Comment on Texas Surchage Fees

Ms. Sara wrote an article addressing the Texas Surcharge from 2003 and this is what I think about it:

I would be strongly in favor of striking this law down. I too am a victim of this ridiculous law, and it has no leniency. I borrowed a friend's vehicle to move a mattress and got a ticket for that vehicle not having any insurance, now I have the surcharge on my record. The state did not even notify me of these payments until the three years was up and they suspended my license. Had I been pulled over I would have been thrown in jail with no idea why I was there. The state should either have a point system or just a lump sum that you can pay off over time. It almost seems like they want people to forget so they can extract more from you if you forget and get pulled over again.

Comment on Standardized Testing

I recently read an article by Hunter Maddox on his blog Texas: Don't Move Here about Texas standardized testing and these are my thoughts:

I agree that standardized tests have become too prominent in Texas schools.  In my opinion, they do not gauge a student's knowledge, only how well they can take a test.  Also, the original purpose of standardized testing was to see how the states stacked up against one another.  However, the tests are different in every state so there is no way to compare the knowledge levels across state lines.  There should be one test every year that is the same for every state, or no test at all.  I wrote a blog about this for my first editorial and I believe that Texas schools' performance should be based on how many students go to college, not on a yearly test.  Ideally, this would create a better society in Texas and possibly bring our state to the top of American education.

How the Legalization of Marijuana Could Make Texas Billions!

We all know that the state of Colorado recently made the sale of recreational marijuana legal.  This has always been an enormous issue for Americans, especially Texans, to agree upon.  Whether people will admit to it or not, the majority of Texans have at least experimented with smoking weed.  Somehow the same people that try it when they are teenagers become outraged at the idea that their child would even think of following in their footsteps.  All of this needs to change, many people smoke pot on a regular basis and it has been this way for at least two generations, constantly increasing.  

The argument seems to be that everyone will smoke a ton of weed, get in their car, and kill someone.  The people that bring up this argument have obviously never known a "stoner".  "Stoners" do not drive, they sit on their couch and eat snacks, when they do finally get into a car it is to go get more snacks after their "buzz" has worn off.  Another argument is that marijuana is addictive and this is hilarious to me!  The majority of people that I know have smoked pot at least once and not one has ever said that they can't get enough or just need a little more to get them through the day (Including regular smokers).  As for marijuana being dangerous, it does contain THC, which affects the brain.  However, if they are giving marijuana to cancer patients I have a hard time listening to an argument on how bad it is for you.  Just like cigarettes, states can impose restrictions on the amount people can buy, as well as where it can be consumed.  

I believe that the state of Texas could greatly benefit from legalizing marijuana.  The first reason is the amount of tax revenue that could be created.  Colorado expects to extract over $125,000,000 over the next fiscal year in sales tax alone, not including fees and licenses to grow and distribute cannabis.  Texas could see four times as much money because of the population difference.  That means Texas could potentially see nearly half of a billion dollars in tax money, from a plant.  

Where could all of this money be spent?  First, we could copy Colorado and help fund K-12 education as Texas is near the bottom of the country in all aspects of education.  Also, Texas could reduce the high sales tax of 6.25% to around 4% and lower the maximum with local tax from 8.25% to 6.25%.  On top of the increased tax revenue Texas would save around $20,000 a year for each inmate that is in jail for possession of marijuana.  Obviously, some people would still be caught with marijuana outside of what the laws would allow, but the amount of people going to jail for marijuana related crimes would drop dramatically. 

Finally, it is my belief that by legalizing marijuana Texas could concentrate on the drugs that are a real danger (i.e. heroine, cocaine, meth, LSD, etc).  Texas could use a part of the revenue created to expand our drug enforcement agencies and give the Border Patrol the resources necessary to stop drugs from coming into the country.  Also, I would like to think that people would turn to marijuana for a high because they would not run the risk of going to prison. (I probably have too much faith in people)  No matter what happens people will always try to operate outside the law, but at least this way there would be a large task force to keep the really harmful drugs at a minimum.

I am sure that there are some health risks to marijuana, but tobacco and alcohol have risks as well.  I know that passing a law legalizing marijuana would upset a great many people, but they don't have smoke or be around people that do.  Everyone knows that legal marijuana is going to happen one day, so Texas should be progressive for once and take advantage of the benefits before the whole country jumps ahead of us.  I really believe that legal weed would change Texas for the better.  I feel strongly about the benefits without even liking to smoke weed, so if I can get on board with this I know there are plenty of other people who will be in favor of this more than myself.

How Taking Care of Students Can Change Texas!

There are thousands of college students in the state of Texas and many have trouble getting into the school of their choice, much less paying for it.  According to collegeforalltexans.com, the average cost of a full school year with 15 hours for both semesters is $28,159.  Last year 56% of graduates owed money with an average of $24,030, nearly a full year of school.  So how can the state help students?  We need to put more of an emphasis on higher education than standardized testing.  

Schools are allocated money based on how well their students perform on the STAAR test, so naturally they focus all of their time teaching kids the test.  It may be a completely radical idea, but I believe that the state should change their philosophy.  If the state started to pay schools based on the number of students who go to college I believe that the schools would focus on sending kids to college, not the STAAR test.  As a result, schools would hire staff members who could assist students find the money to go to college.   This would have a domino effect, students would be more inclined to receive a higher education, there would be an increase in college graduates, college graduates garner higher wages, and finally the state could extract more tax money.  The state would have more money to spend on what it sees necessary, but also would have more money to give back to students.  I think that if Texas implemented this method, the entire nation would gain from the influx of well educated, hard working people pouring out of Texas.  Also, creating a more educated population could expand Texas' political power by encouraging people to move here.  Most importantly, the rest of the nation would see Texas as an educated place, (not a bunch of backwoods rednecks, bible thumpers, and cowboys) which would give our words more weight around the country.  
I said it may be radical to some people in Texas, but we need to live up to our sense of "Texas Exceptionalism".  If we take care of our students, they will take care of our state.

Critique: Charter Serving High School Dropouts Fights Closure

Morgan Smith's Article describes an Austin charter school's fight to stay open.  She has chosen to target parents with her article.  She chose to target parents because they will envision their own child losing their school.  This will make her words carry more weight with her readers, instead of blindly appealing to everyone she focused on the people who will care the most about this topic.  She does not deal with the subject on a personal level, however she did interview people from both sides of the argument.  She states how and why the schools are being closed, then the problems that have come from the potential closings. The main argument is the schools that will be closed concentrate on high needs students that will probably drop out of school entirely without these schools, that is also the reason these schools don't perform to the same level as the other charters.  She focuses on American YouthWorks here in Austin, the chief executive of the school argues that the law makers should consider more than money and test scores.  On the other hand, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency states that all schools should be held to the same standards. Smith does a good job of gathering the opinion of both sides and conveying it to the reader in an unbiased format.  I believe that all schools should be held to certain standards, but we need to help, not hinder, students who would otherwise withdraw from school. The law makers should look at how many of these students are graduating and becoming productive members of society, instead of how good they are at standardized tests.

Did Abbott make a mistake aligning with "The Nuge"?

Ron Baselice, an editorial writer for the Dallas Morning News, recently wrote a story called "Abbott's Bad Call on Ted Nugent".  His story intended to question the logic of publicly aligning with such a controversial icon.  This stems from previous volatile comments Ted Nugent has made on a variety of topics from race to sexual orientation.  The author mentions that Abbott brought Nugent along to promote gun rights.  However, his opponent Wendy Davis does not have the gun control stance unlike that of Abbott, so Baselice asks how this is a smart move.  I agree that Abbott should not have brought in such a divisive figure, when clearly in Texas Republicans have an almost certainty of winning.  In my opinion Abbott just made the race closer by making people question his judgement on a topic that is almost the same for both gubernatorial candidates.  Like Baselice says it may have been poor advice from his campaign managers or his own crappy judgement, but this small slip up could be something the Democrats pounce on and hammer home to the people "The Nuge" has offended.  I think that Mr. Baselice hits the nail on the head when he says " Abbott just handed Davis an inexplicably generous campaign gift".  In the long run this lapse in judgement probably will not hurt Abbott, but if somehow Wendy Davis wins the election we might look back at this as the beginning of the end for Abbott.  We are in Texas however, so nah.  Screw those damn commies!  At least that's the state's motto, right?   

Will Senator Davis Stick to her Guns?

In a recent article from the Texas Tribune Sen. Wendy Davis raised some eyebrows by taking a very conservative stance on gun laws. In an interview with The Associated Press Sen. Davis said she would be in support of an open-carry handgun law, making it possible to carry a handgun without the need for concealment. This is in stark contrast to many of her Democratic peers who are strictly against any law of this kind. However, some are not convinced that this is any more than lip service to sway "on the fence" voters, as her voting history has been very strict on gun laws.  NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortenson went so far to say: "This is an election-year conversion for Wendy Davis. Voting records speak volumes. As a state legislator, Wendy earned an F-rating from the NRA by voting against the Second Amendment repeatedly, her about-face lacks credibility. Texans know that."  The only way to see her true thoughts on the matter will be if she is voted in as governor. If she does decide to stick to what she said, her most fierce opponent on the matter will be her fellow Democrats, and in Texas that could push even more people to voting Republican. Oh, the irony that would be.