Our Doormat Legislature
In a well-run Republic, the legislature is the strongest of the three branches of government. They are the ones who make the laws, the executive branch in theory merely carries out their intent and the judicial branch interprets the law based on their intent, so long as they don't infringe on the Creator-Endowed rights granted the individual that are recognized in our Constitution.
But we don't have a well-run Republic in Arkansas yet. It is closer to a bananna republic. Our legislature does not use their authority. Instead, they act more like a doormat. They let everyone walk all over them.
It has been well-documented on this blog how the legislature let the state Supreme Court push them around in the Lakeview case. But at least that was the top tier in another branch of government. In the lastest Mike Masterson column it is detailed how even bureaucrats in the Arkansas Department of education pushed them around. Not the Governor mind you, just some unelected folks you probably never heard of.
Basically the ADE ordered Paron High shut down because all 38 courses deemed "required" were not being taught, even though they were offered- (nobody in the school wanted to take one of them).
So they forcebly closed the school down and barred the door to entry. It had to be because that was what the law said to do, right? The ADE would not take such strong action without a law to back them up, right? Wrong. Senator Jim Holt, who has been one of the few vertebrates in the ledge and has taken flak for it as a lesson to the others- makes a rock-solid case that it was the ADE, not the legislature, that on its own authority decided that a school must teach all required courses (whether a student wants to take them or not) not just offer all required courses.
(continued- to read about the rock-solid case that our legislature surrenders faster than a Frenchman facing a Panzer Division, click THURSDAY below and scroll down, or if sent straight here just scroll down)
But we don't have a well-run Republic in Arkansas yet. It is closer to a bananna republic. Our legislature does not use their authority. Instead, they act more like a doormat. They let everyone walk all over them.
It has been well-documented on this blog how the legislature let the state Supreme Court push them around in the Lakeview case. But at least that was the top tier in another branch of government. In the lastest Mike Masterson column it is detailed how even bureaucrats in the Arkansas Department of education pushed them around. Not the Governor mind you, just some unelected folks you probably never heard of.
Basically the ADE ordered Paron High shut down because all 38 courses deemed "required" were not being taught, even though they were offered- (nobody in the school wanted to take one of them).
So they forcebly closed the school down and barred the door to entry. It had to be because that was what the law said to do, right? The ADE would not take such strong action without a law to back them up, right? Wrong. Senator Jim Holt, who has been one of the few vertebrates in the ledge and has taken flak for it as a lesson to the others- makes a rock-solid case that it was the ADE, not the legislature, that on its own authority decided that a school must teach all required courses (whether a student wants to take them or not) not just offer all required courses.
(continued- to read about the rock-solid case that our legislature surrenders faster than a Frenchman facing a Panzer Division, click THURSDAY below and scroll down, or if sent straight here just scroll down)
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Thursday, August 24, 2006
1 Comments:
From the Masterson aritcle:
“The Arkansas Department of Education requires [that ] a minimum of 38 courses be ‘taught,’ not just ‘offered,’ even when students do not enroll in some of the courses,” Holt said, adding that a representative of the department, Annette Barnes, had confirmed by e-mail that “the change from ‘offered’ to ‘taught’ occurred prior to the 2003-04 school year.”
“It is not in the law,” he quoted Barnes as saying. “It came from the standards of accreditation and is based on revisions to standards. There is no legislation that says this.”"
No legislation says this, yet they closed the school down! "We don't need no stinkin legislation". If any is ever needed, the ADE tells the ledge what legislation to pass rather than the ledge telling the ADE what standards to enact. The ADE does not respect those whimps. Why should they?
Now let's talk about giving in-state tuition to persons in this country illegally. Your cousin from Oklahoma has to pay out of state tuition at UALR and UCA, but an illegal alien who has successfully evaded the authorities for six months or more in this state is rewarded by receiving the in-state tution discount.
Did the legislature authorize this? No, in fact they specifically voted the proposal down, but who cares what those pansies think? Not UCA President Lu Hardin, the lastest Arktimes cover story tells this tale: "Elliott’s bill (to give illegal aliens in-state tuition) passed the House of Representatives, but failed by two votes in the Senate. Nonetheless, the president of the University of Central Arkansas at Conway, Lu Hardin, announced recently that UCA is instituting such a policy on its own. He said it was the right thing to do."
What? Since when does a college president get to decide on his own authority to do something that the legislature has specifically voted AGAINST giving them the authorization to do? Since right now in the banana republic of Arkansas. Here the inmates run the asylum and the legislators are too busy doing something, I dunno what, cowering under their desks? Whatever. Anyway UALR and NWACC are following suit as if they were a kingdom unto themselves instead of dependent on the ledge for their funding.
IN fact UALR is going one better. They are going to spend a million dollar grant to improve graduation and retention rates for "minority students" and are making it clear they will hand the cash out without regard for legal status.
So are they afraid the legislature will retaliate by limiting their funding? Of course not, they wipe their feet on the faces of those sissies like the human dormats that they are. As a matter of fact, the college presidents are calling for another special election for more funding.
Even though they have enough money to give away a million dollars to illegal aliens and give tution discounts to illegal aliens they still claim they need a big loan from you the taxpayer. The same loan you voted down last December. You see, you peons made the wrong choice back then so now they, the ones who know what is best for the money you earn, are going to give you the opportunity to "choose again".
Are the legislators standing up to them on any of this? Of course not. They are too afraid that someone in the newspapers will say something unkind about them if they actually show some grit. Do I sound frustrated? I am. The people of this state need to get the broom out on most of these people.
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