TX HD 107: Keffer Ad Misleading, Turns Autism Into A Political Plaything
By Vince Leibowitz on Oct 29, 2008 in 2008 Texas Elections ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
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An ad being aired by ex-State Rep. Bill Keffer (R-Dallas) in his grudge-match against State Rep. Allen Vaught (D-Dallas)–the man who took his job in 2006–is perhaps one of the worst legislative ads of any during the 2008 election cycle.
The ad features a parent of a child with Autism. In the ad, the parent claims that she went to State Rep. Allen Vaught for “help” for her child, and he said “no.”
The very premise of the ad is faulty. For one thing, the ad is referring specifically to Senate Bill 1000 from the 80th Texas Legislature which would have established a very risky private school voucher scheme for students with Autism. State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), who authored the bill in an attempt to look warm and fuzzy in anticipation of a 2012 run for U.S. Senate, pulled it before it could even be read a second time in that chamber knowing that it had almost no support from Democrats or Republicans in the Senate or the House.
The bill never even made it to the House; neither Vaught nor any other State Rep. cast a vote on the bill. In addition, Keffer fails to mention that the Texas Legislature in 2007 passed several significant pieces of legislation addressing education for children with disabilities–specifically those with Autism.
Autism is a terrible disorder. School vouchers are poor public policy. Mix those two with an ex-state representative who would saw his own right arm off to get back in a position of power and you have an ad that looks pretty but is in reality nothing less than trashy. That Keffer would even use kids with Autism as a crutch for his for his flailing campaign shows that, to Keffer, people with disabilities are just a plaything to use to get elected and nothing more.
What’s worse is that we know that is true! Keffer voted to cut hundreds of thousands of kids off of Children’s Health Insurance, and gutted a number of social services programs that help children with disabilities during his tenure as a State Representative. The only reason he pretends he would have supported the Autism voucher bill is because it has the word “voucher” in it, and that means more campaign cash from people like Dr. James Leininger. Leininger, a multi-millionaire voucher advocate.
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Well it is obvious that Vaught will NOT support scholarships/vouchers for Special Need families in Texas. This is a sure thing that he would have voted against it.
So where does this leave Special Need families in Texas? We, if opposed by private law firms, have no place to go. We must either home school, hire an attorney (ISDs pay private law firm with our taxpayer schools taxes) or be forced to homeschool if an ISD/local school refuses to provide Free and Appropriate Public Education with minimal, bare services in the Dallas area.
The advertisement by Keffer is fair and he states he is willing to look at an option like scholarships to help families find services if this will help the Special Need family.
Did you know that private placement is provided by many States such as New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Arizona in numbers that far exceed Texas. Texas is the lowest percentage State in the US. Our private placement is so low that we are lower than almost all States in the US.
How is it that other States provide private placement, but in Texas it does not exist and even then you must get an attorney. Chances you will win as a parent are almost zero, maybe 1%.
In other states, they pay $30000 to a $100,000 to help families with Autism.
Your blog is bunk if you ask me.
My old pal Vince, have you forgotten everything I taught you last session? There is so much wrong with your reporting in this post, both factually and from a humanitarian standpoint, I don’t know where to start.
1) First of all, it is not PC to call anything autism a “warm fuzzy.” We’ve been over this.
2) Second, I can assure you two years ago Senator Shapiro’s political aspirations and the possibility that she may one day make a bid for the U.S. Senate had nothing to do with SB 1000. What it did come out of was my dear friend chasing her down in a parking lot, choking back tears during her impassioned plea to find a way to provide an appropriate education program for her non-verbal 8 year old son. Watch the hearing from March 2007 if you have any doubt. Shapiro couldn’t get through the session without tears herself. So if you want to stick with your story, give the lady an Oscar or cut out the crap already. It stinks even worse two years later.
3) I also happen to be personal friends with the “plaything” in Keffer’s ad. You want to know what Vaught did? Strung her along, offered to help, emailed her daily, and then cut her off once he accepted a large chunk of change for the anti-voucher Texas Parent PAC. Then he attempted to keep this from coming back and biting him, and perhaps to derail this very ad from its logical and probable development, by offering her an under-the-table voucher to any program in his district. She said, “Thanks but no thanks, that isn’t going to get it done for the rest of the kids being silently cleansed from our public schools.”
3) You want to know what Keffer did? Helped develop the Texas Virtual Academy, which brought her kid some much needed options and got him BACK IN PUBLIC SCHOOL. Is that using them? If so, any mom would gladly prostitute themselves for that kind of result.
4) Insurance is a non-issue here. HB 1919 was passed and heralded as the saving grace for children with autism last session. In fact, it was part of the “autism package” that the anti-voucherists used to distract from the fact they weren’t doing anything to help these children educationally. A lot of nothingness, smoke and mirrors, that are not getting the job done while thousands more children with autism watch the clock run out on their chance at becoming contributing members of society due to the outright refusal of our Texas ISD’s to meet their needs (whether you call it a funding problem or siphoning our tax dollars to the private law firms, prioritizing football and fully-funded housing for Superintendents over the needs of the kids, the end result is the same). It’s not helping. HB 1919 is limited to fully-funded plans regulated by the state and the age limitations cutting off benefits at age 6 have resulted in a law that has yet to pay out any meaningful benefits to the community.
5) Which means education is our only hope. But what happens to the kids with autism when our public schools refuse to acknowledge their diagnosis, address their needs, and punish them for acting out due to overwhelming inappropriate settings or the symptoms of their disability? What happens when they don’t provide the basic supports and minimally trained staff to enable them to function in that setting, much less be successful? What happens when they staff their child’s IEP meetings with attorneys and they refuse to provide parental safeguards such as an independent evaluation, and sue that child and his family instead? Can’t happen? Wouldn’t happen? It happened to me.
I credit you, Vince, for planting the seeds that hatched an idea that I have been working hard on ever since to take roots in our Legislature – a children’s legal defense fund. It would be revolutionizing in that public schools would no longer hold all the advantages of unlimited resources parents can’t touch. Let the schools set one dollar aside for every dollar they spend fighting to deny these kids’ their federal rights and make those matching funds available to the families. It still doesn’t solve the problem that families have so few competent special ed attorneys to go up against the industry of school defenders, or that our federal P&A has taken the position to refuse help to all the children who have been forced out of the public schools and only want their help to get them back in, or the simple fact that those families are the last ones who should be dragged into litigation from a time, energy and resource standpoint. But it would finally give parents SOME ability to go toe-to-toe with the ISD’s and their well-funded law firms courtesy of our tax dollars ($58 million in the last reported year) and would serve as a self-imposed spending cap on those districts who love to throw money at the firms to fight precedent that they might actually have to help a second child if they help one.
I’m sure someone else can post about all the inaccuracies in your legislative recap about SB 100. My hands are tired. As for Vaught, he signed onto an “anti-voucher” agreement in the House that made SB 1000 coming to a vote moot. He broadcasted his intent to vote against the bill. My friend asked him for help for her child and HE SAID NO. Keffer got her kid back in public school.
Any questions?
And please, FOR THE LOVE OF TEXAS, quit with the voucher-scheme garbage. It’s pathetic, it’s desperate, it’s inaccurate and you’re better than that. Keffer merely met a parent who was grateful her child was helped by him bringing educational options to her and who was burned by his opponent who fought to keep them tethered to the brick and mortar Dallas ISD that just about did her kindergartener in. If that’s inconvenient for Vaught and your party, too bad. Go cry to the Texas Parent PAC.
I wanted to clarify that by “your party”, I’m talking about the anti-voucher party that refuses to differentiate any type of a “voucher scheme” from special needs scholarships that are an unfortunate but necessary enforcement mechanism of federal disability law that requires private placements as part of the full continuum of placement options, recognizing that not one public school system can individualize programs to the extent necessary to provide an appropriate education to children with special needs. This is a partisan political platform that is counter to the federally guaranteed rights of these children. And it has registered Democrats voting Republican for the first time, seeing as this single issue that your child’s immediate needs and entire future rests on trumps all others. These are high stakes in Texas, and a complete dealbreaker. Tread lightly.
In fact, it is this anti-voucher party that USES the unique need for educational options for children autism as a political plaything to denounce vouchers of all kinds. They USE an ad like Keffer’s to cry “CAMEL”S NOSE UNDER THE TENT, LEININGER, VOUCHER SCHEME, DRAINING ALREADY UNDER-FUNDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS, BAD POLICY” (take your pick and fill in the blank.)
If anyone is using anyone, take a good look at yourself and your party.
“Warm and fuzzy” your words … and you are talking about Senator Shapiro and her determination to help Special Need families. What a damn piece of rhetoric that is …
I hope you don’t meet an Autism parent in a dark alley, because they will want you to experience the Octagon … and you will tap out, because there is no other choice but submission and passing out …
braveheart,
How nice. Resorting to threats of violence.
Vince,
I was just using some colorful rhetoric like you when you decided to say Senator Shapiro was using Special Need and Autism families for a politcal run. You don’t seem to be able to take it well when you attack Special Need families.
Maybe you should stick to something you understand or have knowledge about, because you sure don’t have any knowledge about Special Need families in Texas.
Braveheart,
I was well aware of what you were doing. I was being funny.
And, for the record, I never attacked special needs families. I attacked Bill Keffer and his campaign for running that ad. Private school vouchers are a mistake–no matter who they are for. They also aren’t the proper fix for this particular problem. I do NOT disagree that there is a problem with the education of Autistic students in Texas public schools. I simply believe there is a much better solution than this. That Keffer is even using this ad is hypocritical, given the fact that he has cast dozens of votes AGAINST special needs kids and families. If I get time, I’ll pull up a full list of every vote he’s cast against special needs kids and their families. You might be surprised.
Believe me, I’ll respond in greater detail to this thread later, but I’m a bit busy at the moment. I promise I’ll engage in polite discourse with everyone in this thread who has had something to say before in the morning.
Thanks for commenting and thanks for reading.
Vince,
YOU need to understand that millions of dollars are spent by our school districts to defeat our families. It is a terrible attack on civil rights and a violation of the Federal Laws to protect Special Need families in Texas. Our families if confronted by private law firms (they do it for profit) can not win. Many of our families are forced out of public schools and must homeschool. Those that can afford a private school are thus forced to pay twice. Once as a taxpayer and the second to pay for a private school that will help their child with a special need.
The worse part is that a family who believes that the Federal Laws can protect them find that FAPE and IDEA is worthless in Texas. Thus, our families must fight and advocate like never before.
I know you want to help Autism and other Special Need families in Texas. However, Special Need families can NOT fight these private law firms and the TEA alone(they allow this system to grow and they pump millions to for-profit law firms). We need a change in the system. Keffer is our only hope in this district race.
Now Braveheart, I admire your passion, don’t go scaring my Vince with creepy metaphors. I have no idea what this Octagon stuff is about, but you should know that Vince is a good guy with a big heart who cares about kids and sticks up for the underdog. He’s just been so confused by all this fear mongering of anti-voucher sentiment over the years that he needs a refresher course on how none of that applies here.
Kids with autism is what Vince is about. What he doesn’t realize yet is exactly why kids with autism need and deserve scholarships in Texas because of the nature of this disorder, the resulting difficulty for the ISD’s to provide appropriate programming for such a wide spectrum of differing needs, and the high-dollar stakes involved long-term if they can’t or won’t enable their success, coupled with the constraints and choices our Texas ISD’s are making on a daily basis, and the giant machine that ties the TEA to the Texas Council for Developmental Disabiltiies to the Disability Policy Consortium to Advocacy Inc to Bracewell and Giuliani, LLP and all the way back around again. Vince just doesn’t have the benefit of all of this information yet, but when he does, I just know he’ll get it. He’s just a little rusty due to the lege hiatus. Give him a chance to get him back up to speed.
I believe in you Vince!
Braveheart noted:
I would strongly recommend that families of special needs families attack the issue much the same way African Americans and Latinos attacked similar civil rights issues in education in Texas. Therein would be found some significant, and real, solutions.
There would be no ESL in Texas if it weren’t for Latino civil rights organizations fighting schools–en masse–over the issue; the same goes for equalized school funding.
When you band together, you have a much better chance in the federal court system than you do in the Legislature. Why? Because if the state’s schools fail to comply with the court’s orders, they’ll get no funding. Special Needs students are a federally protected class of children. If you could find a civil rights group for special needs people (I know there are some, they’ve sued the state on behalf of adults before) and approach them as a class instead of individuals suing individual schools, you’ve got more than a fighting chance–and you’d be making change for kids across the state, not just in one district. If you can’t find one, start one. I’m sure that you’d have no trouble attracting prominent legal counsel pro bono understanding that the state will have to pay his fees in the end anyway.
Setting aside whether or not you agree with vouchers, they aren’t going to solve the problem. Heck, they basically give the school districts and the state a pass at dealing with the problem. Why not put them in a situation where they must fix the problem or else. Believe me, there are still Federal District Judges around like the late Barefoot Sanders, the late John Hannah, and William Wayne Justice that would put the proverbial foot up the proverbial ass of the state of Texas and make them comply.
Remember that prisoners in Texas went to the federal courts when their civil rights were violated. The federal courts reformed Texas prisons as a result. Let the courts reform the Texas public schools once and for all for disabled students.
Vince,
I will only say that you slighted/made little of a family’s struggle in Dallas dealing with Autism in District HD 107. You can say you did not attack … but you can imagine how we feel when we know this family that is dealing with Autism, called the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). If you make one of our families feel insignificant, then I think you should expect a full and in your face blast back.
Hello, Vince. I am the mother in Bill Keffer’s ad. Would you like to ask me any questions?
Vince,
I think a class action lawsuit for Autism families is an incredible reach and I don’t think it is possible for our families. The amount of turmoil and uncertainity in our lives is something that only Special Need families understand. We are basically trying to keep afloat, so to speak. Our best hope is legislative reform.
Attorneys cost and we don’t have the money. We are paying for therapies now to deal with Autism and learning differences/neurological differences. We can only hope in Senators like Florence Shapiro, Dan Patrick and HR Keffer.
Braveheart, Keffer is your problem, not your solution. Keffer was targeted by parents in 2006 because he advocates cutting funding for schools, and to this day advocates cutting 1/3 of the funds for our already underfunded schools. How in the world does anyone with a brain think that Keffer is good for education? That makes as much sense as saying that anti-freeze is good for dogs. The Dallas Morning News called out Keffer for running a misleading ad on this subject. Keffer will clearly say and do anything to win. Surely you are starting to see that. He is a tool of James “vouchers will make me richer” Leineger, and he is shameful in his use of special needs families to accomplish his flawed agenda.
Vince wrote:
“When you band together, you have a much better chance in the federal court system than you do in the Legislature.”
This is a very idealistic concept of how to approach the problem. Our federal courts are NOT enforcing IDEA either. Advocacy Inc’s idea of advocacy is to beg us not to litigate because the courts are so inhospitable to the parents in these cases, and if by some chance we do and need to appeal, they beg our attorneys to abandoned us because any IDEA litigation will result in worse precedent for our kids.
Vince wrote; “If you could find a civil rights group for special needs people (I know there are some, they’ve sued the state on behalf of adults before) and approach them as a class instead of individuals suing individual schools, you’ve got more than a fighting chance–and you’d be making change for kids across the state, not just in one district. If you can’t find one, start one.I’m sure that you’d have no trouble attracting prominent legal counsel pro bono understanding that the state will have to pay his fees in the end anyway.”
This would be Advocacy Inc’s job, and all those civil rights groups pass the buck to them. See above comments as to why that’s a huge dead end for us. We’ve got nobody. We are united, and we can’t get anyone to take this on.
Yougogirl wrote:
Surely there has to be a better organization than Advocacy, Inc. You and I have had a lot of discussions about this whole situation in the past. When you say the federal courts aren’t enforcing IDEA either, are there specific cases? I’m asking because, as you know, I want to know.
If you went as a big group–a class–it would be a lot more difficult for the courts to ignore.
I know it isn’t an idealistic idea, but I think it is the most realistic chance for a real fix.
I have more dialogue with you all later on this. If you are saying the federal courts are no help, I want to know more.
ThatMom,
Thanks for coming and commenting. As I’ve noted elsewhere in the thread, I’m going to have to stop commenting for now because I’ve got some more stuff that I *must* do tonight.
I appreciate your willingness to debate the issue. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll contact you offlist, but I have no intention of backing down from my belief that this was a bad ad on Keffer’s part (and that is not a put down to you personally, by any means). I’ll be back to discuss this more.
One of the commenters in this thread, YouGoGirl, and I have had long debates on this topic before and, as she’ll may remember, when I say I’m coming back to comment or will email you back, I do, even it takes a few hours or a day or so. This blog is just a hobby, not my full time job.
Bill Keffer has never spoken with James Leininger about his campaign. Money has not been offered, and money has not been accepted. Does that help?
I have a question – why not alternative special needs programs NOT FUNDED with vouchers? Has anyone asked the candidates about that? That might reveal some true motivations. We are not really talking about autistic children here, we are talking about vouchers. Take vouchers out of the equation and see how much Mr. Keffer supports this plan.
Oh great, I see Vaught’s friends and family network has found this blog too. And they’re throwing around all the anti-voucher rhetoric again. It makes Democrats look so stupid.
OK. #1: our district spent over $100K fighting a $10k placement for our child. Cutting public education funds sounds A-OK to me! You know what would make all that waste disappear overnight? Autism scholarships! You know what would get our public ISD’s hopping to improve services for those kids? Autism scholarships!
Let’s please keep this dialog relevant to those who actually are stakeholders in this discussion – parents of children with autism. Not Vaught’s relatives and neighborhood pals with no dog in this fight. You guys following the rest of us around and throwing out insulting comments like “how can anyone with a brain not see it” is not scoring any points for the Vaught-man. The poor schlub has enough damage control to do as it is.
I understand. You have my email address. There’s not much to debate, really. Talk soon.
ThatMom noted:
I am trying to stay away from this thread and do my other work, but I saw that and had to respond. If that is what Mr. Keffer has told you, I regret to inform you that he is lying. Here is the photographic evidence:
Also, Keffer has taken money from Leininger, but not directly. You could say it is “washed” first. He’s taken plenty from the Associated Republicans of Texas and similar PACs that are exclusively funded by Leininger or almost exclusively funded by Leininger. Again, if he told you that, he misled you.
Keffer didn’t seem to have a problem supporting the Texas Virtual Academy. Do you consider that a voucher, as well?
That Mom
Do you have a child dealing with Autism?
Braveheart,
ThatMom is the lady in the ad in question.
YouGoGirl, you just posted a comment, and something went crazy with WordPress when I tried to approve it. I am sorry, it was a good comment (a very nice one, infact), but it appears my MySQL database ate it or something. I’ve had isolated problems with this, and can’t seem to recover it. Things are still wonky since the server move. I’m sorry about it vanishing.
YouGoGirl,
Okay, I didn’t delete your comment.
The comments were coming in so fast that after I approved it, it fell down the list of comments based on its time stamp, and I didn’t see it, and panicked thinking that WordPress ate it. Sorry!
V
Christine at 9:37 pm post time,
“Braveheart, Keffer is your problem, not your solution.”
Do you have a family member, son, daughter dealing with autism?
If you do, you are greatly mistaken, because ASD families need options to deal with real life, not word games or political reporting/bias.
I guess you’ll want to get back to the ad soon.
Bill Keffer didn’t seek me out or intend to make this a part of his campaign. I am a former Vaught supporter and a Democrat. I had never spoken to an elected official for any reason until last session when we had run out of options for educating our son. I went to Vaught for help in accessing an appropriate education. I had a solution. You know the rest.
You also know that my son is back in school thanks to a program Bill Keffer helped create while he was on the House Education Committee.
The ad is a compare-contrast between the guy who couldn’t help get a kid in school and a guy who got a kid in school. In fact, he got hundreds of kids back in school.
Look at that photo of Keffer and Leineger. WOW! Know who else is in that photo – Wendy “nation of whiners” Gramm. Wasn’t she the Enron auditor? Yea, that Bill Keffer is really trustworthy and is looking out for special needs children. That picture needs to be sent to every voter in Dallas. Actually, it probably does not because Keffer has no chance of winning.
My kid wasn’t in school. Now he is.
I would rather look at the photo of Autism children who are not being used for political purposes. Obviously “Christine” posting at 10:33 pm does not have a child dealing with Autism. This Christine is worried about politics. We are more concerned with our children who are dealing with Autism and learning needs/deficits.
Keffer provides options. Vaught supports the status quo which is to protect the existing system. If Vaught will bring down the jackals (private law firms) that attack Special Need families and will provide options for Autism and Special Need families then maybe all Dallas families can let go of politics and seek solutions for Special Need families.
I just believe that Keffer is willing to look at options. Vaught likes the status quo which provides no options for Special Need families in my opinion.
Vince,
Yes, I am saying the federal courts are no help, and actually are very damaging to IDEA cases in the 5th circuit. I once thought that each level you reached and as the number of judges reviewing a case increased or were elected vs. appointed, you’d have a better chance at a fair ruling. That is, until Advocacy Inc. trained me that only one IDEA case has ever been won in the 5th circuit, EVER. It was a minor victory, and any subsequent litigation has eroded any previous victories in lower courts. Such as, a win for the child at due process is almost always overturned at the federal level, a federal win is almost always overturned in the court of appeals, and a court of appeals win would almost certainly be overturned by the Supreme Court. Why? Because the Republican controlled SC and the largely Bush appointed judges in the 5th circuit are as inhospitable to children with disabilities looking to put their tax contribution into our public schools to work for their own children are positioned by the school law firms as selfish predators who are looking for a windfall of public assistance, just as the Democrats malign those same families as seeking to ruin the entire public school system if they need a private placement for their child for whom the public schools have done everything in their power to marginalize while covering up the abuse, trauma and regression that has occurred on their watch. It’s the ultimate Catch 22.
I have pushed this concept of a class action for years and have gotten NO interest. I am on a 2,000 plus member support list for Autism Advocacy which is headed by an attorney, and another one group that is completely comprised of attorneys and professional advocates whose specialty is civil rights and special education. The first group’s lead attorney responded that nothing can be accomplished through litigation, and that we must all hold hands with our public schools and try to get along. Settle, compromise, lower your expectations for your child and the system, accept the crumbs and fill in the gaps on your own. The second group of attorneys did not even generate a single response. Our former attorney told us years ago that you couldn’t qualify a class of children with autism because the issues to each child are too unique. I completely disagree, but she is the biggest player in Texas in Sp. Ed law. End of discussion, case closed.
The other groups, such as the Southern Disability Law Center, work on grants that require any clients to be poverty level to receive their assistance. Poverty level clients are not looking to make waves with education under IDEA, as most don’t pay property taxes into the system in the first place. They’re getting free lunches and babysitting for their kids and are happy enough. And if they aren’t, they don’t hang out on listservs looking to litigate. The ARC is so entrenched in partisan views that unless you agree to keep your child in the public setting that is causing them severe emotional and/or physical harm, they won’t play for your team. Office of Civil Rights? A branch of OSEP, that is part of the machine, and can’t litigate under IDEA anyway due to the self-governing clause written into the law. Did you know about that? IDEA prohibits any government agency from enforcing it, and leaves it completely up the the State Education Agencies. Instead, it requires protection and advocacy under the federally appointed and funded agencies which strongly discourage litigation and ahve outright refused to represent familes who have been forced out of publc schools. Are you picking up on the pattern here?
I want to tell you a little story. A family was sued by their school under IDEA. Advocacy Inc refused to help because the family did not return the child to that school who sued them and kept him in the private placement where they put him for the summer because the school refused to provide any services to him, and he was thriving there after facing institutionalization after a few months in the public program. The family’s attorney told them their case was a slam dunk and had the strongest evidence she had ever seen. The hearing officer that had just retired as general counsel for the TEA.rendered a decision that had no basis in the law and ignored all the overwhelming evidence from the family and incredibly damning evidence from the school. The family appealed to federal court in Texas.
At the first ISD Board meeting less than a month after the federal case was assigned to a judge, the superintendent recommended a name in the community in which to dedicate their latest elementary school under construction to open the next fall. The Board unanimously approved that recommendation. It was the second school to be dedicated to this family in the ISD – the first one to a woman in the family some 40 years before or more. The man to be honored ? That woman’s husband, who just happened to be the federal judge’s long deceased granddad, who had no involvement in education whatsoever but had a touching career in water treatment for the city. Same last name as the judge. The judge was quoted in the press as saying how close he was to his grandad, and his father how grateful he was to the superintendent and the school district. They showed up at those board meetings and dedications for all the ensuing photo ops.
Want to place a wager on how that ruling went? That family has some serious legal debt and education expenses to cover.
.
No one is debating that special needs children have exceptional needs regarding education and under the current system the needs are not being met. The blog proposes that the ad Keffer is running is off-base and misleading. In my opinion, Vince nailed it!
Secondly, when people like “That mom” want to quote facts like Keffer has never met James Leininger or accepted money from him, and it is grossly proven wrong, she loses credibility and it suggests even more that Keffer has misled her. (And it hints that she has an underlying score to settle with Representative Vaught at all costs.) Is she upset that when she asked him to jump, he didn’t respond with “how high?”
So fact check a little bit more….on Keffer and Vaught and then come back to the debate.
out of the woods-
You need to check facts. Thatmom did not say Keffer had never MET Leininger. She said he had not spoken with him about his campaign or accepted money form him. That was not “grossly proven wrong” by some random photo of the the two appearing together in a group picture and confirmation from Vince that he has, in fact, not taken money directly from him.
Agreed that it doesn’t present a picture of a guy so staunchly opposed to vouchers in any form that he’d refuse funding support from any organization with any ties to the liberally-lableled anti-Christ, Leininger, just so that he could ensure that his Democratic opponent would be permitted to throw kids with autism in a virtual imprisonment in inappropriate educational arrangement sand lock the door behind them. Now that’s some scary stuff, God bless your little old voucher-hating soul.
Did I nail it?
Reposting with edits (you need an edit function!!!)
out of the woods-
You need to check facts. Thatmom did not say Keffer had never MET Leininger. She said he had not spoken with him about his campaign or accepted money from him. That was not “grossly proven wrong” by some random photo of the two appearing together in a group picture and confirmation from Vince that he has, in fact, not taken money directly from him.
Agreed that it doesn’t present a picture of a guy so staunchly opposed to vouchers in any form that he’d refuse funding support from any organization with any ties to the liberally-lableled anti-Christ, Leininger, just so that he could ensure that his Democratic opponent would be permitted to throw kids with autism in a virtual imprisonment in inappropriate educational arrangements and lock the door behind them. Now that’s some scary stuff, God bless your little old voucher-hating soul.
Did I nail it?
All of HD-107 that is bothering to pay attention has a score to settle with Allen Vaught now that it’s clear who he represents – it’s called Democracy.
As as matter of fact, when I ask my state representative to help my family with a dire situation, I do expect him to respond with “how high” – is that wrong? I didn’t ask for anything outrageous, just access to education for my son from the guy who claimed to be Mr. Schools.
When the ad is referred to as off-base and misleading, it is an attack on my family. That ad is my family and our situation. I did not agree to do that ad for Bill Keffer out of naivete. I did the ad so that more people would learn about our situation and not make the same mistake I made 2 years ago by voting straight ticket and assuming Allen Vaught’s support of schools has anything to do with supporting the families in this district.
I am disgusted with what I now know about Allen Vaught. I am disgusted that I wasted my vote and 2 years of my son’s life on Allen Vaught. You call that settling a score. I call it Democracy.
Vince correctly pointed out that Leininger’s money was “washed.” Same difference. Leininger has one agenda and everyone knows it. Keffer has been accepting money from his PAC way before this particular race. The TEC has records of this, if your so inclined to research.
So if someone is not pro-voucher, they hate special needs children? Take off your blinders.
Thanks, but no thanks, for God’s blessing….I’ve got plenty!
out of the woods-
What is your stake in this issue regarding educational options for children with autism? All we’ve heard form you is anti-voucher sentiment, Leininger hysteria and Keffer and autism-mom bashing by association for not cutting him off for possible ties to the EVER EVIL VOUCHERS and for not being the crack researcher you believe she should be. I guarantee you she’s done far more research on autism and treatments and interventions than you’ve done on any political candidate and their ties. The other doesn’t really matter so much to parents trying rescue their kids from a lifetime of public assistance before they die. Unless those ties cause their elected representatives to sell them out.
I’ve got a newflash for you: WE DON”T CARE WHERE KEFFER’S CAMPAIGN FUNDS COME FROM. He’s helping kids with autism by bringing them educational options. Color us selfish, but we are trying to save our kids who don’t have anyone else to speak for them and sure as hell can’t do it themselves.
You clearly need to read the posts more carefully before responding to them. No one accused you of hating special needs children. I believe my words were, “bless your little old VOUCHER-HATING soul.” Those who employ the polarizing voucher-talk to dirty up this issue and prevent these kids from getting the help that they are entitled to under federal disability law are not blind, they are either 1) ignorant if they do not know better, or 2) heartless if they continue with this tactic once they do.
As for your cup that runneth over with God’s plentiful blessings, back to my original question. Have your kids dodged the autism bullet? Then yes, be thankful for those blessings. If you do not have kids and plan to one day, don’t be quite so judgmental about what our children need and are not getting from our ISD’s and how you (wiht what qualifications????) think those needs should be met. Karma’s a bitch. And if you never plan to have kids, you’re safe from ever knowing our pain, but you’re also missing out on God’s greatest blessing of all.
[...] Democrats’ attempts to retake the Texas House of Representatives. From racist mailers and decitful TV ads in Dallas and Houston area House districts to the battle to unseat Texas’ most [...]
[...] Democrats’ attempts to retake the Texas House of Representatives. From racist mailers and decitful TV ads in Dallas and Houston area House districts to the battle to unseat Texas’ most [...]