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