Welcome to Texas, can I see your passport ?

The Constitution itself does not prohibit secession, I think only the interpretation of the defeaters prohibits secession. I found this very interesting; Cheif Justice Roger Taney explained why succession is unconstitutional in a memorandum on 1 February 1861. (This is the Chief Justice  of the United States BEFORE the Civil War even started)"The South contends that a state has a constitutional right to secede from the Union formed with her sister states. In this I submit the South errs. No power or right is constitutional but what can be exercised in a form or mode provided in the constitution for its exercise. Secession is therefore not constitutional, but revolutionary; and is only morally competent, like war, upon failure of justice." In other words, there is no way for the concept of independent secession to be exercised under the US Constitution, for no mode or form of such is provided in that document. Honestly I don't think Texas should secede for many reasons. Texas was crushed the first time and will be crushed again if it tries to secede from the union it voluntarily entered into. Another thing is that Gov. Rick Perry opposes the idea, dismisses it as silly and says to move on. Texas needs federal money to balance its budget, and the Texas Constitution requires a balanced budget. I honestly have no idea how they plan on Texas to go it alone.  There’s a lot of boasting about the our economy and how it’s the best, but I haven’t seen or heard a solid plan as of yet.

Education in Texas

When people think of Texas and education, the first thing that comes to their mind is UT and how bad our education is. Even though Texas has been a leader among the U.S to improve the quality of public education, it is facing challenges in preparing students for success. The state’s student population has become more diverse over the last decade. In addition, The Texas Education Agency (TEA) reports that 127 languages are spoken by the state’s schoolchildren. In 1990, the Texas Legislature established the state’s first accountability system for public education based on school district and campus ratings tied to certain measurable indicators. The system currently uses TAKS test scores, alternative test scores for Special Education students, annual dropout rates and school completion rates. Using these indicators, the system rates school districts and campuses as “Exemplary,” “Recognized,” “Academically Acceptable” or “Academically Unacceptable.” According to the TAKS web page on 2011, 21 schools  were rated Academically Unacceptable.  628 were rated Exemplary; 2,317 were rated Recognized; 3,891 were rated Academically Acceptable; 232 were rated Academically Unacceptable; and 661 were listed as “Not Rated: Other.  In addition, Texas has also instituted the “Student Success Initiative,” which requires students to pass the TAKS reading assessment or an approved alternate test in third grade to advance to fourth grade. Students must also meet requirements for reading and mathematics in fifth grade and in eighth grade to be promoted to the next grade. Also to stronger graduation requirements, the state has made more college-level courses available to students in high school. Students are being offered more Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses , which provide college credit if students score high enough on exams. Despite recent progress, many education and business leaders remain concerned that Texas is not producing enough high school graduates with the skills needed to succeed in college or the workplace. To help address this concern the Texas Legislature directed the State Board of Education (SBOE) to develop college readiness standards and incorporate them into the TEKS, high school and college faculty are responsible for developing college readiness standards in English language arts, math, science and social studies.

Many students are not obtaining the advantages of recent educational improvements. The most common reason for dropping out is falling behind in school, the question here is, What can we do as students, parents or Texas residents to help improve our education?

Commentary about Austin's Environment

Austin’s environment should be more important than what it is now days. I completely agree with the article, people should take this serious and stop messing with Austin. I would prefer the stores to forget about the plastic bags and start using only the reusable bags. Stores need to start charging for plastic bags in case people forget theirs. But there is other ways to take care of the environment and “go green.” We can start at home, just by simply taking shorter showers or skipping the bottle water and buy a reusable one instead.

I don’t really think people would take advantage of the reusable bags to steal from the grocery stores, if we think about it, people does that already, so I don’t see why start using reusable bags will have any cons.

I think Austin needs more “go green” campaigns. Just like the Austin’s environment article states, “The more people are educated, the better because it can spread throughout the local community and it will eventually turn into something bigger from there.”

Minimum wage in Texas

The Texas Minimum Wage Act establishes a minimum wage for non-exempt employees. On July 24^th 2009, the minimum wage increased to $7.25 an hour. Some 550,000 Texans, or 9.5 percent of hourly paid workers, made the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour or less last year. The federal poverty level for a family of three was $18,310 last year,  which means a single parent with two children and working for minimum wage would earn about $3,200 less than the poverty level.

Raising the minimum wage is often a political issue. Proponents, often labor unions and their supporters, argue that raising the wage allows employees to earn more money and lead easier lives. In addition, with more money coming in, individuals have more to spend, which boosts the economy. There are at least two House bills that would increase the minimum wage in some respect. The WAGE Act would set a base minimum wage for tipped employees such as waiters and bartenders. If enacted this bill would raise the minimum cash wage of such employees (excluding tips) over time from $2.13 to $5.50 an hour. Meanwhile, the Living American Wage Act of 2011 would tie the minimum wage level to the poverty threshold for a family of two individuals. Both bills were introduced early in the year and seem to be stalled in committee. The thing is that full-time workers can earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs such as food, transportation, and housing.

The minimum wage is supposed to be a living wage, however, it has lost so much value over the years due to inflation that families who are reliant on the minimum wage as their sole source of income are unable to afford health care, food, rent, and transportation. Most families are deciding on sharing a house or an apartment because they are always short of money every month and many employers do not even allow their employees to work full time because they are not required to provide benefits for their part-time workers. As I said, I think the minimum wage should be $9.00 an hour, not $7.25 which is equal to the price of a combo on a fast food restaurant.

Texas vs National Government

On April 9, 2012, the Long Star Strong published an article about Texas rejecting the Obamacare and how the national government opposed to the Texas ID voting card. 26 state attorneys were against the Obama Administration on the health care law. One of them was the Texas Attorney, General Greg Abbott. For some people who have no idea of who he is, he is a former Texas Republican who challenge issues from voter ID to women’s health care. Another issue they were debating about was Planned Parenthood. Hutchinson expressed “We can’t afford to lose the Medicaid funding for low- income women.” Some Democrats view the Medicaid funding as another “frivolous lawsuits.” While Perry saw it as another attempt “To carry out the will of the people.” The intended audiences are Texans over 18, since this article is about health care, planning parenthood and Texas ID law. On the Texas ID law subject, the article talks about how in early March, the U.S. Department of justice rejected the Texas’ newly voted ID law, but Abbott fought back saying that the VRA exceeds the enumerated powers of congress and conflicts with the constitution. The author’s credibility is really good, since she shows the links of where she got the information from. The text is well organized and easy to read. Even though she doesn’t use many arguments to support the main point, which is the never ending war between National Government and Texas.

In my opinion, she didn’t do a well job describing the Obamacare. The Obamacare is not that bad after all. All this started two years ago when Obama signed the reform. One of the requirements is that everyone needs to buy health insurance so that way we will have universal coverage. The point is, that whenever people without insurance go to hospitals, they won’t end up paying crazy amounts. I will leave the link to the Long Star Strong and feel free to leave any comments about how you feel about the article.

 

Water, water , water.

On Sep. 10, 2012, The Austin American Statesman published an article about how water rules should be norm and how the lake was only 49% full. The writer is trying to pursuade adults who live in the Austin and surrounding areas.

The city started doing some water restrictions and everything was based on the lake Travis’ water level. Honestly, I don’t think a whole city should base their water restriction on how full a lake is. Austin has a once-a-week watering restriction and there are only certain hours where residents can waste that precious water. Just like the author says “Austin’s watering restrictions shouldn’t be set to tighten when lake levels drop to a certain point; instead, they should be set to loosen only when lake level rises to near-full or full”. With this, the author is very clear about the argument, if we are getting the restrictions because of the lakes water level, why we are not going back to normal if the lake is almost half-full?

The author shows a good amount of evidence. According to the writer, the stage 2 take effect when Lakes Buchanan and Travis drop to combined 900,000 acre-feet and they currently hold 882,531 acre-feet.

According to city estimates, 1200 trees on city land died last year because of drought conditions. Some landowners are opting for Drip irrigations because it’s more efficient than sprinklers and loses less water. It is reasonable that residents need to be more precautious, we need to stop wasting water because we never know how quickly the benefits of good rain can vanish. Overall, the author describes how water rules should be norm in a very organized way.

Texas jobs

On Friday, September 21, 2012 The Statesman published an article about Texas jobs and how Austin metro area’s dropped to 5.9 percent last month.

Since 2000, employers in Austin area have added an average of 5,000 jobs. Texas unemployment did not budge in Austin, holding a 7.1 percent.  However, Texas added 38,000 jobs in August far more than any other state. Most of those jobs came from staffing agencies and construction. According to Mark Sprague those recent employment gains should continue to increase as housing and commercial construction pick up steam. But, if Texas is getting more jobs, why do I still know many people who are unemployed? I think they still need more jobs and well-paid jobs