It's also not a coincidence that Paul Hobby is making education one of his campaign themes. It matters little to him that the comptroller's job has little or nothing to do with education. "The comptroller can't fix public schools," says Hobby the Younger, "but I can demonstrate the consequences of not fixing them." Paul Hobby wants to expand the Texas Tomorrow Fund, the prepaid college-tuition program that was created by the Texas Legislature in 1995. The fund allows parents and others to buy education contracts that are backed by the full faith and credit of the state. After its purchase, the contract locks in a certain tuition rate for students at the state school of their choice. Paul Hobby says he will use the fund, which is administered by the comptroller, "To go right at the lower-middle-income families who don't think college is affordable, and demonstrate that it is." He hopes to increase enrollment in the fund from the current level, 65,000 contracts, to half a million contracts.
Asked why he is focusing on education, Paul Hobby replied, "because education is the only government-sponsored wealth-creation device that works." The candidate is far more talkative and uses hipper language than his father. But his sentiment and his motivation stretch back three generations. "A lot of people ask what was it like, growing up in my family," he explains. "The thing that may be different was that there was never any 'they' at our dinner table. You couldn't say, 'They are a bunch of idiots.' The whole ethic was, 'If something is not right, either go change it, or hush up.' "
He later added, "I knew I was obliged to give something back."
It's an old-fashioned sentiment. And it sounds almost quaint, particularly in an era when cynicism and apathy about politics are so evident. Real people don't say things like that anymore, do they? You do if your last name happens to be Hobby. Never mind that the city's second-largest airport carries that moniker, or that the city's new music hall, soon to be built adjacent to City Hall, will be called the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, or that on August 26 the city held its 162nd birthday celebration and decided to honor Bill Hobby and his wife, Diana, for their service to the city, state and educational causes.
There really are no good explanations for what drives Bill Hobby. He has everything he needs and then some. He could retire and spend the rest of his days on his passions: hunting foxes in Ireland, riding horses in Montana and solving math problems. And yet, when it comes to educational issues, he can't sit in the hallway. He has to be at the chalkboard, drawing a graph, making a chart or figuring a plan of attack. Asked about his motivation, he replies, almost curtly, "Education is really the only agent of change in society. That's how we all live better lives."
It's a simple answer. And true. Just don't expect Bill Hobby to elaborate.
