The Road to Bad Law Is Paved With Good Intentions

Last week, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Tom Craddick excluded legislative Democrats from the new Select Committee on Public School Accountability. No biggie, said the speaker's office; the civilian members add all the diversity it needs.

Talking to Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, she saw it as a bigger mistake than just a blatant rejection of bipartisanship. They failed to bring vital points of view and important stake-holders to the table.

She told the story of working with a well-intentioned company that wanted to organize prescription deliveries to patients on Medicaid. The firm wanted to phone ahead, until Van de Putte pointed out that not every household has a phone. Well, asked the company, what about public phones? "Maybe," said Van de Putte, "in your part of town, public phones take incoming calls." The well-intentioned firm didn't realize that, in some urban areas, public phones (if you can find one) are outgoing only to cut down on the drug trade. So, the firm suggested, what about FedEx deliveries? "What if they can't get FedEx?" said Van de Putte. "FedEx won't go into the projects."

So, just to speak to that diversity: The committee now has four Republican legislators, two education commissioners, three school district superintendents, one deputy superintendent, a principal, an elementary teacher, a banker, a lawyer, the president of a futures trading company, and the CEO of Continental Airlines.