[casinva]

There was only one governor who all by himself made an executive order mandating the shots.

With an opt-out which anybody but the least-involved parents could easily have submitted, maintaing control of their own children's lives and welfare. Hey, I home schooled so I would not give up my parental rights at ALL. I don't think asking parents to care about their kids enough to take their OWN parental control with such an easy way is asking too much of good parents.

Although, come to think of it, there really ARE too many parents who don't even care enough to take charge of their children's best interest, so maybe Rick Perry was actually expecting too much of those parents.

That said, usually conservatives applaud states trying to use conservative - local - private funding ways to implement programs, but in this case, all the other governors using tax payer money to pay for their Gardasil programs (happening NATION-WIDE) at that time seems to be the route of choice for today's conservatives here. Go figure.

Now we ALL are stuck with paying Mereck through tax payer funding.

[Cboldt]

-- With an opt-out which anybody but the least-involved parents could easily have submitted ... --

Not meant to challenge the label "easy", or to assert that the process is "hard," but it's good to know what the process is.

• Apply for state-issue affidavit, "in writing." Perry's EO added that this application could be made over the internet. Before that, the written request could be delivered by mail, fax, or in person.
• Wait for the state to prepare and mail the affidavit (which has an official seal, anti-counterfeiting measures, etc) and sign the affidavit in the presence of a notary public.
• Present the affidavit to the school within 90 days of being notarized
• Repeat the above steps each two years

[Lakeshark]

I'm sorry, the opt-out clause is a huge red heron (herring, pardon the joke). It was a mandate by executive order, and a very bad one. He was the only governor to do this, defending it is seriously problematic, defending it only works well for PerryKrishnas.