Stump Speech 2008    

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak to you today. I greatly appreciate the efforts you went to in preparing this event.

I am Ernie Casbeer, the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 59. My wife, Cat, and I are teachers in McGregor ISD. I am in my 39th year as a teacher of government and economics to seniors and world history to sophomores. Cat teaches 3rd grade. We are members of Zion Lutheran Church in McGregor and I am in the Oglesby Lions Club. I grew up in Goldthwaite and graduated from Goldthwaite High School and  from Tarleton State University with a Masters Degree in History.

I am in this race for several reasons.  There are 4 issues that are especially important to me:

#1 the cost of insurance and utilities are an unnecessary burden on the citizens of Texas.
#2 the schools in Texas are broken and must be fixed.  As a teacher I have first hand experience on this issue.
#3 our water supply is threatened with pollution and the state is threatening to take private property for a foreign company.
#4 to represent the people of the district and not the lobbyists of Austin.

Texans currently pay the highest rates for home insurance in the nation. There is no reason for our costs to exceed other states except the insurance companies have bought the protection of the current office holders. I am angry that the insurance premiums are based on a person’s credit score. If a person pays the premium, they should be covered. The tornado does not check credit score as it tear across the land. The repair crews do not check the credit score when the bid the repair jobs.  The lumber yards do not check the credit score when they sell the materials. Texans are being robbed by the insurance companies because our elected officials are allowing it. 

We were told that the ideal answer to increasing utility costs was to have deregulation. Have any of you seen a decrease in the costs of your utilities since the deregulation?

As a teacher with 39 years of experience, I can tell you that our school system is broken and needs to be fixed. The elected officials do not care about the needs of the schools. They pander to the money groups. The idea of requiring schools to start at the end of August so that there will be vacation time in August has forced the schools to take the school year into June. When would you rather take a vacation?  June or August? The elected officials have decided that time must be used each semester to teach every student and every teacher how the get onto and off of a school bus. Meanwhile, they have not addressed the real problems. They are telling all of the students that they must go to college, and you and I know that all students are not and do not need to go to college. I have a student this year that wants to become a roofer like his father and please tell me why he needs college for that. My student from two years ago quit school because all he wants to do is work on cars. What is wrong with that? It reminds me of the story I heard of the plumber who charge the lawyer $150 an hour to repair a major plumbing problem. The lawyer protested that he could not earn that much money as a lawyer where upon the plumber said that when he was a lawyer he was unable to earn that either, but that as a plumber it was no problem. We must give the students who do not want to go to college a sellable skill when they leave high school.

 Our elected officials have told us that they have fixed the problem caused by the TAKS test. They only moved the test that the 11th graders have to take from March to May, and did not address the tests that are killing the education in the other grades. And the tests, every student has to be tested. Every one of them. In our school we have a self-contained class. One student in that class is bound to a wheel chair, must be fed by the teacher, must have her diaper changed, is unable to talk, but must be tested and her teacher must determine if she knows that there are two houses in Congress and that she recognizes the difference in the House and the Senate. The tests must be ended and the teachers allowed to teach the subject, not the test.

The youth of Texas are facing ever increasing tuition costs which mean greater student loan debt. Our elected officials are doing all they can to make college unaffordable for the students of today while they are telling them that all students must go to college or be considered failures.

Our water supplies are being threatened and unless someone speaks up, there is no protection provided by our elected officials. Salt water injection wells and salt water haulers illegally dumping their loads are a real problem. The Trans Texas Corridor is a serious concern and while it is not close to here, it will impact you. Why would a foreign company want to own a toll road in Texas, if not for the money they could make. Why would the elected officials give a foreign company the opportunity to make a profit when Texas needs the profit? Texans already pay a tax when they purchase gasoline that is to be used to build and repair roads. That tax is high and should pay for the construction and repairs that are needed.

Finally I think it is time to have a representative that will speak for the people of the district and not the lobbyists in Austin. In the last election the Texas Ethics Commission information shows that I had 206 donations of which 181 came from within the district. My opponent had 238 donations of which only 117 came from within the district. The rest came from outside the district and 12 came from another state.  20% of my donations came from outside the district.  23% of his came from within the district. My average donation was $123 and his was $517. The old adage of follow the money to see who is in control needs to be heeded. I will represent you, I will work for you, and I will vote in your interest. I will not use my position to block bills that have already cost the state ¾ of a million dollars. Abraham Lincoln said that government should be of the people, by the people and for the people. Your representative must represent you and I pledge to do that.

I will work to get a change in the cost of insurance, utilities, and tuition, I will work to fix the schools, I will work to protect our water and property, and I will represent you.  Please vote for me in the March primary and in the November General Election.

Thanks,
Ernie Casbeer