Rebecca Bell-Metereau
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Bell-Metereau, Jennings beneficiaries of ongoing grassroots fundraising wildfire, fueled by discontent of current SBOE
(Austin) Fueled in large part by months-long messy attempts by the current State Board of Education to ignore the advice of teachers and experts, instead opting for ideology- and partisan-based attacks on quality public education, in the last 48 hours the Democrats running for two SBOE seats have gotten a big financial boost from those upset with the current Board.
The infusion of campaign funding this week helps continue the already-existing trend of the two Democrats’ fundraising advantage over their Republican opponents.
In fact, small-dollar contributions raised online for the two Democrats over the past 48 hours alone have exceeded the total cash contributions raised by either of their Republican challengers for the entire time since the March 5th Primary election.
After several prominent blogs and online news outlets featured a new campaign video for Democratic candidates Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau this week, contrasting them with the current radical Republican SBOE, contributions started pouring in. As of Thursday afternoon, over $21,000 in online contributions had been received in the last few days. The current total from ActBlue alone can be seen here.
“I’m not surprised that people are upset about what the current SBOE is doing to our neighborhood schools,” said Rebecca Bell-Metereau, the Democratic nominee for SBOE district 5. Bell-Metereau’s opponent, Ken Mercer, is one of the current Board members who is part of the ultra-conservative voting bloc which has become the laughingstock of the nation.
“People understand that the State Board of Education should be wholly focused on educating our schoolchildren, not on ideological warfare and efforts to politicize public schools,” said Judy Jennings, the Democrat running for SBOE district 10. “These contributors are sending a clear signal with their checkbooks that they want a return to sanity on this Board, not a continuation of ideology-driven behavior worthy of The Daily Show,” Jennings said.
Meanwhile, Jennings’ and Bell-Metereau’s Republican opponents have already ducked one televised debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, and appear to be skipping a second debate sponsored by LULAC. The Democrats haven’t turned down a single debate invitation, despite the Republicans’ coordinated attempts to avoid facing their opponents and voters in debates sponsored by non-partisan sponsors.
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Here’s a sampling of the online outlets joining in the last 48 hours on the nation-wide anger at the current SBOE:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/22/904278/-I-Aspire-to-Obscurity
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/22/904102/-What-Learned-Me-Over-My-Texas-Summer-Vacation
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/21/18514/4437
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/22/891686/-A-question-of-democracy
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/22/903841/-Winning-the-culture-war
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/true-tale-from-texase-by-tristero-via.html
http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=31435
http://www.meanrachel.com/2010/09/what-learned-me-over-my-texas-summer.html
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/09/23/texas-school-madness-and-a-potential-cure/
http://www.examiner.com/science-policy-in-austin/hilarious-video-a-true-tale-from-texas
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/09/my_sister_the_state_board_of_e.php
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04.25.10 | Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Rebecca's BlogI Have A Nightmare
After this past week of teaching and campaigning for Texas State Board of Education, I had a nightmare about a woman saying no Democrats could win in Texas. In my nightmare, I screamed that we were working as hard as we could and how could she just sit on the sidelines and be so negative. My dream’s message is clear: We need help! The next board will pick the textbooks, and it’s essential that we elect an educated, reasonable majority to implement the will of the people of Texas to give students a 21st century education. It’s going to take money to make that happen, so we’re asking for your support at voterebecca.com. Here’s why . . .
The current board is a disaster that has captured the attention of thinking citizens everywhere, but the media and the public are focusing on the problem and not the solution. People in Texas are witnessing the value and reputation of their diplomas plummet with every stupid move of the current Board. Contrary to the stereotype, most Texans are reasonable people who want a good education for their children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and all the future generations who will support us in our old age. It makes economic and moral sense to have a strong educational system with 21st-century texts and a school board that focuses on the real problems in Texas: a high dropout rate, high-stakes testing, and loss of good teachers. We can rescue education in Texas by securing teachers’ freedom to teach and students’ freedom to learn. This will take financial support from everyone who sees how crucial this election is.
But why should those outside of Texas really care? Extremists would like to make Texas the template for taking over local and state school boards and imposing their own political and religious agendas on the rest of the nation. If we’re not vigilant and proactive, what has happened in Texas will spread all over the country, and the censored, dumbed-down, inaccurate textbooks from Texas can finish the job. The new board can change all of that by working with publishers to produce good books in this next round of textbook development and purchasing.
We can make a concerted effort to shape the future for the better, but we have to get people to donate. If everyone who reads this gets ten friends to donate just a small amount, $5 or $10, we can buy stickers, television spots, signs, and push cards to spread the word that there is a solution to this problem everyone has heard about. Even a few dollars from a lot of people can make a huge difference. Public education is fundamental to a sound democracy, and this money is an investment in our future. Ignorance and apathy on our part have delivered us to this place, but energy, generosity, and informed action will rescue education in Texas.
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02.28.10 | Follow the Money, Public Schools, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Rebecca's Blog, State Board of EducationHas Texas Seceded From the Union?
Rick Perry famously claimed his personal willingness to secede from the union, but sometimes I wonder if Texas hasn’t already seceded. Look at what has happened to the two-party system. Texas, with two Republican senators, is marginalized in national politics, and roughly half of the state has no voice for our views at the national level. With Perry as governor for so many years, a single person has now dictated most of the major appointees in the state.
Within the Republican Party, people no longer strive for compromise in a range of opinions. Rather, in a phenomenon called social norming, they vie for the position of most conservative. Each candidate tries to prove that he or she is even more right wing than the other, and the result is a party that swings further and further toward crazy. Fed by radio talk shows and Fox News, followers live in an odd echo chamber, in which pundits parrot identical phrases for each news story. These party lines make wonderful fodder for the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, but what are they doing to our ability to function as a civil society? What are they doing to promote an educated citizenry with a thriving economy?
