Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White talked about education and economic development and mostly avoided partisan subjects Friday during a meeting at the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce.

It was a chance for the former Houston mayor, with a background in law and business, to burnish his boardroom bona fides.

White talked about the positive “return on investment” that early childhood and voluntary summer school programs have.

Bill White (center) receives the JFK Profile in Courage Award from Caroline Kennedy (left) and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in 2007 in Boston. As then-mayor of Houston, White headed an effort to aid many Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
Chitoze Susuki/Associated Press

He framed the importance of education in terms of workforce development.

“You can build a medical center, but something’s wrong if you have to import nurses,” White said.

White focused on the Texas Enterprise Fund, which is used to lure out-of-state businesses to Texas. He said the fund was susceptible to political manipulation.

White said that, as governor, he would be more aggressive in selling the state to businesses.

“I’d set aside time every month, maybe every week, to cold-call companies,” he said.

He also said he would bring the state’s chambers of commerce into the fold when it comes to choosing what companies are given incentives to come to Texas.

White said he wanted to take such decisions out of the hands of politicians and give them back to businesses that, through unemployment taxes, keep the fund going.

Though White touched on his ideas for improving the state’s educational system and increasing graduation rates, he didn’t wade into a dispute he’s had this week with Gov. Rick Perry about how bad the dropout rate is in Texas.

Battling statistics

White’s campaign said Perry’s rhetoric about accountability in schools hasn’t matched the state’s results, as shown by high school graduation and dropout data.

“Students are slipping through the cracks every day,” said a White spokeswoman in a statement, which noted roughly 30 percent of students don’t graduate high school in four years.

Perry’s camp countered with its own statistic: Ninety percent of students eventually graduate.

Both figures are technically correct, and neither is perfect.

According to the Texas Tribune, the method for Perry’s calculation assumes students who make it past four years in high school will finish eventually, though some drop out.

White’s figure doesn’t count students who graduate in more than four years.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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