stage 8 blog

I agree with you that spending $89 million dollars or more per year on these standardized tests is a little ridiculous. Especially with the new budget cuts in the education department, they could really use some extra money to improve both school facilities and curriculums. I'm not quite sure however if they can completely get rid of the idea of standardized testing. Even though I agree that these type of testing does not properly measure a student's ability or knowledge, it still provides some kind of measure to analyze the students' and schools' progress. It might not be the ideal way, but I'm afraid that as of now it might be the only practical way without getting even more expensive and complicating the process even more. Perhaps one way they could reduce the cost is to administer it online or at least digitally on the computer. This would at the very least relieve the cost of the scantron papers, which are expensive.

I strongly believe that laying off the much needed faculty and staff is not the way to go, especially when Texas is one of the lowest state with high school graduation rate. I agree that we should encourage the Texas Legislatures to allow teachers to focus on helping students interact and actually apply the information taught, instead of stressing so much over passing the STAAR exam.

 http://texas101katherinevasicek.blogspot.kr/2012/08/standardized-testing-today.html

Rejecting Medicaid

The Supreme Court decided last month that under the Affordable Care Act, the expansion of Medicaid should be optional. Ever since, more and more Republican governors have been trying to pass it up. Among them is the Texas Gov. Rick Perry. 

He declared quite defiantly as he said, " I will not be party to socializing health care and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government." 

He believes that "neither a state exchange nor the expansion of medicaid under this program would result in better 'patient protection' or in more affordable care. They would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care."

While all this confident and defiant decision is good, we can't help but notice some major flaws about it. It appears that this  was more of Perry's decision based on his ideologies because it leaves some severe disadvantages for the public. 

The decision hurts county taxpayers and the hospitals they support, forcing them to continue paying for the uninsured. Hospitals pass along the cost of treating uninsured patients to insured patients

Another question is that would it end up costing less if the uninsured Texans were relying on emergency rooms every time with something as minor as the common cold? 

While Perry thinks that he is protecting Texans from "already unsustainable Medicaid program" he should suggest ways in which he is going to deal with the negative effects of his decisions. 

stage 6

I also agree that making budget cuts aren't the answer, especially in the education programs when it's funding is already really small. School systems are suffering from lack of needed resources ranging from textbooks to teachers. Texas is already behind in the level of education when compared to other states. Recently, this department took a toll with 600 lost jobs, which equates to 0.3% decline. Education is so important in economic, political, and cultural growth, and yet this is the sector that is taking the most hit.
There is not one right way to do budget cuts, but I think the government should more closely examine where they are spending the most and see if it was money well spent - how much of an impact did it make or not make? If it didn't make much impact, does that mean that the government should cut the budget from there, or spend more there?




http://www.statesman.com/business/austin-area-jobs-report-shows-first-hint-of-1546806.html?cxtype=rss_ece_frontpage

Texas Whips Planned Parenthood into Shape

The battle between Planned Parenthood and Texas has been the hot issue, especially when Judge Jerry Smith of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the Texas funding for Planned Parenthood could be ended after all. At a glance, this looks like just a pro-abortion vs anti-abortion issue but the argument goes a little bit technical.  Planned parenthood is fighting back saying that if Texas cuts the funds, that just means it’s ‘war on women’ since more women here won’t be able to get general treatments like birth control and cancer tests. However, before the whole pro-abortion vs anti-abortion controversy, Planned Parenthood brought this upon themselves by defrauding the Medicaid Women’s Health Program out of millions of dollars. This was done by “billing for medical services not rendered, billing for unwarranted medical services, billing for services not covered by Medicaid and creating false information in medical records which was material to billing for medical services.” No wonder the government doesn’t want their taxpayer dollars to go to Planned Parenthood. This is just evidence that Planned Parenthood has become a business obsessed with ways to earn money using loopholes rather than fulfilling the role of a healthcare system for women. This kind of unethical course of action largely lost the government funding. They really need to stop defrauding and have a clean image in order for them to fully argue that Texas is violating individual rights. Unless Planned Parenthood majorly changes their approach, Texas is right to start this journey protesting against Planned Parenthood. 

The Medicaid Issue

This blog commentary addresses the ongoing Medicaid issue. The author firsts posts part of an article from Kaiser Health News, which talks about how Gov. Rick Perry is rejecting the “Obamacare power grab” and will block measures expanding health insurance to millions in this state. Perry is one of more than half a dozen Republican governors resisting the federal Medicaid support. After this article, the author of the blog comments how Rick Perry is “a politician who loves to say no, especially when it comes to something the Obama administration wants to do.” The author positions Perry as ideological politician who is out to say no to anything the Obama administration does. The author argues that Perry has no interest in improving state services, fixing the problems of the uninsured, or supporting business entities that live off funding for Medicaid.  The author evidences how Perry is purely ideologically driven by commenting how Rick Perry turned down federal unemployment funds during the recession.

The author’s intended audience is mainly at the people who support Rick Perry, because I think he/she wants to make those supporters become to understand how irrational Perry’s actions are.

The author is credible because not only is it written by the senior executive editor, Paul Burka, but it’s also the blog of Texas Monthly which is an established newspaper.

I think Paul Burka nailed it. I agree with both authors that Rick Perry is for sure going to have a hard time fabricating some ‘sound reasoning’ as to why he said no.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=13896

Maynard for State Board of Education

The editorial discusses  about voting for the better representation on the State Board of Education in this upcoming election. The author explains that there are two equally qualified candidates, Rebecca Osborne (a teacher at McNeil High School) and Tom Maynard (director of the Texas Future Farmers of America). The author makes the claim that it would be a smarter choice to go with Tom Maynard because he has the leadership and communication skills to “help get the fractious board back on the right track.” The board is in such a fragile shape, it is going to need firmer leadership than ever, which he believes that Maynard’s wide variety of experiences will help take the board in the direction needed. The author also advocates Maynard’s conservative approach, meaning that he pledged to adhere to local control.

Another secondary argument that he makes is that even though people aren’t as familiar with state boards, they should pay attention because the state board does plenty that affects local school districts and individual schools. They review textbooks and instructional materials, sets curriculum standards for schools, and deals with Permanent School Funds. Even though we don’t hear about State Board of Education very often, it still plays a vital role behind the scenes. The author ends the article by saying “ Doing nothing emboldens the hardliners. Please vote. Do that next week, starting Monday.”

The author’s intended audience is people who are eligible to vote and those who are involved in education in anyway. It could be those who are passionately on the lookout for Texas’ education, or mothers, teachers, professors and etc. As for the credibility of the author, I’m a little hesitant because there is no name of the author – it just says “Editorial Board.” I understand why they want to keep it semi-anonymous, but not knowing who the writer is and what kind of position they are in, decreases the credibility a little. I agree with the author, that Maynard may be the candidate because I believe in their local control approach. Something that could be appropriate to b taught at AISD could be in appropriate for another district, with a different background and needs.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/maynard-best-choice-in-gop-runoff-2419779.html

Budget cuts effect Education

We are slowly on our way to recover from the recession. This can be seen by the fact that Austin-area employers added 13,700 jobs in 12 months in 2011, which is a 1.8% annual gain. However, these additions of new jobs are coming at a cost.  The region’s largest job sector is the government, which includes local school districts and higher education. This sector took a toll with 600 jobs lost which equates to 0.3% decline.  These cutbacks were even more serious in other large cities in Texas, with Dallas loosing 3.200 government jobs for example. The article concludes with a prediction that private sector employers will begin to hire more, which will make up for the job losses in government and school district. Even though this article is more about the economic state of Texas, it’s interesting because of the government’s choice to cut their budgets on education – this was the result of the government’s budgetary choice. Education is so important in economic, political, cultural growth, and yet this is the sector that is taking the most hit.

http://www.statesman.com/business/austin-area-jobs-report-shows-first-hint-of-1546806.html?cxtype=rss_ece_frontpage