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Omi-Polari posted:There a shitload of these districts. So really any from Upshur County can get on the committee and insert a plank supporting mandatory GMO labeling and the nutritional benefits of raw milk. " I thought the raw milk thing was a joke of yours, but nope, I kept reading and there it is. Along with are freedom to buy incandescent light bulbs because FREEDOM Oh my God, and a gold standard, repeal of Dodd-Frank, repeal of pinko-communie freedom-hater George W. Bush's Sarbanes-Oxley Act, eliminating citizenship-by-birth , making US war crimes immune to courts martial, bringing back Reagan's Star Wars, Benghazibenghazibenghazi, unilaterally recognizing Taiwanese sovereignty (despite the wishes of the Taiwanese, obviously)... Goddamn, what a ride. It started out with me going "Hey yeah, we should roll back the Patriot Act" and "Yes, I agree the Texas Lottery puts the tax burden on the poor" and then it slowly devolves into unfiltered crazy until I'm left wondering how I got to infowars and can I ever get back. And then it ends on a bizarrely bittersweet note quote:Congressional Apology- The Republican Party of Texas endorses and supports the Proposed Congressional Apology to the Chinese Americans for governmental actions that denied equal rights to and adversely harmed the Chinese in America.
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# ? Jun 20, 2014 01:58 |
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# ? May 8, 2024 07:20 |
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VitalSigns posted:And then it ends on a bizarrely bittersweet note http://www.taragop.com/
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# ? Jun 20, 2014 02:17 |
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Elotana posted:Resentment of the top 10% qualifiers from majority-minority schools because dadgummit my 40th percentile son could run rings around Those People, where's his scholarship! (Not that any of them actually volunteer to live in those neighborhoods and attend those schools to test this theory, mind you.) Working for UT admissions, I heard this all the goddamn time from people who either sent their kids to private schools that didn't rank (St. Mary's Hall in San Antonio, St. Andrew's in Austin, etc) or kids who went to Memorial High School in Houston. They all had resumes with lots of mission trips and studying abroad and all that poo poo. I hated having to admit them when normal kids who just did band and some AP classes at their public school might have to miss out. Don't send this post to Wallace Hall, TIA.
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# ? Jun 20, 2014 08:00 |
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fade5 posted:Oh hey, I wrote that up, glad I could help out. For those to lazy to click the link, (and because this fact needs to be shouted from the rooftops repeatedly): You are vastly overstating the power of the LBB and vastly oversimplifying the state budget process. If there are two people who are most responsible for the state budget, it's the chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees, but that is also a gross oversimplification. The 10 members of the LBB absolutely do not draw up the state budget. zoux fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Jun 20, 2014 |
# ? Jun 20, 2014 14:08 |
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I grew up in Collin County, which is die-hard GOP. The county is so fiscally conservative that towns like Allen and McKinney won't join DART even though they've started their own sucky bus services to get to DART light rail stations in Plano! They also won't spend money to build new water reservoirs despite the explosive suburban growth. But despite all this fiscal conservationism, towns like Allen manage to spend 60 million dollars to build fancy football stadiums, which has had to be closed recently because of crappy engineering errors in the construction.
James The 1st fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Jun 21, 2014 |
# ? Jun 21, 2014 15:54 |
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James The 1st posted:I grew up in Collin County, which is die-hard GOP. The county is so fiscally conservative that towns like Allen and McKinney won't join DART even though they've started their own sucky bus services to get to DART light rail stations in Plano! They also won't spend money to build new water reservoirs despite the explosive suburban growth. But despite all this fiscal conservationism, towns like Allen manage to spend 60 million dollars to build fancy football stadiums. A 60 million dollar stadium that is currently unusable because of giant cracks in the concrete that are rendering the stadium unsafe. The district say it'll be fixed by graduation but I'm skeptical.
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# ? Jun 21, 2014 15:59 |
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Xarthor posted:A 60 million dollar stadium that is currently unusable because of giant cracks in the concrete that are rendering the stadium unsafe. The district say it'll be fixed by graduation but I'm skeptical. The whole point of living in these cities for these people is to prove they can do things better than the overly-regulated liberal states. Then when they build an expensive stadium with taxpayer money using an inexperienced contractor with zero oversight and the thing goes haywire, it sort of messes with your worldview.
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# ? Jun 21, 2014 16:18 |
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VitalSigns posted:I thought the raw milk thing was a joke of yours, but nope, I kept reading and there it is. Along with are freedom to buy incandescent light bulbs because FREEDOM Makes me wonder when they went full-derp like this. Say what you will, but Texas Republicans, despite some of their actions, were politically aware enough to not poo poo the bed. This platform though, shits the bed and smears it on the walls and furniture.
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# ? Jun 22, 2014 15:35 |
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Dante Logos posted:Makes me wonder when they went full-derp like this. Say what you will, but Texas Republicans, despite some of their actions, were politically aware enough to not poo poo the bed. This platform though, shits the bed and smears it on the walls and furniture. I could be overestimating the intelligence of the average Republican, though.
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# ? Jun 22, 2014 18:19 |
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Omi-Polari posted:I could be overestimating the intelligence of the average Republican, though. I work in a federal job with many intelligent people who become absolutely stupid when it comes to politics. During the government shutdown some people jumped through mental hoops trying to blame Obama 100%, making Ted Cruz into a hero and saying the shutdown was a good thing...all while they weren't getting paid because of Republicans (and specifically Ted Cruz)! At best, a lot of them said both parties were equally to blame.
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# ? Jun 22, 2014 19:05 |
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Omi-Polari posted:As I was saying earlier, I don't think the truly cray-cray stuff reflects the majority view even among the Republicans and certainly not the leadership. It's really the product of a quirk in the way they create the thing, in that it allows a fringe minority to get their pet causes on it, otherwise they sabotage the sausage machine that is the Texas GOP platform process. Does anyone even read the thing anyway? That's probably why they don't bother fixing the process. Get all the Jesus and racism in there so the candidates have a list of talking points to rile up the base, and then just figure no one will bother getting all the way down to the freedom to drink milk right from the cow tit while thrashing my son and punching the missus.
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# ? Jun 22, 2014 22:09 |
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VitalSigns posted:Does anyone even read the thing anyway? That's probably why they don't bother fixing the process. Get all the Jesus and racism in there so the candidates have a list of talking points to rile up the base, and then just figure no one will bother getting all the way down to the freedom to drink milk right from the cow tit while thrashing my son and punching the missus.
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# ? Jun 26, 2014 04:13 |
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Speaking of platforms, the Texas Democratic State Convention is this Thurs/Fri/Sat here in Dallas.
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# ? Jun 26, 2014 16:06 |
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I just got back from doing some phone banking, and I think the youngest person that came across my screen was like 47. The majority were probably in their 60s and 70s, and there were probably as many in their 80s and 90s as there were below 55. Maybe it's just the community I live in, college town, all the young people are registered elsewhere or whatever, I dunno, but it feels like a bit of a problem. I did talk to a really sweet 94 year old woman who said she couldn't do much any more but that nothing was going to stop her from voting for Davis come November. That was nice.
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# ? Jun 27, 2014 03:26 |
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ReidRansom posted:I just got back from doing some phone banking, and I think the youngest person that came across my screen was like 47. The majority were probably in their 60s and 70s, and there were probably as many in their 80s and 90s as there were below 55. Maybe it's just the community I live in, college town, all the young people are registered elsewhere or whatever, I dunno, but it feels like a bit of a problem. I honestly doubt most of the students would be registered at all. I actually wanted to make a voting registration organization on campus because it makes people more engaged and you don't really have to do that much.
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# ? Jun 27, 2014 03:33 |
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A big problem with getting students registered to vote is that many may not meet residency requirements; back in uni days I tried this and we ran into this a LOT unfortunately. That may have been an aspect of the college we were at and where we were in Texas, though, so YMMV.
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# ? Jun 27, 2014 04:12 |
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Not just college age though. If it was just 18-25 or so that was lacking I could understand. But in the hour and a half I was there I didn't come across a single name under age 47. No late 20s, no 30s, no early 40s. None. YMMV, could have been weird luck or some poo poo, but still, it has me scratching my head.
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# ? Jun 27, 2014 04:27 |
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Widestancer posted:A big problem with getting students registered to vote is that many may not meet residency requirements; back in uni days I tried this and we ran into this a LOT unfortunately. That may have been an aspect of the college we were at and where we were in Texas, though, so YMMV. I could vote on campus at UT in 2008 despite my apartment being far away, they gave me the ballot for my district. I've heard they aren't doing that anymore though.
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# ? Jun 27, 2014 09:38 |
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ReidRansom posted:Not just college age though. If it was just 18-25 or so that was lacking I could understand. But in the hour and a half I was there I didn't come across a single name under age 47. No late 20s, no 30s, no early 40s. None. YMMV, could have been weird luck or some poo poo, but still, it has me scratching my head. Without getting too inside baseball, it depends on which call list your organizer was using. There are lists for known Wendy supporters (people who have signed up on the Wendy website, BGTX website, etc) and that list tends to skew a bit younger and then there's a general "democratic supporter" list that can be used that is culled data going back to Obama 2008 and even before. That list tends to skew a little older. As we've discussed in this thread before, Texas is a very low voting state and sadly young people are some of the worst about voting. Older people (especially older people of color) may have been around and seen their friends or family (or themselves) have to fight for the right to vote. Young people just see it as this annoying thing that doesn't matter.
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# ? Jun 27, 2014 17:34 |
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BGTX has called me at least a dozen times but somehow never, ever, ever have they caught me at a good time. I have received calls at work, while driving, at bars, at restaurants, at the grocery store, hanging out with friends, but not once have I been called at home. It's the weirdest thing, I might be cursed.
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# ? Jun 27, 2014 19:32 |
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http://www.texastribune.org/livestream/ Texas tribune is livestreaming the Democratic convention today.
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# ? Jun 28, 2014 15:39 |
Dallas ISD is a total mess. "Reformers" are trying to convert the district to Home Rule. This would basically turn the district into a giant charter school, free to privatize schools and ignore at least portions of state education laws (e.g. They would be able to implement the common-core which the state legislature actually banned). Teachers are leaving in huge waves due to poor management and "reformer" tactics. I'll try to do a write up when I get the chance. How is education fairing in Houston and San Antonio ISD? Edit: San Antonio is the best Texas city. Lubbock and El Paso are distant worlds on the outer rim. Crew Expendable fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Jul 7, 2014 |
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# ? Jul 7, 2014 21:01 |
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It's terrible everywhere. Also, I'd rate a better than even chance of serious voucher legislation getting passed in 2015.
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# ? Jul 7, 2014 21:03 |
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So noted Big Aggie Jerk Rick Perry seems to have finally gotten his way on the UT Austin President's job and Powers will step down in June 2015. If you haven't been following this, Perry has always hated Powers, but a few years back when Perry tried to force some so-called "Seven Breakthrough Solutions" crafted by an old buddy of his (if you're curious they're just bog-standard conservative reform principles intended to businessify public education like ranking teachers on "cost-effectiveness" (salary and grant awards divided by students taught) and using MOOCs for everything) Powers has been standing up to him and put himself on Perry's poo poo list. The UT Board of Regents, who has firing authority, is 100% Perry appointees and as I expect most of you know have been digging like crazy to find something offensive to their sensibilities in admissions decisions that they could use an excuse to fire him. Apparently about a week ago something changed, and the Chancellor told Powers to submit his resignation or he'd be canned. June 2015 is after Perry leaves office, but it still means his appointees and Abbott will get the chance to gently caress up the school. Also hilarious is that Hutchison (whose new job is apparently head of the UT alumni association) spoke up a few days ago saying Powers needed to stay. Still some bad blood there. Here are some more links: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/UT-s-Powers-to-stay-on-until-2015-5609518.php http://chronicle.com/article/Texas-Makes-an-Appalling-Mess/147561/ Crew Expendable posted:Edit: San Antonio is the best Texas city. Lubbock and El Paso are distant worlds on the outer rim. As a UT alum I'm required to say that Austin is in fact the best Texas city, but SA is leagues ahead of everywhere else. Go Spurs. Shear Modulus fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Jul 9, 2014 |
# ? Jul 9, 2014 23:04 |
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Need some love for Annise Parker in this thread. She is gearing up for a November fight on the ballot to preserve the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which should draw out a lot of progressive votes in the Houston area (but obviously not nearly enough to overcome Davis' severe deficit). I don't get the Castro brothers, but mostly because I think Parker is a much more effective politician. Democrats best chance this fall is Lecticia Van De Putte, mostly because there is a large swath of the Republican electorate that can't stand a firebrand talk radio host, and prefer someone rational. Additionally, some of Patrick's talk radio competitors have been attacking him which might dampen the wing nut frenzy.
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# ? Jul 9, 2014 23:19 |
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I love Parker, I don't 100% agree with her but I love her just because of the brass balls it takes being an openly gay mostly left wing woman in Texas politics who tells people to shove it.
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# ? Jul 9, 2014 23:27 |
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Shear Modulus posted:So noted Big Aggie Jerk Rick Perry seems to have finally gotten his way on the UT Austin President's job and Powers will step down in June 2015. If you haven't been following this, Perry has always hated Powers, but a few years back when Perry tried to force some so-called "Seven Breakthrough Solutions" crafted by an old buddy of his (if you're curious they're just bog-standard conservative reform principles intended to businessify public education like ranking teachers on "cost-effectiveness" (salary and grant awards divided by students taught) and using MOOCs for everything) Powers has been standing up to him and put himself on Perry's poo poo list. The UT Board of Regents, who has firing authority, is 100% Perry appointees and as I expect most of you know have been digging like crazy to find something offensive to their sensibilities in admissions decisions that they could use an excuse to fire him. Apparently about a week ago something changed, and the Chancellor told Powers to submit his resignation or he'd be canned. I can't imagine that Powers leaving is going to be a good thing for higher education in the state of Texas. I agree that the preferential treatment of underperforming students is a bad thing, but that assumes this decision will remedy that problem which I doubt. What it will do is dump a bunch of idiotic regulations that were blocked by Powers before and crap up the school. I do want to be wrong, mind you, but that is how I interpret this whole affair is going to go.
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# ? Jul 9, 2014 23:36 |
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Shear Modulus posted:As a UT alum I'm required to say that Austin is in fact the best Texas city, but SA is leagues ahead of everywhere else. Go Spurs. As a born and raised Austinite I'm required to say that Austin is a truly miserable place to live if you have any plant allergies at all. Wonderful otherwise though if you can afford the rent. Lubbock would be miserable if the town didn't have cheap, reliable internet, which lets me live in the rear end-end of nowhere where there are no plants I'm allergic too (loving live oak) without going stir-crazy. Also, loving hell, any day Perry gets his way on something more important than deciding what to have for breakfast is a bad day for Texas.
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# ? Jul 9, 2014 23:51 |
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Shear Modulus posted:ranking teachers on "cost-effectiveness" (salary and grant awards divided by students taught) ...Surely you mean "multiplied". Like, as an economist the other way is terrifying.
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 00:44 |
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Dante Logos posted:I can't imagine that Powers leaving is going to be a good thing for higher education in the state of Texas. I agree that the preferential treatment of underperforming students is a bad thing, but that assumes this decision will remedy that problem which I doubt. What it will do is dump a bunch of idiotic regulations that were blocked by Powers before and crap up the school. I do want to be wrong, mind you, but that is how I interpret this whole affair is going to go. I'm not sure what you mean by "preferential treatment of underperforming students," and I think I'd disagree with you if I'm guessing your meaning correctly, but Powers leaving and a presumed successor being less competent at stopping ideological meddling in university administration is unequivocally terrible thing for Texas higher education. It's a sad state of affairs that the most important job of public university administration is raising money to cover state budgeting shortfalls and stopping political officials from undermining the academy for personal or political gain, but Powers is amazing at both of these jobs. GreyjoyBastard posted:...Surely you mean "multiplied". Nope, the most effective professors are the ones who teach the most students and cost the least amount of money. I might have misunderstood exactly how grant money a professor reels in is counted, but that's the gist of it.
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 00:52 |
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Shear Modulus posted:I'm not sure what you mean by "preferential treatment of underperforming students," and I think I'd disagree with you if I'm guessing your meaning correctly, but Powers leaving and a presumed successor being less competent at stopping ideological meddling in university administration is unequivocally terrible thing for Texas higher education. It's a sad state of affairs that the most important job of public university administration is raising money to cover state budgeting shortfalls and stopping political officials from undermining the academy for personal or political gain, but Powers is amazing at both of these jobs. I've heard about it either yesterday or the day before but here is what I am talking about The general gist is that students at the UT Law school who generally had low LSAT scores or were generally underqualified were given seats if they had the right connections. Or the story goes. I think the investigation for that is still underway. Now that I think about it, this reeks of muckraking to help oust Powers.
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 01:00 |
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It's very very lonely being a liberal in Lubbock Man, I can't wait to leave what with the incoming Abbot-Patrick apocalypse.
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 01:14 |
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Shear Modulus posted:Nope, the most effective professors are the ones who teach the most students and cost the least amount of money. I might have misunderstood exactly how grant money a professor reels in is counted, but that's the gist of it. So is this rating something like golf, where lower scores are better? Because if the formula is salary / students, then a highly paid teacher who teaches almost no one gets a high number and someone making almost nothing teaching a huge number of students gets a low one. thefncrow fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jul 10, 2014 |
# ? Jul 10, 2014 01:57 |
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thefncrow posted:So is this rating something like golf, where lower scores are better? That's the idea, yes. It's cost/unit (because they literally treat education like a factory setting). I haven't actually heard about the phrase "Seven Solutions" before (although I had heard about some of them in passing like tying teacher compensation to student reviews), but the "school as factory" idea is very prevalent at A&M, to the chagrin of students and faculty alike (just google 25x25 and remember that this idea literally did not exist 1 year ago). computer parts fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jul 10, 2014 |
# ? Jul 10, 2014 01:59 |
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Dante Logos posted:I've heard about it either yesterday or the day before but here is what I am talking about The general gist is that students at the UT Law school who generally had low LSAT scores or were generally underqualified were given seats if they had the right connections. Or the story goes. I think the investigation for that is still underway. Now that I think about it, this reeks of muckraking to help oust Powers. It is entirely muckraking to get Sandafer friendly people into the administration. Every major law school in the country allows well connected and wealthy people in despite their lackluster credentials. It's a known practice, and just the cost of doing business. Even further, many of the accusations against Powers are not even for getting unqualified students entry to the law school, it's merely for writing letters of recommendation to unqualified students, which is even more absurd.
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 02:18 |
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Shear Modulus posted:So noted Big Aggie Jerk Rick Perry seems to have finally gotten his way on the UT Austin President's job and Powers will step down in June 2015. If you haven't been following this, Perry has always hated Powers, but a few years back when Perry tried to force some so-called "Seven Breakthrough Solutions" crafted by an old buddy of his (if you're curious they're just bog-standard conservative reform principles intended to businessify public education like ranking teachers on "cost-effectiveness" (salary and grant awards divided by students taught) and using MOOCs for everything) Powers has been standing up to him and put himself on Perry's poo poo list. The UT Board of Regents, who has firing authority, is 100% Perry appointees and as I expect most of you know have been digging like crazy to find something offensive to their sensibilities in admissions decisions that they could use an excuse to fire him. Apparently about a week ago something changed, and the Chancellor told Powers to submit his resignation or he'd be canned. Also I feel like I should add that Powers leaving in 2015 is seen as a win for the university, since the Regents were planning on firing him tomorrow, but the alumni org and pretty much everyone who isn't a Regent threw a poo poo fit when we heard about it.
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 03:48 |
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Badger of Basra posted:Working for UT admissions, I heard this all the goddamn time from people who either sent their kids to private schools that didn't rank (St. Mary's Hall in San Antonio, St. Andrew's in Austin, etc) or kids who went to Memorial High School in Houston. They all had resumes with lots of mission trips and studying abroad and all that poo poo. I hated having to admit them when normal kids who just did band and some AP classes at their public school might have to miss out. I tutored his kid when he was around 8. What's the whole deal with him and the UT admissions?
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 03:52 |
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Lote posted:I tutored his kid when he was around 8. What's the whole deal with him and the UT admissions? He's been putting in huge records requests to try and find anything wrong that he can pin on Powers and use to get him fired.
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 04:20 |
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Badger of Basra posted:Also I feel like I should add that Powers leaving in 2015 is seen as a win for the university, since the Regents were planning on firing him tomorrow, but the alumni org and pretty much everyone who isn't a Regent threw a poo poo fit when we heard about it. Do you know why they suddenly moved to fire him last week? It seemed like the "resign or be fired" ultimatum came out of nowhere. Did Hall finally find something bad that happened at one point in the last decade?
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 04:45 |
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# ? May 8, 2024 07:20 |
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Shear Modulus posted:Do you know why they suddenly moved to fire him last week? It seemed like the "resign or be fired" ultimatum came out of nowhere. Did Hall finally find something bad that happened at one point in the last decade? It seems to be the law school admissions thing that Dante Logos described above.
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# ? Jul 10, 2014 05:23 |