Comment on My Only News Source is Jon Stewart

Although I do think legalizing marijuana for revenues is a great idea, I do think there are a few things to consider when doing so. First, I think the state needs to consider is how to prevent or test people driving under the influence of marijuana and a legal limit just like the .08 alcohol limit. Testing for marijuana include blood tests, urine tests, and saliva tests. These wouldn’t be valid for accurate readings right away when trying to test the person for results right away. Another thing to consider would be the possible increased amount of traffic accidents that could be related to marijuana use. With the significant amount of people who drink and drive, the number of people under the influence of marijuana would be just as likely to drive. Legalizing marijuana is a big step and would help with helping with the budget deficit in our economy but for it to be abused would be a big problem within the people.  United States government, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bureau of Mortality Statistics--

ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY DRUGS
TOBACCO …………………… 400,000
ALCOHOL …………………… 100,000
ALL LEGAL DRUGS ………….20,000
ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS ……….15,000
CAFFEINE …………………….2,000
ASPIRIN ………………………500
MARIJUANA …………………. 0

As you can see, Marijuana isn’t nearly as dangerous as tobacco, alcohol, legal and illegal drugs, etc. If tobacco is the worst, why isn’t it illegal? Tobacco makes up for so much revenue that Texas wouldn’t be able to afford to get rid of it. As being in favor of legalizing marijuana, I do believe that there are many hurdles to face and figure out a solution before legalizing it. 

Ways we can improve education funding

Texas schools obviously need to change a few things in order to improve the education system. Not only do they need to have changes for students and parents, but for teachers as well. With the hundreds of thousands of teachers being laid off, schools can develop new plans that will help bring some teachers back. The Keller ISD pay to ride plan bus program developed this plan to help save $2 million to help rehire some of the teachers they had to let go. This article states that it costs from $260 to $360 for each student who rides on a bus each year. I don't have kids in school which might be why I agree with this plan. The fee they require isn't excessive that it would be a big burden on families and if it was, Keller ISD offers help to low-income families that might have trouble paying the fee. I think if more schools developed this plan, they could do the same in rehiring the thousands of teacher that were let go because of the huge budget deficit in education. If the parents aren't willing to pay the fee for their children to ride the bus, they'll find a way to transport their children themselves which will save even more for school funding. 

A criticism that I have read from a few bloggers and from personal experience is that I don't believe programs such as cosmetology, band, and athletics should not be completely cut out. The high school that I went to has now cut the cosmetology program in order to save money for the school district. I don't believe this is a good idea because I don't believe school and college is for everyone. The kids that are involved with these programs need to have a career in something and by taking cosmetology away, that takes away more opportunities for high school kids to have a career.  I don't believe athletics and sports programs should be taken away because of the life lessons involved with sports. Being on a team teaches self-discipline and how to work with other people and those are life lessons you need in life. 

Texas should get rid of textbooks. Costs of textbooks are ridiculously high for both K-12 and college students. As a college student, I used to spend at least $300 on textbooks each semester but that has improved a little since you can rent them now. Students in elementary and secondary schools that lose their textbooks cost taxpayers thousands of dollars each year. The five year bill for Central Texas came out to be $340,000 for textbooks. The middle school I went to had a class set of textbooks and each student had their own set of textbooks to take home. I think that is unnecessary that the school has that many textbooks for each student to have two copies. With the technology out there now, schools should be able to develop a new way to get textbooks like electronic books. With online textbooks, schools won't have to keep purchasing new editions of the textbooks because it is easier to have access to the newest information electronically. 

Comment on One Star

When I was reading your blog, I came across this article that interested me because I read this very same article about Keller ISD. I have to say that I think this idea of the pay to ride plan is a good idea. Transportation to and from school for one student costs the district from $260 to $360 per student a year. The pay to ride plan isn't asking too much from parents and if it isn't affordable to parents, they'll find a way to arrange transportation for their kids which would save even more money for the district. District officials predict to save $2 million with this plan and want to use it towards rehiring the teachers they had to let go. Keller ISD even offered to help find ways for low-income families to afford the pay to ride fee if they weren't able to come up with it. Two North Texas school districts were considering the pay to ride plan in order to help with the crisis of education funding in Texas. 

Keller ISD Pay-to-ride plan

Everything's bigger in Texas, even budget deficits.

As you can see on my previous postings, I care about the education funding quite a bit. An article I read on CNN Money by Tami Luhby, states that Texas' budget plan cuts $31 billion in spending to try and balance out the budget crisis. Education and Medicaid were the two that would be hit particularly hard. Growing up, I've always had people tell me that teaching and the medical field was the way to go with a career. In my previous post, the article was about how Texas was cutting the funds on doctor training programs and how 60% is being slashed from that. Teacher layoffs in Texas were said to cut 100,000 teaching jobs from public schools across Texas because of the huge budget deficit our state is facing right now. 100,000 jobs from public schools is a third of teachers that are employed by public schools. Is the medical and teaching field the safe way to go? As of today I think that we can all agree that it isn't. Governor Rick Perry has a priority to bring jobs to Texas but how is that when so many jobs are being taken away? I have a hard time believing that our state's economy will improve in a couple of years. Our economy is the way it is because our country and state are over populated and jobs aren't able to keep up with the people. Many teachers are losing their jobs while college students are graduating and looking for jobs. When our economy improves, who gets the jobs? Many schools are developing the plans to rehire the teachers they let go but will there be enough jobs for upcoming teachers?  According to Texas on the Brink, Texas is ranked 50th in the United States for having people over 25 with a high school diploma and 43rd for the highschool graduation rate. Texas is known for having a poor education system and it obviously needs to improve but how is that supposed to come about with the budget cuts from education? These kids that are being educated right now are the future of Texas, how is our state supposed to improve when education keeps getting worse?

Who needs doctors anyways? Texas does!

According to the article, Tough times for teaching hospitals, the state Legislature is cutting funds from doctor-training programs. Texas is already ranked 42nd in the number of physicians per population, losing doctors because our state doesn't have enough residency slots in order to train the medical students. Dr Kenneth Shine, the University of Texas System's executive vice chancellor for health affairs, says that the state cuts will have a huge impact and threat for our state to be able to provide health care to Texans. State cuts include cutting funding for doctor training programs by 60%. Charles Kuffner states that he thought the reform was going to solve all of our problems with the shortage of doctors in our state.I have to agree with his blog when disagreeing to the cutting funds of the medical field. Education was supposed to be the place that stays safe no matter how bad our economy got yet it's where some of the biggest cuts are being taken from. Yes, Texas needs to cut spending in numerous places, but education should be the last considering they are the future of our state. In the blog, Kuffner states ,"We're not doing what's smart of what's fair, we're doing what's left to do after a whole range of other options are taken off the table." This I also agree with. Cuts are being made from the wrong places especially when Texas is trying to raise the percentage of people who have higher education. How do they expect to do this when they are taking away opportunities, especially from the medical field when that's what is in demand now?

Cutting big government means failing education

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-politics/2011/06/uresti-cutting-big-government-means-failing-education/

With the economy being the way it is right now, funding for education is limited. Education was supposed to and should be the last place the government should cut from. Teachers have lost their jobs, schools have shut down, and classrooms are getting larger. In this article, Uresti states that education should be our number one priority and I would have to agree with him. Education shouldn't be a burden on the economy because the children in our education system are our future.  An example is used on how bad the education system is becoming by talking about a school in his city. The North East Independent District in San Antonio is expected to lose $28.4 million next year under the new funding formulas. This results in cutting 26 elementary teaching jobs, 35 middle school teaching jobs, 30 high school teaching jobs, and more than 150 central office positions, general assistants, clerical administrators, and 25 campus administrators and other professionals according to the San Antonio Express-News. This week, San Antonio's Judson Independent School District is getting rid of 79 positions to cover the loss of $9 million. This is only from two school districts in Texas, imagine how much it is affecting Texas as a state. I remember seeing on the news that 7 schools were closing in Austin as of last year. Why cut from the education system? The diminishing education system of Texas is obviously a crisis in our state and it needs to be changed. Why cut from education when there are other places to cut from?

Perry Visits with Former Pakistan President

Rick Perry, not a name that should be unfamiliar to anyone living in Texas, is most likely planning on entering the Republican race for president.  While you may be for or against this idea at all is up to you, but while this article is quite short, I still think it shows a much larger vision of Perry's future plans.  The article basically talks about them and their wives meeting in Austin and discussing a few various topics, in particularly the U.S.'s suspension of 800 million dollars which would originally have been going to help aide Pakistan's military.  This maybe just a brief meeting and "lunch date", I believe that Perry is making significant strides to position himself for a run at the oval office in 2012.  I think this article is worth a read for anyone in this class mainly because of it's subliminal message that I feel it tells.  After reading this one should at least consider the idea that Perry, Texas' Governor, could be planting his feet on a path to the presidential race.


http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2011/07/12/perry_meets_with_former_pakist.html