Paying The Price

Ex-FBI official says GOP is telling agents: "If you investigate our party, you are going to pay the price' https://t.co/2Y64L4Uo3M

— Raw Story (@RawStory) July 12, 2023

Look, I understand that many Americans will see this as nothing more than political theater," Figliuzzi said on MSNBC. "Yes, there's an element of that. What I'm seeing is actually far worse than mere political theater. I see a strategy here. A strategy to enact death by a thousand cuts to some of our key institutions. It's not just the FBI. It's not just the DOJ. It's a larger strategy to cause Americans to distrust the institutions that actually represent the values of democracy." 

He explained that what FBI rank-and-file agents will see from the hearing is doing their jobs will still face consequences if they investigate Republicans. 

"If you investigate our party, you are going to pay the price. We will suggest de-funding you, breaking you up, impeaching your director," he continued. "There's something more nefarious than just political theater. The FBI is really about protecting communities. Over 200,000 violent predators and hundreds of sex trafficking victims recovered. That's what is under attack. It defies logic." 

Turning the FBI into a political agency is part of the GOP strategy, he explained. He mentioned Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) who walked through a slate of questions about Donald Trump's own appointees and Republican leaders who have worked to bring down many of the people that the House Republicans take issue with. 

"All the people that have been investigated, arrested, and convicted around Trump have had that happen to them under an FBI director that was appointed by Trump," he explained. "Under attorneys general that were appointed by Trump. It defies logic. People seem to be buying into this myth. It undermines the mission of the men and women who come to work every day simply trying to make our communities safer."

There was a time I’d have said there’s more hyperbole than truth in those charges; but I’m beginning to realize self-governance in America has always been a tricky proposition.

In Texas, public school teachers are quitting in droves. Even the Lege took notice (no mean feat) and promised to give raises across the board to stem the brain drain. Or seem to; the proposal only funded raises for two years. After that the local ISD’s had to find a way to pay for them. The Comptroller also said each ISD in Texas needed an extra $1000 per student in state funding just to stay up with inflation. In the end, the session ended with no additional school funding at all; and no teacher raises.

So concerned with public education are the legislators that they banned DEI, and CRT, and…did absolutely nothing about school finance. A special session finally worked out a property tax cut (schools are funded by property taxes. You do the math.). No special session is expected to deal with school finance. 

Vouchers didn’t pass, either, so the most direct assault on public education funding still didn’t get anywhere. Considering the conditions they’ll be in two years from now when the Lege returns, vouchers may look a lot better. Just because public schools will look so much worse.

So much of public education now is administrative; testing; special needs; school meals; grants (a local state Senator told my ISD it could get federal dollars from grants, why did need more state funds?); even just handling parent concerns/complaints. Schools today provide for a range of needs and standard of care my schools never thought of. I attended 12 years of public schools in the same town and never once did an ambulance come to any school in the district. If it had, it would have been major news. If an ambulance doesn’t come to a school in the local ISD in a week, it’s a major exception to the rule. And you can’t take teachers out of the classroom to handle that; you need staff: in the campus and in the administration building, to provide information. Schools lock down when police are pursuing a suspect. Busses run late. Events after school have to be planned and administered.

These things are not acts of nature and don’t organize spontaneously. But cut Administrative staff and you only increase the workload on those still employed. And things people expect school to do, no longer get done.

But we just need teachers, right? And we can’t keep them.

One answer is to fund schools that don’t have to do so much: and so, vouchers. Private schools with public money that don’t have to let so many people in: like poor people and special needs people and people who make your white kid feel guilty, and… you get the idea. The problem is the public school is no longer the little red school house full of earnest white kids. So how do we recover that? Set up private schools on public money that can decide who gets in and…who doesn’t.

Poor kids and special needs kids and”those” kids are expensive, after all. And the biggest expense is how they impair Johnny and Suzy’s ability to get into Harvard.

The assault on schools is the assault on government is the assault on a democratic republic. The assault on public schools defies logic, but it doesn’t defy analysis.