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.