By William Lutz
RedState, one of the most popular conservative blogs nationwide, has never been a fan of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
The blog’s editor, Erick Erickson regularly compares Dewhurst to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, and that’s not a compliment in conservative circles. But the blog took its attack on Dewhurst to a new level Wednesday in a blog post lambasting Dewhurst for setting up a stacked Senate committee to attack Gov. Rick Perry‘s higher education reforms and his appointees to the University of Texas system Board of Regents.
Dewhurst has sometimes come under attack in conservative circles, and I will admit that I have been one of the ones who has come to his defense over the years.
I understand the culture of the Texas Senate encourages compromise, and — from 2003-08 — I thought Dewhurst did a pretty good job getting most of the key planks of the conservative agenda through the Texas Senate largely intact, and some of the items the Senate killed needed to die. But I cannot and I will not defend Dewhurst’s support of liberal university administrators, his attack on the few conservatives left in higher education, and his thinly-veiled shot at the governor’s conservative policies. RedState is right on target here, and I will have a lot more to say on this topic in the coming days. Simply stated, the creation, composition, and charge of the Joint Oversight Committee On Higher Education Governance, Excellence And Transparency is a slap in the face to conservatives who have supported and defended Dewhurst over the years.
What set off RedState’s tirade is an interview the chair of the Higher Education Committee, Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) gave to the Travis County Democratic Party. The entire interview can be read here. But the part that really set off RedState can be found toward the end of the interview.
Rick Perry doesn’t understand higher education. He doesn’t have a graduate degree, and he graduated a long time ago with a major in something like agriculture. I have a PhD, so I understand the value of research and teaching. He just doesn’t understand it. In the legislature, we’re used to dealing with regents who love their universities, who bleed orange or red or whatever their colors. These new regents appointed by Perry don’t seem to have any school spirit. They seem suspicious and cynical. They haven’t taken time to understand what the status quo is; they just want to change it.
RedState makes a lot of valid points about the new oversight committee and the way its charge was stacked to support the UT administration. Right now, I only have two additional points to make.
First, Dewhurst hopelessly stacked the Senators on the committee in favor of UT administrators. The critics of the cost explosion and tuition explosion in higher education have been kept off the committee, as have most of Perry’s friends in the Senate. In particular, NONE of the Senators who have publicly stood for conservative values in higher education issues (including Dan Patrick, Brian Birdwell, Robert Deuell, Steve Ogden, Tommy Williams, or Florence Shapiro) are on this committee and the key Democrats who want to keep higher education affordable (including Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, Royce West, and John Whitmire) were kept off this committee. Only one critic of tuition deregulation (Rodney Ellis) got a seat on the committee. And the committee does not reflect the composition of the Texas Senate as it is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. (The committee consists of Zaffirini and Sens. Rodney Ellis [D-Houston], Kirk Watson [D-Austin], Kel Seliger [R-Amarillo], John Carona [R-Dallas], and Robert Duncan [R-Lubbock])
Let’s compare that to the more balanced appointments made by Speaker Joe Straus to the panel. Straus appointed Reps. Dan Branch (R-Dallas), Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie), Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), Eric Johnson (D-Dallas), and Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio). Note first that Straus appointed a Republican majority to the committee. Also note that he appointed one solid conservative on higher education issues (Kolkhorst) and one public critic of tuition deregulation (Pitts) to the committee.
Castro and Johnson are not UT alums, and tend to look at higher education issues from the students’ perspective. The House appointees to the committee fairly reflect the diversity of views in the House on higher education issues. The Senate’s do not and were intentionally stacked in favor of the UT administration.
The other key point I would make is that — by siding with the UT administration on higher education issues — Dewhurst now has to take responsibility in a Republican circles for the liberal decisions that get made in the Tower and a lot of the attacks on conservatives that come from senior UT administrators. (More on that in the days to come.) In short, RedState makes a lot of valid points in its critique of Dewhurst on higher education issues, and conservatives ought to be concerned about the long-term implications of his actions.
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