Higher Education Coalition attack on [Texas Gov. Rick] Perry raises eyebrows

Lone Star Report ^ | July 8, 2011 | William Lutz

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Coalition for Higher Excellence in Higher Education – a group that supports higher education reform ideas offered by the state’s university presidents and chancellors and has expressed concerns with some higher education reform ideas offered from outside academia – fired a rhetorical howitzer at Gov. Rick Perry yesterday. Political observers in Texas are left wondering why the organization chose to attack Perry by name and how this will play out.

The coalition’s main communications consultants used to work for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and former president George W. Bush, two elected officials whose political interests have not always aligned perfectly with those of Perry. A member of the coalition’s operating committee, former ambassador and Higher Education Coordinating Board Chair Pamela Willeford, said she has supported Perry, and the organization is bipartisan and is about higher education, not partisan politics. She also said that decisions about what statements to issue are made by the organization’s operating committee, not its consultants.

Wednesday, the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts Dean Randy Diehl issued a report blasting “7 Breakthrough Solutions for Higher Education” proposed by Texas philanthropist Jeff Sandefer and supported by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The coalition issued a statement supporting the report and calling on elected officials to distance themselves from the 7 Solutions.

Perry’s communications director Mark Miner issued a statement expressing disappointment that University of Texas administrators are so resistant to the governor’s cost control and reform ideas. "University faculty and their allies should join the reform efforts and recommend ways to innovate, improve graduation rates, and enhance accountability and efficiency at Texas colleges and universities,” Miner said. “We all have an obligation to meet the needs of Texas students, employers, taxpayers and our fast-growing economy. Resisting reform and accountability is an unsustainable recipe for mediocrity and stagnation. Texas deserves better."

Some Austin observers thought that finished that story.

But then on Thursday, the Coalition sent out a response to Miner’s statement that has grass-roots conservatives scratching their heads. The statement both attacks Perry by name and also attacks the Texas K-12 education system.

[snip]

Many grass-roots conservatives, meanwhile, are praising Perry for taking on the higher education bureaucracy. “Those of us who are attending our state's universities or who have recently graduated know that our current system of higher education is morally bankrupt,” said Tony McDonald, senior vice president of the Young Conservatives of Texas. “The system puts undergraduate education on a back-burner in favor of the mass publication of largely useless scholarly articles. The system consumes large sums of tax revenue, while saddling graduates with massive student-loan debt. It is refreshing to see Governor Perry take the bold step of calling out our universities and demanding that they implement reform and accountability measures which will serve to protect both students and taxpayers.” Here’s one thing we do know: the Coalition, and its supporters some of whom are prominent members of the Texas business community, has upped the ante by singling out Perry by name and responding to his chief spokesman in that manner.

When asked about this issue by LSR, the governor’s office replied that the purpose of the statement was merely to underscore the governor’s priorities for Texas public colleges and universities. “[The governor’s plan] for higher education is to improve accountability, affordability, transparency, and accessibility,” said Catherine Frazier with the Governor’s Press Office. “Where we are right now is not cutting it … The governor is simply calling on university leaders to adopt these goals and work towards finding the best way to accomplish them for their respective universities. And he will continue holding those universities accountable to pursuing those goals until progress is made.”

[AppyPappy]

RINO?

Big talk for a man who says he will vote for Obama.

[AppyPappy]

In case you forgot what you said

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2745719/posts?page=14#14

[Clara Lou]

Do you know who James Earl Rudder is? I mean before he came to Texas A&M? Do you know Texas A&M’s condition when Rudder arrived? [This is not a challenge. This is about the “big picture.”]

[Diogenesis]

Dear FRiend AppyPappy,
I said,

"We will vote for Obama before the RINO Romney (*)....
At least Obama is more honest.
.... (*) and write in Gov. Palin's name first."

please, stop taking it out of context as you have done
by incorrectly removing what was written.
AppyPappy: "Big talk for a man who says he will vote for Obama."
because YOU KNOW that is not what the post said.

dio

[Clara Lou]

PerryBOT
I despise name callers with their own agenda.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I’ve answered your lies and your character assassinations. You think it’s productive to disrupt my threads. You don’t want others to follow what I’ve found.

It’s typical Leftists’ tactics.

You fear others might learn something, so you feel by clogging up threads with your posts, FReepers won’t want to stick around.

You come on my threads (where I provide information and LINKS) meant to educate fellow FReepers about a GOP conservative (as I have also done for Sarah Palin) and spam them with multiple Gardasil HPV vaccine links, titled to make a shock statement, thinking FReepers read headlines and not the content.

My conclusion: You’re a bully and you hold contempt for others, and see FReepers as too stupid to read what I’ve put out there — lazy and merely content to buy what you’re selling.

What are you selling Diogensis?

Obama 2012?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I'm not a mind reader but it strikes me that Gov. Rick Perry truly believed the HPV vaccine would have helped a lot of Texans who otherwise would not have gotten this protection against cervical cancer (it was to help with 3 strains of the human papilloma virus HPV).

Rick Perry's wife Anita Perry was a nurse for many years and still is involved in health care as First Lady of Texas, so I imagine health care is something this governor is more aware of than maybe your "average" governor and understood this to be a vaccine that would combat cervical cancer and cut heath care costs.

Then too Rick Perry grew up hard scrabble with little luxury as many have, yet vaccines traditionally have been made available to all.

Instead of applying the worst motives to Rick Perry, perhaps his critics could consider that his motives were good ones.

Another FReeper had some thoughts on this issue.

However, there are some here on FR who prefer to apply the worst motives to Rick Perry.

The most "vocal" either won't name a candidate they would support; say they would vote for Huntsman or Romney over Perry; say they would rather Obama stay in the White House than vote for Rick Perry.

The HPV vaccine was always Opt-Out. And according to this report had been changed to Opt-In, before being dropped entirely.

90 days after his EO, Gov. Rick Perry let stand legislation undoing the EO.

"..Ann Hettinger, Concerned Women for America's state director of Texas, was instrumental in convincing Perry to change his proposal to an opt-in provision. When asked if Perry's original plans for the HPV vaccine would be an issue if he were to run for president, [Penny] Nance [CEO of Concerned Women for America] replied, “It would've been an issue IF HE HAD NOT FIXED IT.”

[Cincinatus' Wife]

“Do you know who James Earl Rudder is?.....”

Yes.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7515817.html

He’s lauded here in the Houston Chronicle article linked above — “The Perry Pal Presses.....”

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Our professors concentrate on bringing money into the university via writing or grants. Graduate Teaching Assistants do the teaching.

Exactly!

The universities use them as "rainmakers" to bring in the students and their $$$$$!

[AppyPappy]

That’s exactly what it said. You said you would vote for Obama rather than the Republican if it was Romney. A vote for Obama is a vote for Obama.

And you bash Perry????!!!

[Diogenesis]

To your post #26:

I asked a respectful question (post #2) and got no answer
after you revealed yourself as snarky (post #4) without
answering.

Upon review, you were found to be claiming something
for your candidate Gov. Perry which had nothing to do
with him based upon what was at THAT url (post #10).

So you attacked me.

You say you have fear that others might learn the truth about RINO Perry, although you might mean
that you have fear that others might learn that you
are plagiarizing for him
(like you did on that other thread).

Why are you bringing up Gardasil?

[Diogenesis]

To your post #27:

Why are you bringing up Gardasil?

The REAL point of what is behind these posts is original intent--not what
ultimately happened. RINO Perry's seeming intent was to
(1) reward his political allies inc. Chief of Staff and his Merck employer and
(2) to essentially shove an untested drug into the bodies of
his constituents’ pre-pubescent girls. Girls. So where was his
due diligence? Where was the informed consent?
Is there an iota of evidence that he did really care? Most importantly,
what would he do on a national level, if given the power.
Many on this forum are still waiting to hear Gov. Perry
begin to finally address this issue.

[Diogenesis]

"You bear false witness. That is not what it said.
"It said I would 'write in Gov. Palin, before that'."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.... please, stop taking it out of context as you have done by incorrectly removing what was written....

Take a dose of that yourself Diogenesis.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....Many on this forum are still waiting to hear Gov. Perry begin to finally address this issue.

Contact information

Go for it!

[Diogenesis]

RINOs, like Perry, like their BOTs,
never actually, clearly answer
as post #35, and post #2, prove, again.

Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.

[KevinDavis]

That is a fair question.. Who are you supporting???

[Tax-chick]

I’m very interested in Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, and Rick Perry. I’m somewhat interested in Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum.

But by the time my primary is held (NC) there may be no Republican on the ballot, at all!

[9YearLurker]

I’m looking at Perry now as the biggest obstacle to taking back the White House in 2012, because I’m afraid he could win the primaries, thereby stopping Palin—and then he’d certainly lose to Obama. (The rest of the country is nowhere near ready to vote in a meaner-talking W.)

But I’ve got to defend C’s Wife here. She’s merely giving the info on the reform program that Perry is supporting and this group just attacked him for supporting. Nothing indirect or dishonest in her presentation.

[Mr. Lucky]

I think he pretty much nailed you on this one.