Commentary #2

Melissa Villareal wrote an editorial titled "Blog Stage 7" which discusses the matter on whether or not the city of Austin should reinstate the ban of plastic bags. Ms. Villareal argues that Austin should absolutely reinstate the ban on plastic bags. She does a very good in forming her argument around the fact that it is simply what is best for the environment. She also mentions that after the Notre Dame Cathedral burned down they were able to raise $850 million but efforts like that can't be matched for our environment and the well being of our future planet. The post was a well-formulated argument and I couldn't agree more with her.

Tobacco Purchasing Age?

     The Austin City Council unanimously approved a revision that would raise the legal age to purchase tobacco from 18, to 21 years old. The city ordinance is mainly being brought to question due to the recent uprise in e-cigarette and vape use amongst teens and young adults.
     I believe that this is a great idea and will elimate a majority of high schoolers being able to directly purchase any nicotine or tobacco products (since seniors in high school on average 18 years old).  By raising the age to 21 that elimates the oldest students within the public school system in Austin (18) and those in charge no longer having to worry about others in the school being able to purchase through older students.
      Overall the revision will be good in eliminating the majority of high school vape and e-cig users and will also indirectily aid in preventing some from smoking/ trying cigarettes.

Commentary: Texas' illegal decrease in special ed funding (Luna Trevino)

Luna Trevino wrote an editorial titled "Texas' illegal decrease in special ed funding". The editorial discussed the possibility of owing the federal government nearly $233 million dollars due to decreased funding in special education. Trevinos main argument was supported by her implementation of dollar based statistics and the fact that Texas' education official are restricting the amount of those who can receive disability services. She does a good job in providing the information to the audience and even incorporating an embedded link to a Texas Tribune article to support her claim. While I wish there would have been more examples as to how Texas is using those funds and more specific cases surrounding the general topic, Ms. Trevino did an overall good job on her editorial and concluded by bring to question as to where Texas would raise those $233 million dollars.

Obsession or Necessity?

     "The Wall" has been a controversial topic amongst the nation as a whole these past few years and a topic that has been talked about even prior to President Trump's election into office in 2016. As of recent on February 15th, 2019 Trump declared a national state of emergency on the border in which many think to be in order for him to receive funding for his infamous wall. The reason why many believe that his call for a national state of emergency is for wall funding is because Trump basically admitted to it during his speech stating, "I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn't need to do this, but id rather do it much faster". Trump is able to get away with this because there technically is no legal definition of an emergency.
     Prior to the national state of emergency, Donald Trump had suggested that Texas could help in funding for the border wall and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick seemed to entertain the idea. Trump stated that “One of the things that Dan Patrick suggested, which I thought was very interesting, was: Give the state of Texas a relatively small amount of money — they’ll build a wall themselves, cause they wanna build it,” (Emma Platoff, The Texas Tribune). Now I don't know where Mr. Patrick plans to get this money from but I do know that Texas' priority should not be on a preposterous and inhuman wall.
     Dan Patrick should be more focused on more relevant issues for Texans such as helping those affected by Hurricane Harvey in establishing their former way of life or putting more funding towards public schools and helping those in need of healthcare. There is no "invasion" on the border as Trump says and there is absolutely no need for a wall. I hope that those in office representing Texas come to their senses and quickly see that money should be spread elsewhere.

STAAR, Why Are The Grades So Low?

Walt Gardner, a writer for the Houston Chronicle, published an editorial on March 8th, 2019 titled "STAAR results not necessarily what they seem". Gardner starts the editorial by stating that during this time of high importance taxpayers (the public in general) should have the right to know whether both schools and teachers are performing well. Gardner does a good job of explaining in detail what exactly the "STAAR" test is and what the state of Texas has to implement into the test in order for it to remain "discriminate between strong and weak students but not against groups of students". 

     The opinion piece also does a good job in explaining the decision behind Texas ultimately not implementing common core with the main reason being because of the belief that it interfered with control of local education. Another big concern brought into question by Gardner is over the Texas Education Agency defending its testing items after a company called MetaMetrics ran some tests using the results from STAAR exams by using Lexile measures (which measure students reading abilities) and the company concluded that the students were at a sufficient reading level, while STAAR determined the students were below average.

     I believe that Gardner did an amazing in questioning the Texas Education Agencies decision to uphold the STAAR test. Gardner made her biggest point by stating that the test should be used as a frame of reference in order to give schools and teachers constructive criticism but it is instead used against "persistently failing schools whose students do not measure up" and with the actions being "the state takes them over, or teachers are summarily fired".  Overall Gardner uses concrete evidence to support her claims which make her opinion piece a good read.

     

Should Texas Teachers Receive A Raise?

The editorial board of the Dallas News website published a piece titled "Here's why every teacher shouldn't get a $5,000 raise" on February 27th, 2019. The editorial discusses recently approved Senate Bill 3 which was unanimously approved on February 25th, 2019 by the Texas Senate Committee on Finance and will move on to be debated in a full Senate. Senate Bill 3 would give classroom teachers $5,000 beginning next year and approximately 350,000 educators would be eligible for this raise. This means that the total amount would increase by about $1,750,000. While the editorial board finds the intention of Senate Bill 3 to be wholehearted they also find it to be flawed and therefore the reason why it should not be passed. The board argues that by giving every single teacher the automatic raise we would be doing students a further disservice by not implementing any form of a teacher "reward system". I find myself conflicted in these regards. While, yes, public school teachers should be making more money I also find it to be reasonable to have some form of "prerequisite" so to speak in order to receive the $5,000 raise. In today's public school systems there are actions enforced for teachers to reach a certain quota with the amount (percentage) of kids each teacher have pass standardized assessments. Teachers having the constant pressure of standardized assessment satisfaction rates are already enough strain on them, therefore, this shouldn't be further punishment disabling them from receiving a raise. I do not have the answer for how these raises should be distributed but I do agree with the board on the Texas Senate needing to find a reasonable method in doing so.

Mental Health In The State Of Texas

On February 12th Julie Chang published her article titled "Emergency mental health bill advances in Texas Senate" on the Austin American-Statesman website. The article discusses Senate bill 10 which was recently unanimously cleared by a state Senate committee and will now advance to the Senate. Chang explains that the bill is in response to last years Santa Fe High School shooting (near Houston, TX) which left 10 innocent people dead. While the Senate bill is aimed towards helping children, adults are also able to receive forms of treatment and help. Some of the things included in the bill are "mental health hubs" located regionally throughout the state with the help of psychiatrists, the creation of "Child Psychiatry Health Network" which would aid pediatricians and primary care physicians in consulting with mental health experts, and many more benefits to both healthcare workers and patients. I highly recommend reading this article because it is both interesting and informative (not to mention the fact that it is short and sweet).

Introduction

Hello class!