Perry For President?

Taegan says it looks likely that Texas Governor Rick Perry will run for president.

As I recently wrote in an Austin Statesman OpEd, Perry supplanted $3.25 billion in state education funding with $3.25 billion in federal education dollars in 2009, leaving Texas schoolchildren as if Congress had never voted to approve that federal money in the first place. In response, the 2010 "Save Our Schools" amendment stipulated that Texas policymakers could not disproportionately cut funding to education; however, this measure did not make it into the Congressional Record.

Over at neorenaissance, Shawn Otto points out Perry's inadequate response to questions regarding "abstinence only" sex ed in Texas:

“Abstinence works,” Perry said during an October 15, 2010 televised interview with Texas Tribune reporter Evan Smith. The audience laughed and Smith pointed out the state’s abysmal teen pregnancy rate. “It works,” insisted Perry. “Maybe it’s the way it’s being taught, or the way it’s being applied out there, but the fact of the matter is it is the best form of – uh – to teach our children.” Smith asked for a statistic to suggest it works, and Perry replied that “I’m just going to tell you from my own personal life, abstinence works.”

If this record reflects his priorities, I'm concerned that Rick Perry is not invested in our most important asset: Our children. The future.