When Four Stars Are Good Enough

Source: Texas Comptroller.

The 2011 update of the Texas Comptroller's Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST) was recently released. According to the FAST website, "Each district and campus is assigned a FAST rating of one to five stars, indicating its success in combining cost-effective spending with the achievement of measurable student academic progress. Five stars reflects the strongest relative progress combined with the lowest relative spending."

Some of the nearby school districts that earned five stars are Allen, Coppell, Garland, Irving, Mesquite and Wylie. Congratulations to all of them.

Where did the Richardson ISD land on this rating scale? That little red square at the top of the graph above is the RISD. Scattered around the rest of the graph are 40 fiscal peers. Richardson's position earns it four stars out of five.

After the jump, what the RISD would have to do to improve its ratings next year. And why I'm not sure it's a good idea.

Of Droughts and Trees - Continued

Sunday in Evansville, Indiana, brought with it an otherworldly experience. It was raining when I awoke. It was raining after breakfast. It was raining before and after lunch. It was raining before and after dinner. It was raining when I went to sleep. Steady, continuous, life-giving rain. The locals could not understand why I walked around all day with a smile on my face.

Tuesday, on my drive home, the stretch from Texarkana to Dallas brought a return to Dante's Inferno. The ground was parched. The grass was dry or blackened from fire. The watering holes were shriveled. More trees than I could count were dead or dying, with leaves brown and withered, way too early in the season to be the normal signs of autumn.

Recently, I blogged about the effects of this drought on the trees of Houston, Dallas and Richardson. After the jump, an update.

Erratum: Perry's Debating Skill

By now, it's conventional wisdom that Gov. Rick Perry's debate performances have gone from bad to worse. "Not yet ready for primetime." "A train wreck." "Flubbed" and "stumbled." "Yikes." "Close to a disqualifying two hours." And those were the judgments of conservative pundits.

There were differing explanations for Perry's poor performances, everything from chronic back pain to chronic dimwittedness. My own theory was that Perry was having a difficult time trying to walk back some of his more outrageous statements from the first days of his campaign (e.g., Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme" and a "monstrous lie"). I said he was trying to sound reasonable, which could be a stretch for him.

I don't think my explanation stands up to scrutiny. Perry may have backpedaled from his Social Security comments, but he doubled down on some of his other controversial actions (e.g., HPV vaccinations, Texas DREAM act). He didn't help himself with GOP primary voters either way.

After the jump, my new, new theory for Perry's debate performances.

Grim Reaper a Packers Fan?

Source: PCRM.org.

You decide how well this billboard will go over in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Installation of a censored version is planned near Lambeau Field. (The censored version removes the cheesehead after threat of a trademark infringement lawsuit from the manufacturer of foam cheeseheads).

Remember, this is the state where a popular suggestion for a license plate slogan was "Eat Cheese or Die" (which, sadly, was rejected by the then governor).

Happy 90th Birthday!

From 2011 09 Evansville

To celebrate Walt's 90th birthday, he, Ellen and I drove back to Evansville, Indiana to celebrate the occasion with old friends. On the way, we stopped in Paducah, Kentucky, to pay respects at the Denning family graves. We also visited Ruth's resting place in Evansville. It was a weekend with moments of sad remembrance and moments of joyful celebration. All in all, a trip to treasure.

For all photos, look here.