December 2008 - Let’s talk about Raise Your Hand Texas. Raise Your Hand Texas is a group that was formed just last year, and it sure seems like a nice bunch. Look at that cute kid on the website, and there’s a school bus, and a #2 pencil. People involved with this group must really care about the kids.

Last year the Raise Your Hand Texas website had a clear anti-voucher statement which I can no longer find. And one of the group’s missions was to “defend public schools” - but that has been removed from the website, as well. It appears that the entire site has been sanitized. If I hadn’t read the Raise Your Hand Texas website before these changes were made, I might think this was just an innocuous group created by nice people.

Based on RYHT’s presently disclosed current priorities, I might even consider joining.

Have you ever seen a fully loaded Ford? The bells and whistles are there to keep you from looking too closely at what moves the machine.

I’d like you to look past the screaming “WE LOVE KIDS” graphics and meet some of the players driving Raise Your Hand Texas.

The changes to the RYHT website have muddled the group’s identity, and I hope that the following information will help to clarify RYHT’s motives as well as help you see the connections between politicians, lobbyists, unions, private law firms, public schools and advocacy groups.   Keep reading here