Comments on Government Welfare Assistance

Amanda Thompson wrote in her blog "Kidnapped and Dragged to Texas" 'To Test or Not To Test' in regards to whether or not we should drug test people who want to receive government assistance.

I would have to agree with this post. I would be FOR drug testing to receive any welfare or benefits from the government.

I know it's not the case for everyone, but there are too many cases where people are just abusing the system and taking what they can take from the government as long as the government will keep giving, and they have no intention of ever getting a job. This preventative action would help weed out some of those cases and really narrow it down to the people who really need the help and who are actually going to do something with it.

This also might help the government cut back on some unnecessary expenses that are being wasted on people who are going to stay in the system and not go anywhere. It would allow some extra funds to be able to help others and maybe free up some money that can go into other areas of the state budget, such as education.

To add to this though, it might be nice if there was a partner charity foundation that could team up with citizens who need welfare assistance but who can't pass a drug test. This would be reserved for people who really do want to get clean and be able to get some assistance from the government to get back on their feet. This might be a good alternative to just shutting the doors on some of these people and sending them back out into the world if they actually want the help to get back on their feet.

STAAR Testing

I saw on the news that the Board of Education is wanting to make the STAAR Test 15% of a student's high school grade. It was actually sent back by the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, but the Education Commissioner stated that they are going to review and decide what percentage if any it should count as part of the student's grade.

Having a mother that is a teacher, I think this is a terrible idea. The way the STAAR test has been modified, they have increased the rigor and focus so much attention for the school system on the results of the testing, that it has totally changed the dynamic of the classroom. Teachers have to focus nearly all their time instructing to make sure that these students pass this test because the funding and ranking of a school depends on how well students do on the test; the student passing to the next grade depends on it as well. However, teachers aren't allowed to see the test or even know what is on it, so they have to teach to these general ideas and do the best they can to make sure the students understand the material. The problem is, there AP or advanced students, and there are students at a regular or even slower paced level -some even with learning disabilities, who have to take this test. And their learning methods are all very different and some need a lot more attention and time than others. But, because the teachers are basically being told what they have to teach, and given all these "topics" to teach on, they have to go at a certain pace, and it is pretty rushed. This doesn't give the teacher any room to be creative- to use creative ways to help the students learn and understand. They don't have the time or opportunity to teach them certain life-skills that come (or used to come) with everyday education, and there are a lot of important stories, lessons, and the like, that the students don't get to learn because the curriculum has been totally changed to focus on this one test.

The problem with this is, a student passing a test does not show that they have learned or been given all the resources they need to move on in life or to the next grade. It shows that they **hopefully** learned how to pass the STAAR test. In addition to that, many students have issues with testing- maybe have test anxiety or just don't perform well on tests, and this is a standardized test which is already different from what students take in their everyday classes. With that, the state has gone and made this test even more difficult and used larger, harder words, etc. It's not an accurate measure of students' comprehension of subjects or the knowledge and skills they have developed. There are so many problems with this test and the policies that come along with it that I don't even have time to get into. My main argument is, students are not fully equipped with the way things are set up now, and this definitely should not be factored into their final grade to determine whether or not they get to graduate. When trying to get into colleges, all that should matter is that they passed- maybe even how well they did. But there isn't a standardized test like this at the college level, so their performance shouldn't dictate their regular GPA. Colleges need to see that a student knows how to perform in the classroom and manage their time. That could  be a totally different reflection on their GPA than the results of the STAAR Test, so that should be what is recorded at the end of the school year. The STAAR Test should have nothing to do with it.

Comments on "The Donkey's Head"-Why We Shouldn't have Texas Voter ID Law

This post on "The Donkey's Head" blog is about 'Why we Shouldn't have a Texas Voter ID Law'. I would have to agree with this post. There is a whole class of people who don't have identification because they don't use it on a regular basis or can't afford to have it and it isn't essential to their life. There are even some people, as Samantha mentioned, who have lost their identification in major tragedies or natural disasters and haven't had the means or the documentation to replace them.

I think having the Texas Voter ID Law would prohibit a lot of people from voting. I don't think that the current way we have voter registration and voting set up is a system that is allowing illegals to vote-- and if so, not on a large enough scale for it to matter. I think it would cause more of a problem of the opposite effect- it would keep people from voting more so than it would prevent illegals from voting. The laws only state that you have to be a citizen of the United States and you have to be registered to vote. Anything more than that is impeding on our rights as citizens. It doesn't have to be, nor should it be, complicated. Making it difficult for people to vote will send us back to the place we were hundreds of years ago when there was poll tax and only white people were permitted to vote, etc. I'm against passing this law, and I agree with Samantha's post and analysis on this topic.

Expansion of the MetroRail in Austin

The MetroRail in Austin is a thoughtful idea of how to reduce our carbon footprint by bringing down gas/exhaust emissions in Austin in hopes that people will opt to travel by way of the MetroRail instead of using their cars. It is fairly affordable and in theory is a great idea. However, in the grand scheme of the total number of residents in the metro area, not nearly enough people are taking advantage of the MetroRail for Austin to utilize more tax payer money to expand it.

I have seen talk that it will cost upwards of $14 million just for the investigative studies to decide whether or not this is a worth-while project for Austin to take on. Research that costs that much money just to investigate if the city should take on the project is not an efficient use of tax payer money. There are too many other problems amongst our community that need to be addressed to be spending that kind of outrageously high-dollar tax payer money on investigative research to expand the MetroRail.

In addition, the way the metroplex of Austin is set up, the MetroRail doesn't really make a whole lot of logistical sense. We aren't set up like New York City. This is not to say that the MetroRail hasn't helped our city and doesn't contribute to any good cause, it's just to say that in an area like this, the likelihood that the majority of the population in the Austin metroplex will actually jump on the MetroRail band wagon is very slim. In downtown Austin, the idea of the MetroRail is a lot more feasible because of the way the city was designed. But in the surrounding communities, not as much. And even so, in the downtown area where these services would more likely be used, there are a lot more people that are riding bikes and walking as many places as possible.

Austin is a very environmentally conscious community. There are a lot of "tree-huggers" and "hippies" in Austin. That is just the community of people that is drawn here. The MetroRail may be a positive addition to our community, but until there is a greater population of people taking advantage of its resources, even the discussion of expansion of the MetroRail in Austin is ridiculous.

Raise Taxes in Austin for UT

Paul Burka writes the Burka Blog for Texas Monthly. He is a very well known journalist and I stumbled across this article he wrote called "Taxes for UT?" about the possibility of taxes being raised in austin for the expansion of its new medical school. He is obviously speaking to the general population of Austin that is eligible to pay taxes because he discusses how the University of Texas is wanting to have local property taxes raised $107.40 per household (this being an average number) in order to pay for their medical school. Reading this, I just think it is outrageous, but then I was comforted to find that Burka tends to agree that this might not be so easy to pass in Austin.

Burka suggests that UT should have done some major fundraising efforts as soon as they knew they were going to have to expand this school. I have to agree with him. Property taxes in Texas are so unstable anyway, without even taking this into consideration. I have been told story after story about people's property taxes/mortgage increasing $300 a month or $600 and without warning and there is nothing you can really do about it. Fortunately, I was informed by a friend in real estate that it looks like they have begun to change some of those laws and add more restrictions, but STILL. And in a situation like this, for the University of Texas to know they want to expand or update this department and not have it in the budget to do so, to have the gaul to even propose an increase in property taxes- and of such an extravagant amount- without even trying to pull some weight on their end with fundraising efforts is just absurd. In my opinion it's insulting to the community that they would try to "sneak one passed us". They are a very prestigious school and they are fully capable of doing fundraisers and finding different means of bringing in extra funds. Taxing the community is not the way to go about it. Especially when the vast majority of the Texas population couldn't or wouldn't be accepted to the school if they wanted to (because of being land locked and the top 10% rule in the state of Texas).

9-11 and the War with Iraq

The article I am critiquing is an article about 9-11 and our country going to war thereafter. "Willfully Blind to a System 'Blinking Red'" was written by Jody Seaborn on September 11, 2012. The particular portion of this article that I would like to discuss is the portion where Seaborn proceeds to discuss the neoconservatives "pushing us into a war that we didn't 'need'".

...Those same neoconservatives would, 18 months later, carry the nation into an unnecessary and unwarranted war with Iraq.

Seaborn is a journalist with the Statesman, and she does include links to other articles and commentary throughout her blog, but this statement is completely derived from opinion. If you were to ask the  average person, to whom she is writing, back in 2001-2002 what their stance was, most, republicans and democrats, would say we cannot stand idly by and do nothing while this country wages war on us.   During 9-11 was when the country really began to come together in a time of crisis and most people were in support of the war under the circumstances, though their normal political views would say otherwise. Reason being, nothing about 9-11 was normal. Nothing about the war with Iraq was unnecessary or unwarranted. When people from another country come onto your turf and devastate some of the most important buildings and places of business to our country and our economy and they kill thousands of innocent civilians, you don't just do nothing. Especially being Americans, who at the time had a very good reputation of strength and power in the world. You cannot allow other countries to make a pointed attack on your people and not retaliate. Doing so would show a serious weakness, a lack of care for the people of your country, and may even open doors for other "enemies" to attempt something similar or even worse. To say that the war on Iraq was unnecessary and unwarranted is ignorant, selfish, callous, and insensitive. This event totally changed the course of our history, but it also brought about such change and closeness among the American people that can never be taken away. We were and still are united as a country. No one will every forget what happened that day or the men and women who laid down their lives to make things right for us.  

Pension Reform

I found this article on the Texas Watchdog blog. It is called "Pension reform will be a bloody fight between GOP factions in the Texas Legislature". This article touches on the fact that this is what representatives are discussing now. It talks about the possibility of Pension Reform and what specific representatives' stances are on the topic. It also discusses different representatives' view points on the issue and how some think there is nothing wrong with our state pension plan and other think it needs a change. I think this is really good information that helps keep people in the loop of what is going on in their state and how these decisions will be affecting state employees and teachers, especially. I personally believe that teachers are grossly underpaid and could receive much better pension and benefits packages, so this article was very interesting to me.

Here is the link to the article "Pension reform will be a bloody fight between GOP factions in the Texas Legislature"