Monday 9 May 2011
Critiquing: Mortorcyclists and Safety
So heart broken this is my last blog for the semester! :) Reading threw my fellow classmates blogs I found: “Motorcyclists and Safety” by A. Jones. While reading this article I couldn't help but to think why do I have to be more cautious?? I'm not the crazy driver...they are! I can't even to begin to count how many times I've seen motorcyclists speeding down the highways, weaving in and out of traffic, driving between cars at a light or "popping willies". It makes me so angry that these people drive so carelessly and yet automobile drivers have to be more careful and share the road. WHATEVER! I'm not a mean person and I'm not going to purposely run over someone, but I can't lie sometimes I think about opening my door when I see them cutting threw the middle of all the cars to get to the front of the line at a traffic light. I do believe everyone should be cautious with EVERYTHING around you. A. Jones mentions turn our heads instead of using the mirrors and not to ride the bumper, these are things we should be doing no matter what kind of vehicle it is around you. I freak out at the thought of the impact of a motorcyclist hitting the ground, hell I hate when I fall walking! Thinking safety I DO think that Texas should require all the motorcyclists to wear helmets and not to allow 5 year old children to ride on a motorcycle period! It makes absolutely no sense to me, if everyone in a car has to wear a seat belt why shouldn't the motorcyclist wear helmets?? Also children have to be in car seats or booster seats until a certain weight limit but not to ride with someone on a motorcycle...Really?? All I'm saying is we should be cautious driving no matter what and all the motorcyclists should be the ones driving with even more caution and stop driving like they are invincible to the other vehicles! Motorcyclist vs. automobile... Automobile is unfortunately going to win. Peace!
Sunday 1 May 2011
Bin Laden Dead…
Bin Laden Dead…
WOW…As I was driving to work tonight I heard the news about Osama bin Laden finally found killed and now his body has been taken in custody.
Congratulations to the small team of Americans that killed bin Laden! This man hunt has nearly gone on a decade! It’s crazy to know that a man that has ruined thousands of peoples live has 10 years later been killed!
When I came into work tonight I looked the information up on yahoo and I found the article, Obama: Al-Qaida head bin Laden dead by: Julie Pace and Matt Apuzzo the information is slowly coming out still… but I decided to write about this because to me it’s bitter-sweet. Obama said “Justice has been done.” and Former President George W. Bush says “The fight against terror goes on, but tonight American has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.” So what is justice? The wikipedia says Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, fairness, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics. So in my mind and I’m pretty sure the minds of many others does this mean Bin Laden’s Al-Qaida people that he trained and are just as twisted minded as he was going to continue to try to get “justice” for there leaders death? I’m honestly worried for what the terrorist next step is going to be. I’m pretty sure that they have some type of plan worked out if this was to ever happen. So we will have to wait and see what kind of affect this is going to have on the US
It’s awesome to know a huge crowd gathered outside the White House tonight as the word spread, with everyone cheering for the USA
Monday 18 April 2011
Critiquing the Chopping Block
Critiquing the Chopping Block
As I was reading threw my fellow classmates blogs I came across this one: “The Chopping Block” by Blake Benson that held my attention for a while… I can’t help but to agree with Mr. Benson on this matter. I think it is ridiculous for the state lawmakers to even think about cutting the funds for AIDS Drug Assistance Program! I use to be a certified pharmacy technician and I for one know how expensive the medication for AIDS and HIV can be. The pharmacy wouldn’t even order it unless we had a patient on it and when we did they knew they had to call it in at least 5 days before they needed it so that we could insure that we had the quantity they needed. What could possibly make them think that killing these people faster than they already are dying is okay?? It’s sad enough that there is no cure for them. GURR! It makes me so angry to know that the lawmakers are coming up with the most retarded things to use for their budget cuts like education and health! I’m glad that in the end of this it’s not going to be cut but, I really hope that this program never gets cut and it’s so wrong for them to have to worry about the program ever being in that predicament now and in the future. I must say I love Mr. Benson last line of his blog “I swear this state needs to get its priorities straight” Now that’s hella true!
Sunday 17 April 2011
States Federal Budget....Amendment
The layoffs in schools have already begun! It is extremely sad but very true. With the states; proposed budget bill it could possibly free up more than $800 million in federal education money. The government needs to worry about the children’s future... they are the ones going to be eventually running it.
This budget bill would remove an amendment made by Lloyd Doggett that would make Governor Rick Perry use the money to enhance the schools existing spending. Congressman Doggett doesn’t want the money to be used to replace the existing funding, but to use it as extra money for the children’s education. Which everyone can see it is much needed now... not later. The taxpayers do their share and should be able to use the money when it is needed especially with education. It is said by the states House budget bill that school are underfunded around 7 billion dollars! So the $800 million could defiantly help out now. Some Texas schools are worried about the restrictions that will come along with the money, but knowing that it could help put the kid’s first and help stop the eliminating of jobs in the Education field makes it worth it. The states Senate is coming up with its own version of the budget bill. As far as all other states none of them are faced with this amendment. Even though repealing it has been popular with our Texas Republicans we have to do it for the future.
Wednesday 23 March 2011
Standardized Testing in Texas
In the blog titled Cost of Standardized Testing in Texas Increases Ten-Fold From 2000-2009 by Phillip Martin, He's talking about how much more taxpayers will end up paying.
Mr. Martin is bloging about an original column that was posted in the Austin American Statesman "State’s Demands forced school cost to shoot up." by Jason Embry. The column is about how as the student population increases, so does the demands for schools education, and the cost of money. This including all the Higher education tests.. that are to measure the students academic level or the schools level of teaching?? All this demand just causes stress for the schools facility and competing with other schools to have the highest test scores.
Due to all the required testing materials for students to pass these standardized test the school districts are spending more money on hiring more staff to ensure the students have the help needed to be able to pass, teachers to spend extra time with the students that need more tutoring, testing materials, study guides, and the staff to administer the test. Mr. Martin has found out exactly how much the cost of standardized testing went up under the Perry/Bush era of standardized testing... which come out to be a whopping 93 million! Well that is the amount that he found from a blog from 2009 on "The high cost of TAKS" that's is said to be 10 times more than 2000 with all the budget cuts that's going on now and in 2010.. I can't seem to grasp how they are planning for these students to have the opportunity to pass. Unless these students go to school just to cram in all this testing material and they no longer teach the normal things like I learned in school a million years ago. :-) Which I must say I don't remember what "normal" things I learned. I do hope that some how Texas figures out a better way to increase our students education or lower the cost of all these required standardized testing so that when they do start firing teachers for the budget cuts it doesn't hurt the students as much as I see it happening in my head. I now have a headache thinking about all this so...Good night!
Mr. Martin is bloging about an original column that was posted in the Austin American Statesman "State’s Demands forced school cost to shoot up." by Jason Embry. The column is about how as the student population increases, so does the demands for schools education, and the cost of money. This including all the Higher education tests.. that are to measure the students academic level or the schools level of teaching?? All this demand just causes stress for the schools facility and competing with other schools to have the highest test scores.
Due to all the required testing materials for students to pass these standardized test the school districts are spending more money on hiring more staff to ensure the students have the help needed to be able to pass, teachers to spend extra time with the students that need more tutoring, testing materials, study guides, and the staff to administer the test. Mr. Martin has found out exactly how much the cost of standardized testing went up under the Perry/Bush era of standardized testing... which come out to be a whopping 93 million! Well that is the amount that he found from a blog from 2009 on "The high cost of TAKS" that's is said to be 10 times more than 2000 with all the budget cuts that's going on now and in 2010.. I can't seem to grasp how they are planning for these students to have the opportunity to pass. Unless these students go to school just to cram in all this testing material and they no longer teach the normal things like I learned in school a million years ago. :-) Which I must say I don't remember what "normal" things I learned. I do hope that some how Texas figures out a better way to increase our students education or lower the cost of all these required standardized testing so that when they do start firing teachers for the budget cuts it doesn't hurt the students as much as I see it happening in my head. I now have a headache thinking about all this so...Good night!
Monday 28 February 2011
Leaving children behind...
In response to Paul Krugman’s Leaving children behind… in The New York Times (I'm not sure who wrote there oppinon about it in the Austin American's statesman).
This article was about how Texas is leaving the children behind for the future. Recently in government everyone is worried about the spending cuts and how it will effect the schools. Mr. Krugman’s idea is talking about how we are going to hurt the students and economy in other ways besides education cut backs.
Krugman is totally right though… All these campaigns to help the children are just talk. They claim to be doing something about it but as said in this article the numbers that are showing the increase of education it really them “miscounting” there for there is no change. They should be more worried about really trying to fix the issue instead of worrying about what departments get the layoffs.
This paragraph is directly from the article…
“Texas likes to portray itself as a model of small government, and indeed it is. Taxes are low, at least if you're in the upper part of the income distribution (taxes on the bottom 40 percent of the population are actually above the national average). Government spending is also low. And to be fair, low taxes might be one reason for the state's rapid population growth, although low housing prices are surely much more important.
But here's the thing: While low spending might sound good in the abstract, what it amounts to in practice is low spending on children, who account directly or indirectly for a large part of government outlays at the state and local level.”
That alone trips me the hell out! For someone like me that doesn’t really know a lot about what’s really going on that puts Texas into a different perspective. Why would the upper income people have lower taxes?? Really that makes sense how? And now they want to cut the funding for Medicaid! Wow! Way to go Texas… I work in healthcare and I honestly see a lot of people that shouldn’t be on it that are…excuse me but if you can own a 2011 Cadillac Escalade with price rims on it you can afford to pay for your children’s insurance. Just my opinion. If saving money is going to be by cutting funding in Medicaid they should stop just giving it out and truly look into who’s on it and why. Medicaid pays already like pennies to the dollar when it comes to the payments to the hospital and doctors. If I was a private Physician I honestly wouldn’t except Medicaid.
This article was about how Texas is leaving the children behind for the future. Recently in government everyone is worried about the spending cuts and how it will effect the schools. Mr. Krugman’s idea is talking about how we are going to hurt the students and economy in other ways besides education cut backs.
Krugman is totally right though… All these campaigns to help the children are just talk. They claim to be doing something about it but as said in this article the numbers that are showing the increase of education it really them “miscounting” there for there is no change. They should be more worried about really trying to fix the issue instead of worrying about what departments get the layoffs.
This paragraph is directly from the article…
“Texas likes to portray itself as a model of small government, and indeed it is. Taxes are low, at least if you're in the upper part of the income distribution (taxes on the bottom 40 percent of the population are actually above the national average). Government spending is also low. And to be fair, low taxes might be one reason for the state's rapid population growth, although low housing prices are surely much more important.
But here's the thing: While low spending might sound good in the abstract, what it amounts to in practice is low spending on children, who account directly or indirectly for a large part of government outlays at the state and local level.”
That alone trips me the hell out! For someone like me that doesn’t really know a lot about what’s really going on that puts Texas into a different perspective. Why would the upper income people have lower taxes?? Really that makes sense how? And now they want to cut the funding for Medicaid! Wow! Way to go Texas… I work in healthcare and I honestly see a lot of people that shouldn’t be on it that are…excuse me but if you can own a 2011 Cadillac Escalade with price rims on it you can afford to pay for your children’s insurance. Just my opinion. If saving money is going to be by cutting funding in Medicaid they should stop just giving it out and truly look into who’s on it and why. Medicaid pays already like pennies to the dollar when it comes to the payments to the hospital and doctors. If I was a private Physician I honestly wouldn’t except Medicaid.
Monday 14 February 2011
Superintendent Salaries
Hello and welcome to my very first blog! Well as I was surfing the suggested sources links on my page I ran across this article "Superintendent Salaries Are a Statewide Problem" by dmatocha. This to me the title alone says more than enough.
In the news there is all the talk about state agencies are supposed to cut their next year budget by 10%, which leads them into eliminating positions. Most of Texas schools already have more students in each class than teachers to teach.
In this article it talks about how superintendent’s salaries and benefits have been steadily increasing instead of freezing or decreasing. Some of the superintendents in the good old state ofTexas
In the news there is all the talk about state agencies are supposed to cut their next year budget by 10%, which leads them into eliminating positions. Most of Texas schools already have more students in each class than teachers to teach.
In this article it talks about how superintendent’s salaries and benefits have been steadily increasing instead of freezing or decreasing. Some of the superintendents in the good old state of
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