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.