Response to "Immigration Woes"

What a nice post! I really like your perspective about this (as you said) hot button topic for people. We have to realize that the change is in our hands, and we must attack the problem from the source, if we help them to eradicate the mafia's issue, they will be able to focus in their internal issues. We are all human beings, and we should help each other to success in this big planet, our home. We must think as a unit trying to survive the challenges together and then get a world full of prosperity for all, and not just for few. I do believe that some day this going to be a reality and we better understand before it's too late.

But we have to be realistic about this issue. Today's government won't consider something like legalization of drugs, or at least not in a decade from now. In the meantime, we have to go toward a new reform in the immigration law. Government should realize that we need a more actualized and homogeneous immigration reform from the federal law, and not from each single state; Unity is strength, and having this reform in the whole country will help securing the border and controlling illegal immigration in a more effective way.

I'm sure government someday will have to legalize drugs; that is an unwinnable war and we must find another way to attack it. When that day comes, Mexico and U.S. will have a turning point in the trafficking war not only in the social sector, but also in the economical sector.

The help is going away

The budget cuts for the upcoming year due to the big gap in the state's revenue, forced the lawmakers to announce in last biennial legislature the reduction in more that 24$ billion for next year that will affect all of us. The legislator have been taking hard decision in order to keep balanced the economy of the Lone Star. Even that there have been many efforts to reduce and minimize cuts in education's budget, at the end Texas will suffer the economical crisis unquestionably, and specially all the educational structure: from the government employees, to the students and their parents. How will this affect us as current students? Well, we should expect many changes.

"Is going to adversely impact access, affordability and excellence," the University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa said to the Texas Senate Finance Committee last Wednesday at the Capitol, trying to defend education budget cuts. The University of Texas is estimating a reduce in their budget for more than $36 millions from the regular annual budget of $100 millions. A huge difference in student's aid for the next year.

For all those students looking for a masters degree, or those who want to apply for any higher education degree will have big issues getting funding from the State financial aids; more than 2,500 students only on the UT-Austin campus will suffer the shortage in the university budget, taking away the opportunity for this students to success. If we think about it: there will be less students, also there will be less people to work in the university researches, therefore there will be less income for the universities. This will be an issue that every single university of the whole state of Texas will have to face, so this implementation will strike back the economy for the upcoming years as well.

The lower-income students whom are depending on state and federal financial aid are the most effected. With state programs as TANF scholarship, Early High School Grad and Educational Aide Exemptions slashed, the future of many students are on a tightrope. Additional program funding reductions are expected also for programs as: Texas Grant, Texas Educational Opportunity Grant, Top 10% Scholarship, and Texas College Workstudy.

Response to "Educating Texas"

You are right Noah when you said in your article "Educating Texas" that we need to prioritize more wisely in our state before we do something like this. Education is one of the most important investments in society, and that should be the last thing we take in consideration to use on budget cuttings in the Texas's economy improvement plan; It is truth that before the $15 billion in education budget cuts, the Lone star was spending a lot more money than many other states, but also that was the reason why Texas has been considered one of the best educational systems in the nation, not only academically but athletically as well, making the Texans proud of the glory and prestige of our school and universities. But this budget cuts are also cutting the advances that have taken much longer to achieve. We do not see these changes now, but maybe in a couple of years statistics will reveal the tragic reality, and at that point turn the things back in the right direction could not be that easy.

As I said in my last post "Need a job? Move to Texas!," I do believe that Mr. Perry is doing all this changes in his eagerness to reach the presidential candidacy. He is not only using the educational structure for this purpose, but also he is putting at risk our own healthy on it with the "business friendly environment," minimizing environmental regulations and giving permits for almost any kind of company without taking in count the environmental pollution this can lead to; we would rank 7th in the world for deadly toxic emissions if we consider Texas as an independent nation (you can learn more about this in Zeke's post).

Also if we look at the exponential growing of the state's population, with an approximation of a thousand new residents daily; how can we even be thinking on laying off teacher positions? Instead of that, we should invest more and more to the education of our children. When I see something like this I remember two wise quotes of the liberator of Venezuela, Simon Bolivar: “The first duty of a government is to give education to the people” and “An ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction.”

If Republicans really want to legislate for the well being of the state, they should change their minds and realize that education is the key of success.

Need a job? Move to Texas!

Need a job? Move to Texas! that's the phrase we have been hearing since 2000. More than a million jobs have been granted for Texans while the country is still in negative numbers according data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the progress in the employment area was increasing despite the bad economical situation the country is going through. But, how is it possible if we are still part of the economy of the nation? Well, many things have collaborated to make this possible, and one of the most important is that Gov. Rick Perry has been trying to do everything in his hands during his tenure, to looks good in front of the country in his effort to run for president in the next elections coming up next year. Even that the economy is good (compared to the rest of the states), Mr Perry has sacrificed many thing in order to get the state where it is right now, but is it good or bad for Texas?.

One of the affected is the educational area; thousands of teachers and other employees in the educational structure have lost their jobs, And many more are likely to disappear over the next two years as a result of about $15 billion in state budget cuts. The governor believe that the key to prosperity is the growth of the private sector, not the government sector; and with that reason he is giving up to one of the most important and prosper investments in a long-term plan, Education for Texans.

The high increase on the oil and gas have been helping in the positive economy of the state, also Texas oil and gas employment grew by nearly 60 percent since January 2001 which contribute to the jobs increase and the rapid fiscal growth; there is no doubt that the economic boom is directly due to energy. Also the reason of growth in the industry and small companies is due to Texas’ business friendly environment, tax structure and economic policies, all favorable to creating and expanding jobs. State officials say the cost of doing business in Texas is much less than in most northern states.

The population expansion lately in Texas has been Another contributor . The number of residents in the Lone Star State has been growing by more than 1,000 new residents a day, much of it because of the people coming from other states and from out side of the country, and also for the diversity of jobs in Texas, as well as the availability of low cost housing within close proximity to work centers, plus healthy environments and quality of life opportunities for families, which is a very attractive option for most of the U.S. residents, since the country's economical situation has not been too supportive for families of the low and medium class.

Texas have an stable and even growing economy. But how all this implementations by the government of Rick Perry is going to affect the future of the state? I personally think that we can not sacrifice the "time to come" for the "now". He is maybe thinking in Texas and the well being of their citizens, or maybe he is thinking in himself and making his way up using the state as a ladder to step up in his career. Hopefully this will help Texas, but only the time will show the path we took because of this.

Republican legislation = odd

A bill on abortion was implemented to be effective on next 1st of September in the state of Texas, The bill passed easily through the state House and Senate, due to the Republican control of both. A lot of controversy its been generated in Texas because of this; Women health, Professional, private business an other interest groups are still trying to find the way to stop the implementation of this law. "The sonogram lawsuit hearing" posted by Paul Burka, talks about the lately efforts of the New-York based Center for Reproductive rights, to obtain a temporary injunction against the implementation of the sonogram bill. They based their litigation on the violation of the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution for the professional and the patient, and they also claim that patients have a right not to be forced to listen to information they do not want to hear. But they are not having any success so far in the case.

The author is a correspondent of the Texas Monthly and he have made out a good reputation about politic affairs. The intend of the Mr. Burka is to inform about the unconformity of the medical side in this new bill for the open assault against women and doctor's rights. As a Democratic oriented blog, the author wants to accentuate the problems Republicans are having to promote it as a paternalistic "protection" since the bill passed. Even that he seems to be impartial in the commentaries, the point he is trying to underline is the ineffective legislation Republicans are bringing to the state and how that can affect the rights of the citizens. At the end of the article, he state clearly his position about this matter, and he particularly questioned the requirement for doctors to describe images to a patient that does not wish to see them, as state in the new abortion bill.

I agree in the violation this bill is causing in the rights of Texans. I also agree in the position the interest groups involved are taking to defend their rights and the rights of women. The control of the Republican party is clear in the legislation policies, and not because this kind of bill embrace Republican ideologies mean that will be right or appropriated for the well-being of all sector of societies, in this case women and professionals in the medical field. The abortion should be a personal decision took by a the pregnant woman, and not by people in the capitol whom the majority known about pregnancy as much as Osama knew about tolerance.

A matter of time

The law is a rule socially accepted; when somebody breaks this law the guilty must be punish to make him/her pay and show the people in general what could happen if they do the same, but what happen if we are not able to make the law be fulfilled? What can the government of Texas do by itself if the disease is stronger than the cure? I found this interesting article in the Austin American Statement written by Todd Staples, actual Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Who stated clearly the need of the federal law getting involve in the issues occurring lately in Texan border, consequence of the drug war. It's a fact that the Mexican criminal groups outnumbered and outgunned the Texan law enforcement and border patrol.

Mr. Staples is trying to grab the attention of the Texan people, The federal government and specially the president attention. His main idea is alarm the public in general about something that is already visible in our city and also get some support to work on the searching of solutions to such a big problem growing and becoming right now a trend to the Lone Star State. The article's author, as an agriculture commissioner of Texas, represents a good source of credibility, not only for his tittle but also because he is a current activist on this matter creating last march a web page (ProtectYourTexasBorder.com) to inform the world about the daily issues Texans are going through because of this war. Likewise he used dates an places to support his article point referring to some cases of violent attacks on U.S. citizens few months ago.

I support his point of view 100% we need a more active support from the federal government on the immigration issue the country is facing and particularly Texas. The law should be applied right now, not until things get worst, we can't wait to see the snow ball effect. Finding a solution to such a complicated topic will take time, a lot of effort and maybe some drastic changes. From my side, I would say that one of the vital parts of the organized crime is the drug trafficking; the legalization of marijuana could be a huge strike to the underground business making this war winnable.

Abortion in the Texas Agenda

The state of Texas is taking some actions lately against abortion. The article I chose, written by Gary Scharrer, talks about the last amendment approved by the Texas House banning any tax money going for abortion or abortion services. This article explains the legislator's positions and the complaints arising since the amendment took place. Just a couple of months ago the governor Rick Perry signed the controversial pre-abortion sonogram law, and they strike again with this amendment to make even more difficult the situation to Texan pregnant women looking for a second option. It’s a fact that 101 seats out of 150 are hold by Republicans in the Texas House what makes it almost a direct approvals of any resolution embracing republican ideology, Since this party holds a firm anti-abortion position, which is also my personal position in this matter, the law in Texas could interfere in the rights of the women who want to have an abortion. "We have made abortion so difficult in this state. I predict that women very soon will be going underground,” clever comment made by the leader Rep. Jessica Farrar, a reality we can face in a near future if the focus of this issue keeps going in the same direction. It is truth that the actions took will decrease in some way the abortion's statistics, but taking away government aid for the women in this kind of procedures and any related service during the abortion process, in my opinion is not the solution of the problem, instead an aggravating of the issue and the way the abortion will be handle for future generations.