows. Those are worthwhile goals. … It is not enough to progress as individuals while our friends and neighbors are left behind.”

Let’s bring with us our friends, neighbors and our communities into the growth and prosperity that will be the New Texas.

Adelante y buena suerte.

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Polling Places on Election Day [link]

Overall, nearly 10,000 Texans who have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder are waiting for access to treatment, though the number has decreased slightly since demand reached its peak in 2010.

“Sometimes, they have to go home and wait. Sometimes they end up not getting served and end up in the criminal justice system,” said Michael Maples, the assistant commissioner for the Department of State Health Services’ Mental Health and Substance Abuse division. He said patients are offered treatment based on the severity of their diagnosis.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee’s nearly six-hour meeting is part of its interim work to reform the state’s mental health system. The committee is expected to come up with recommendations for improving efficiency and outcomes by the 2013 legislative session.

Last year, lawmakers slightly increased mental health carefunding for adults, children, crisis, community hospitals, state hospitals and the NorthSTAR system, from $1.91 billion to $1.97 billion over the 2012-13 biennium. But stakeholders in the field told lawmakers that Texas remains “terribly underfunded” compared with other states.

Dr. Daryl Knox, a Houston psychiatrist representing the Federation of Texas Psychiatry and the Texas Medical Association, pointed out the state spends an average of $39 per consumer compared with the national average of $122 per patient. (A 2011 study ranked Texas 50th when it comes to mental health spending.)

Knox said that patients often wait four to six months to receive outpatient treatment, and that some end up back in hospitals before they’ve received help.

DSHS reported that statewide, 158,010 adults and 46,463 children are receiving services. An additional 49,582 people are receiving crisis services.

Crisis conditions can vary widely for patients, from minor frustrations over everyday life to suicidal or homicidal tendencies.

“The funding is not adequate to meet the need out there for people in crisis,” said state Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso.

Knox testified that lawmakers have increased funding for crisis services in recent years at the expense of long-term treatment.

“We realize the task is a complex and very hard one,” he said, but “mental health can be a complex medical condition. They require at times acute emergency services, hospitalization, as well as ongoing maintenance and outpatient services.”

Maples said the state is building a foundation for treating patients, but “it’s difficult to know what would be the exact amount of money that would be necessary, because as we showed here, we built something and it grew.” He said the state’s population surge is putting more demand on the system.

State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Southside Place, asked the agency to look into costs before the 2013 session.

The challenges “still cost the state in some way, shape or form. And we need to know who they are, where they’re going, and see if we can’t meet them early on,” she said.

Maples said his agency is attempting to expand capacity at state psychiatric hospitals by increasing bed space. Currently, the state’s 11 state psychiatric hospitals have a total of 2,461 beds. The department has purchased 348 additional beds. Each of those beds costs the state $433 per day to maintain.

Within the offender mental health population, the state lost a lawsuit in January against a group that alleged the state was too slow to house criminals in state psychiatric hospitals after they’d been declared incompetent to stand trial. The court ruled DSHS must make beds available to such detainees within 21 days. Still, Maples said the state is dealing with a backlog of 121 individuals waiting for a maximum-security bed. The state is considering contracting out beds for non-criminals in order to free up space.

In the meantime, the state will continue to fund pilot projects that have since 2008 shown a tendency to improve outcomes at a lower cost. One such program emphasizes the training and use of peer specialists to enhance clinical services. The peer specialists have experienced and recovered from mental health issues themselves. According to Maples, more service providers in Texas are using peer specialists to treat clients because they can identify with those consumers and show them it is possible to break behavior patterns.

Another experiment that appears to be working is the Outpatient Competency Restoration program, which allows some compliant nonviolent felons to receive outpatient care while they are moving through the court system.

“It’s certainly a lot more cost-effective,” Maples said, adding that 67 percent of the participants completed the program “with positive outcomes.”

During the public testimony period, lawmakers heard from more than a dozen stakeholders. Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, encouraged many of them to submit their recommendations before the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Nelson told the committee she is concerned that funding levels are based more on historical data “when we should look more closely at performance and quality.”

Ron Stretcher, a board member with the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority, testified that measuring outcomes and performance indicators is “critical” but challenging, because “people with serious mental illness are so impacted by their community,” including their access to treatment and housing. He said budget limitations had forced them to “ration” services and focus more on providing medications to clients.

Other mental health experts testified that the state must do more to increase funding for graduate medical education to beef up the state’s critical shortage of mental health workers. Nelson said that she understands the importance of doing so but that the state’s budget problems persist.

“I’m not sure we’ll ever have enough money to do what we want to do,” she said.

El Paso Sen. Jose Rodriguez said he was worried whether the state will have enough doctors willing to participate in program.

“Back in El Paso, I hear it all the time from people saying that because of these rate cuts that it is affecting access to health care, people are scaling down their Medicaid patient load,” he said.

But State Medicaid Director Billy Millwee said that, so far, the data his agency has collected shows no impact on the availability of doctors.

“Are there providers who say they will not take Medicaid anymore? We hear that, but we don’t see that in our data,” he said. “I don’t know if our data is premature for that, or if it is not an access to care issue.”

The Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee listened to public testimony about Medicaid on Tuesday. During the hearing, Millwee acknowledged that cuts in payments to health care providers took $500 million out of the health care economy, resulting in complaints.

But he said what matters to the agency is not making health care providers happy, but making sure patients get the care they need.

Texas lawmakers cut $15 billion from the state budget last year, including $3.1 billion from the Medicaid program.

Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, focused Tuesday on a 14 percent cut in the Early Childhood Intervention program, which provides assistance to infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities. Officials testified that after the Legislature cut funding, the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services changed the criteria and cut 10,000 children a year from the program.

West said the state should consider restoring the $45 million cut from the program.

“If we can catch some developmental issues early on and we treat those issues, we’ll be saving money down the road,” he said.

Gov. Rick Perry has warned that Medicaid costs represent a major challenge to the state budget, and he has called for lawmakers to get the program under control. Experts have said Texas lawmakers underfunded Medicaid by $4.8 billion in the current two-year budget and will likely face a $10 billion shortfall when they meet again next year.

Committee Chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said her committee has worked hard to find efficiencies while maintaining necessary services.

But as much of the questioning focused on problems created by budget cuts, Nelson tried to steer Millwee’s testimony toward what was achieved.

Millwee said his agency had achieved about 88 percent of the cost-savings mandated in the current budget.

This weekend, it will be my honor to deliver the keynote speech at my alma mater, the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, Texas. When I state the importance of education, which I do often, it’s personal. I was the first in my family to pursue and complete a higher education, and the sense of responsibility to them and to the community has been a constant in my public service career.

I hope many of them choose to serve their communities through public service. Like graduates all over the country, their journey is just beginning. Below, I share some of what I plan to say to the proud new graduates of Pan Am (I’ll post the entire speech on the website — check my Facebook page for notification over the next few days).

In 1971, the year I graduated, I was student body president here at Pan Am, as well as president of M.e.Ch.a. (Movimiento estudiantil Chicano de Atzlan). At the time, the struggle for equality of opportunity was loud and vigorous. Among the icons of the struggle was César Chávez, who we invited to speak. This was the height of the national grape boycott, and inviting him to speak was not without controversy.

Back then, people would yell at him, “go back to Mexico!”

Sound familiar?

Chávez persevered with dignity. And he understood the value of education and individual effort. He said:

“Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves — and be free.”

With freedom comes responsibility, and we were responsible ourselves and for each other. We struggled for freedom and for inclusion, fighting not only for basic rights but also for increased opportunity, for our rightful place at the table of decision-makers. Many scholars referred to us as the invisible minority – we were kept in the shadows, where some would still have us today — but we always knew history was on our side.

As Steve Murdock, the former state demographer, concluded “ the future of Texas will be increasingly determined by minority populations, particularly Hispanics, and that how well they do (in terms of educational, economic, and other terms) is how well Texas will do.” He started saying that in the 1990s. Some of us were saying that 20 years earlier.

Yes, Texas has changed and will continue to change. Texas will be new again, and the New Texas must continue to be a place of opportunity for all …

My congratulations to the students of Pan Am, and also to the graduates of the University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College, which have ceremonies on Friday and Saturday, respectively. UT El Paso will graduate more than 2,500 (including 10 students who will receive the College of Health Sciences’ first Master of Rehabilitation Counseling degrees), and EPCC will graduate more than 2,000.

Challenges

These new graduates have plenty of work ahead of them.

The Senate Health Human Services Committee met in Austin this week. On Tuesday, we heard testimony about the state’s Medicaid program. Given that budget writers cut $500 million in payments to Medicaid providers during the last session, I questioned whether these cuts would reduce the number of providers, and therefore affect access to health care that children, the elderly, and those with disabilities rely on for critical services.

Although state agency officials stated that they haven’t seen a negative effect yet, based on what I have heard from El Paso providers, I have serious concerns that many Medicaid providers will be able to continue to see Medicaid clients. This is especially alarming since Texas already has the highest percentage of uninsured in the country with one out of four Texans lacking health coverage.

On Wednesday, the committee heard testimony about the state’s public mental health system. As I pointed out, Texas is 50th in the country when it comes to mental health spending per capita. There was bipartisan agreement amongst the committee members that Texas needs to do better. Statewide, we have nearly 10,000 Texans on waiting lists for mental health services – a 642 percent increase since 2004. In addition, a significant number of those in jail or prison have diagnosed mental illnesses. In El Paso, one out of three in our county jail have documented mental health problems. We need to better fund our state’s mental health system so that those with mental illness can better access care in the community and don’t end up cycling between jails, state hospitals, and the streets.

Appreciation and recognition

We have plenty of challenges that I remain focused on — the HHS hearings exposed some of those, and you can read about other issues below — but we also have to keep sight of our successes. I’d like to recognize two groups who are on the front lines of health and education, nurses and teachers. Both groups were honored this week with the designation of Teachers Appreciation Week and National Nurses Week.

Also this week, Wednesday (May 9) was National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, and the El Paso Mental Health Coalition joined more than 1,000 communities across the country to recognize the event with entertainment, food, and informational booths from mental health agencies.

And I’d like to acknowledge University Medical Center, which has been fully accredited as a Chest Pain Center, and was recognized for its trauma work in a study recently published in the Journal of Trauma Nurses.

Back to the future

It’s important to recognize the heroes and their successes while keeping our eyes on the issues. From women’s health to Medicaid funding, from the changing face of our public schools and how to fund them to higher education tuition issues, our priorities must be health and education.

While thousands of students are graduating from college, new students will face a tougher road. Regents at both the UT and Texas A&M systems voted last week to raise tuition, a response at least in part to state budget cuts. At UT El Paso, this means $76 per undergraduate student (for 15 credit hours) per semester, and $125 per semester for graduate students.

The state must do a better job of funding education, from top to bottom.

Women’s health

Last Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Texas violated federal law by eliminating Planned Parenthood as a provider in Texas’ Women’s Health Program. The state’s decision, if allowed to stand, will cost the state $35 million in federal funding and threatens vital services to tens of thousands of women since Planned Parenthood has provided over 40 percent of the program’s services, which include contraception and breast and cervical cancer screenings.

Setting the agenda

Last week I was in Fabens for another Citizens Legislative Town Hall meeting. We had a great discussion about the needs of this community and how those attending can get more involved in the democratic process. I am dedicated to helping all of my constituents to the best of my ability, and I thank all of those who came.

The next meeting will be May 19 at the Pat O’Rourke Center, 701 Montana. Please join us there. And as always, I invite you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and to stay in touch with events and issues through the website.

Sincerely,

Nothing about my job is more important than the effort to ensure quality education for all.

It has been a constant battle in the state Legislature to fairly fund Texas’ education system, as it will be again in the coming session.

While I believe the state can and should do more to fund education and allow teachers to teach, we also have a responsibility to make the most of what we have. That means managing the state’s potentially counterproductive testing — 45 days a year are spent teaching or taking the tests — and managing our money.

From the state to the local levels, we witness administrators and school districts falling short when it comes to explaining what they’re doing with our students and money.

• TEA officials refused to release data that might point to suspicious test results.

• The Dallas Morning News reported on expensive hotels and steak dinners where Dallas ISD administrators gathered to discuss teacher layoffs.

• The El Paso Independent School District has suffered multiple blows. Its superintendent has been indicted for allegedly awarding contracts to a business associate, two school board members have pled guilty to taking bribes for contracts, and an internal audit revealed the district removed students from Bowie so they wouldn’t bring test scores down.

These are only a few examples of the challenges we have in supporting education while taking a hard look at how it’s run. As I’ve written before, accountability is a two-way street.

Communities across the state, including El Paso, can and will take care of these local issues. But that shouldn’t divert our focus from the legislature’s responsibility. We must find a fair, long-term solution to the school funding crisis.

The Dallas Morning News found that Texas schools have added about 250,000 students while cutting 4,000 teaching jobs in the last three years. Teacher salaries in that time rose 2.6 percent, while superintendent salaries rose 8.3 percent. Meanwhile, the Legislature cut $5.4 billion from education in the last session while pushing for more tests.

So what can we do?

Besides fighting cuts to education in the 82nd Legislature, I passed two bills related to efficiency and transparency in school districts. One gave El Paso County school districts the ability to consolidate law enforcement and security if they find it’s economical and feasible [House Bill 336]. The other bill increases transparency by requiring school trustees to post campaign finance reports online. [House Bill 336]

To help the Senate District 29 office create legislative proposals for the next session I have established the District 29 Advisory Committee on Education to provide El Pasoans a forum to identify specific issues in public education and solutions to these issues. The members are focused on school finance, increasing college graduation rates for El Paso’s students, strategizing to increase parental awareness and involvement, and advocating for more accurate assessment of student performance.

Simply put, while the focus is on fair funding, we all must be engaged on both sides of the equation. We must hold administrators accountable for their spending and treatment of students, and we must make sure the state provides the resources necessary for opportunity.

Most importantly, we must all be accountable to our children, who will build the New Texas with the tools we provide.

Other items of note

Item: Boxing match

The UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa did the right thing in allowing UTEP to host the world championship boxing match between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Andy Lee, but he was wrong in not allowing beer to be sold at the Sun Bowl fight scheduled for June, which I stated in a letter sent earlier this week.

Item: Women’s Health Program

As I predicted, a judge has ruled that Texas violated federal law by eliminating Planned Parenthood as a provider in the Women’s Health Program. The decision cost the state $35 million in federal funding and threatens vital services to tens of thousands of women since Planned Parenthood has provided over 40 percent of the program’s services, which include contraception and breast and cervical cancer screenings.

Unfortunately, another judge reinstated the ban pending a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which means women seeking services right now will be denied health care from their provider of choice, notwithstanding an HHS spokeswoman’s assurance that women having trouble locating a health care provider can contact the agency. I support the lawsuit, because Texas woman don’t need the governor or the head of a state agency telling them where they can go for mamograms, Pap smears or birth control.

Also

• This week, Dr. Al Armendariz resigned from his position as the regional EPA administrator. Dr. Armendariz will be sorely missed as a steward of the environment and an administrator who would not bow to corporate pressure. The native El Pasoan helped this community keep Asarco closed and helped clean up Texas. Here’s some background on his resignation.

• May Day, the International Day of the Worker on the first of the month, is a day to highlight the importance of workers rights. El Paso is a community of hard workers, although our low wages remain a challenge. It’s important to note the contributions of unions to workplace rights that we take for granted, such as the eight-hour work day, and to thank those who took their time Tuesday at San Jacinto Plaza to show their support for workers.

Congratulations …

To the Green Science Team at Socorro ISD’s Chester E. Jordan Elementary School, the city’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) school. The team, made up of 20 students in grades 3 through 5, won a 2012 Texas Environment Excellence Award in the youth category for their work at the school, in the community and in their partnership with Fort Bliss. The students have given presentations on preserving and protecting the environment, participate in clean-up days and take part in family nights with math and science activities.

I invite you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and to stay in touch with events and issues through the website.

Sincerely,

The text of the letter is as follows:

May 1, 2012

Board of Regents
University of Texas System
Ashbel Smith Hall, Suite 820
201 West 7th Street
Austin, Texas 78701

Dear Regents:

On Thursday, April 26, 2012, I requested that the Board of Regents immediately review the events surrounding Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa’s decision to cancel the World Middleweight Championship boxing match at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). In addition, I requested that the issue be placed on the agenda for your May 2-3, 2012 meeting to give me an opportunity to address you and to provide an opportunity for public input.

On Friday, April 27, 2012, after Chancellor Cigarroa reconsidered his position and decided to allow UTEP to host the fight, I spoke with UT System officials and reiterated my request to have this issue added as an agenda item for this week’s Board of Regents meeting.

As this item was not placed on the meeting agenda, I am writing you today to share my observations and concerns regarding the events surrounding the initial decision to cancel the event, the stipulations that have been placed on UTEP if they host the match, the lessons learned from this incident, and how we, collectively, can ensure that an incident such as this does not happen again in the future.

First, it is important to acknowledge that the ramifications of Chancellor Cigarroa’s actions will be felt in El Paso for years to come. Although consistently ranked one of the safest large cities in the nation, as a result of the attention this issue has received, El Paso’s reputation has suffered. In addition, the initial decision to cancel the fight would have cost the city and UTEP millions of dollars in lost revenue.

As I have expressed to Chancellor Cigarroa, this situation could have been avoided had he or UT System officials consulted with El Paso’s elected leaders and local, state and federal law enforcement regarding any security concerns. It is critical that we all work together, especially when making decisions that will affect an entire community.

Now that Chancellor Cigarroa has reversed his decision, UTEP and El Paso can move forward.

Although I appreciate that the Chancellor heeded the advice of the local leaders and law enforcement, I do have serious concerns regarding the ban on the sale of alcohol during the event. The increased law enforcement presence and extensive media attention will likely minimize any concerns related to alcohol consumption at the event. In addition, UTEP routinely limits the amount of alcohol that may be consumed at its events (e.g., maximum of two drinks per person). My concerns are as follows:

· With an alcohol ban at the venue, many attendees will likely consume alcohol before arriving at the Sun Bowl.
· There may be an increased number of “tailgates” in the areas surrounding the university.
· Ticket sales will likely suffer as a result of the ban.
· It is my understanding that the revenue from alcohol sales goes to UTEP and not the promoter. If this is the case, UTEP will lose a substantial revenue source that the university could have used to fill gaps in their budget. Simply put, this ban limits the ability of UTEP to raise revenues at the local level at a time when the state has slashed funding for the university.

The addition of conditions like the ban on alcohol sales or requiring Dr. Natalicio to send a letter to the entire UTEP community “apprising them of the date and time of the event, and provide assurances that law enforcement agencies have addressed any security concerns” resulting from the fight, brings attention to the issue of local control.

Ultimately, the ban on alcohol sales perpetuates the idea that our community is unsafe or that El Pasoans and other attendees cannot be trusted if alcohol is available. It also suggests that our local leaders are not allowed the discretion to make their own determinations when it involves the safety and security of our community, as it is my understanding that the Chancellor or other UT System officials are not typically involved to this degree in these types of decisions.

As you’re likely aware, UTEP has hosted world-class championships in the past, and in fact, two weeks ago, the campus hosted the nationally broadcast WBC Super Bantamweight World Championship fight at the Don Haskins Center. In addition, the annual Sun Bowl football game and major concerts are regularly held at the campus’ stadium.

With regard to these past events, I do not recall any similar conditions being put in place by the Chancellor or UT System officials. I am also not aware of any such conditions being placed on similar events at other UT institutions, including the ESPN Friday Night Fights hosted at the Frank Erwin Center on Friday, April 27, 2012; the revenue generated by sales of alcohol from this fight will undoubtedly benefit UT Austin.

Finally, it is my hope that you, as members of the Board of Regents, take a “lessons learned” approach and review the current procedures for evaluating safety and security of any event at UT institutions. In particular, it is vitally important to put in place a process for consulting with local officials and law enforcement with regard to events like this one. As I mentioned to Chancellor Cigarroa, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has the structure in place to coordinate information between law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal level. This type of coordination amongst law enforcement as well as local leadership has been critical to our success in maintaining El Paso’s status designation as one of the safest large cities in America and can serve as a valuable resource to the UT System.

In conclusion, I ask that the Board and Chancellor reconsider the ban on the sale of alcohol at this event. I look forward to receiving your comments and working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

José Rodríguez