Linda Chavez-Thompson knows the meaning of sacrifice and the importance of family. Born the third of eight children in a migrant family, Linda had to drop out of school after the ninth grade to work with her parents in the cotton fields of West Texas to help provide for the family.
Leaving school, though, was a difficult decision for Linda, who never lost her thirst for knowledge and interest in civic issues. Teaching herself to read and write Spanish, she secured herself a job as bilingual secretary for the Construction Laborers’ Union in Lubbock. After moving to San Antonio, she represented public servants working her way up the ranks of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, eventually rising to the position of Texas State Director. In an election by her peers from across the country, Chavez-Thompson was chosen to serve as the Executive Vice President of the national AFL-CIO — the first woman and the first person of color to hold that position.
A nationally recognized speaker, Chavez-Thompson has traveled the globe sharing her ideas on the importance of everyday workers to our economic success. What was once a controversial approach, Chavez-Thompson’s views today are considered conventional wisdom — that when workers are able to both provide for and look after their families, they become more productive economic contributors. In her personal life, Chavez Thompson is a reflection of the power of the American Dream — rising from the cotton fields of West Texas, to a career as a national labor leader, to raising two children who now have families of their own.
President Bill Clinton appointed Chavez-Thompson to serve on his Race Advisory Board, as well as on the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. In 2004, at the American Association of People with Disabilities’ (AAPD) Leadership Gala, Chavez-Thompson was honored with an award named after her —recognizing her lifelong commitment to those with disabilities and families within the labor movement. Today, Linda continues to serve as the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
As the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor, Chavez-Thompson has devoted her campaign to increasing economic opportunities through education — speaking out on issues including the importance of early literacy, parental involvement, and the need to make a college education affordable for working families.
As a child, Linda Chavez-Thompson picked cotton to support her family and couldn’t afford to finish her education. Through years of hard work, Linda rose to national prominence as a leader for working families, and today, she is running for Lt. Governor to make sure every Texas child has the opportunities that weren’t available to her.
Linda Chavez-Thompson may be an underdog running against a millionaire, but unlike David Dewhurst and the Republicans, Linda knows we can’t afford to write off a generation of Texas children who must be prepared for good jobs in the new economy.
Just last year, David Dewhurst showed he was willing to write off thousands of Texans by applying a different standard to us than he applies to himself. During the debate on the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Dewhurst demanded that working families re-enroll for CHIP coverage every six months instead of annually, saying he doesn’t think people “have a lot of sympathy for someone that can’t fill out a two-page application every six months.”Yet when it came to his own business dealings, Dewhurst failed to file legal forms in a timely fashion six times – forms required to conduct his business legally in Texas.
After twelve years in statewide office, David Dewhurst may think he is entitled to special treatment, but Texans have had their fill of hypocritical politicians who use their offices for career advancement while ignoring the everyday concerns of Texas families.
Many Texas families are working hard to make ends meet during tough times. The economy is down and unemployment is up, but Dewhurst has refused to do right by Texans. During the 2009 legislative session, Senate Democrats proposed amendments to regulate soaring insurance rates, prevent foreclosures, help veterans, and fully fund CHIP. And a bipartisan Senate majority even voted to accept federal funding to bolster the state unemployment fund, despite a complete lack of leadership from Dewhurst, who failed to take a position on the issue for over a year. More often than not, Dewhurst sided with the most partisan Republicans to sell Texas families short.
After a lifetime of hard work, Linda Chavez-Thompson became a respected national leader for working families. Linda won’t back down to extremists who want to use our children’s classrooms to indoctrinate them instead of educating them. She will work to reduce dropout rates and make college affordable again. David Dewhurst and the Republicans may be willing to let some children fall through the cracks, but Linda knows that is a recipe for economic failure for all Texans.
Linda Chavez-Thompson will give hard working Texans a voice in our State Capitol that is missing today. For eight years, David Dewhurst has not heard the concerns of working Texans, much less spoken for us. Texans can send a message to the career politicians who serve the special interests by electing Linda Chavez-Thompson, a hard working Texan who will stand up for us and the concerns of working families.
What it means when the last bookstore closes…
Laredo, Texas, with a population of 250,000 now has the distinction of being the largest city in the nation without a bookstore. B. Dalton’s bookstore shut its doors for good on January 16th. Put another tombstone in the predominantly Hispanic south side of San Antonio now that Waldenbooks has left, leaving no bookstore for miles.
We’re not looking for pity here in Texas, but we are waiting for Republican leaders to recognize that this is an economic crisis of our own making.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, by the year 2014, 2 million jobs will be created in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
A bookstore would sure come in handy.
But despite the bragging of Governor Rick Perry and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst that Texas is creating jobs, the reality is one out of three students are walking out of our high schools without a diploma. Among Latinos, it’s one out of two.
But dropouts are just a symptom of a broken system — a system that has already failed our children before they’ve even entered the first grade. Parenting Magazine, not your typical political reading I realize, recently spelled out the epidemic that is the early literacy crisis:
“While a child growing up in a middle class neighborhood will own an average of 13 books at any given time, low-income communities average about one book for every 300 children.”
By the way, not only do Hispanics now make up over 50% of public school students from kindergarten through second grade in Texas, but one out of every two Hispanic children lives in poverty.
So if the Republican leadership doesn’t want to listen to a lifelong labor organizer and the daughter of a cotton sharecropper, they should at least listen to their own advisors. Steve Murdock, the former state demographer and Bush appointee, warned years ago that, “our fates are intertwined and related. How well our non-Anglo citizens do in Texas is how well Texas will do.” (Amen.) Murdock explains that because educational attainment is faltering, average wages in 2040 will be lower in constant dollars than wages in the year 2000.
For those who don’t know my story, I was forced to quit school in the ninth grade to help support my family in the cotton fields of West Texas. It’s ugly work. So when I got a chance to work as a bilingual secretary for the local labor union, I took it. Twenty-eight years later, I was the first woman of color to serve as the Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO. After a lifetime of working to lift wages up for working families, I’m not going to sit idly by as Republican neglect of education — from pre-K to college — drives wages down.
I realize Texans are known for their big talk. But the outside world needs to know there is some truth to the Texas myth. Because when you’re born in the Lone Star State, you just grow up believing the sky is the limit. It’s true for this daughter of a cotton sharecropper. And in today’s economy, it can still hold true for any Texas child with a book in their hand.