Commentry on Pepper Spray

I really don't think pepper spray should be used on youth because the effects are many to be using it on children. The spray causes temporary blindness, burning and tearing eyes, shortness of breath, confusion and disorientation on a person. Besides, i don't think a kid has that much of strength to knock down an arm policeman. Therefore, the Texas Youth Commission should prevent this from happening because its not proper for youth's health.

The Good News for People with Brain Injuries

The article title “No more waiting for people with brain injuries” states that there would not be a waiting list for those people who need rehabilitation assistance. The main cause of this change is because the Texas legislature approved an additional $3 million per year for the program, increasing its 2008 budget to $16 million. As a result, the waiting list has disappeared. Now, the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitation Services is trying to spread the word that there is space available for those that need help. They would not have to wait a month or a year to get the help they desire, which is also critical for them to obtain because delay only jeopardize a patient’s recovery. The article states that it is necessary to get therapy as soon as possible while the brain is still repairing it self, which usually takes a year or six months after the injury occurred. It is estimated that in Texas more than 145,000 people suffer from traumatic brain injuries each year, mostly from motor vehicles accidents. This program most definitely would benefit all those people and also Preston Owners who suffered a car accident and whom is rehabilitating in Core Health Care. He would eventually get the chance to live independently without having to live in an institution for the rest of his life, like most people do when they don’t get rehabilitation promptly. Apparently this program is designed for all Texas residents and those being cared for family members who live in Texas. Therefore, all people should help spread the word around because who knows maybe there is a person getting out of the hospital at this very instance that need special help to continue with his or her recovery, but don't know where to look for such service. This would be a good news for such individuals that need rapid help.

Commentary on Public Assistance

I agree with you saying that their is a lot of people who manipulate public assistance programs to their advantage, such as Children's Health Insurance program (CHIP) food stamps, head start, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Woman, Infant, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program and others. Yet, the system should be implemented to stop people from providing false information to obtain such benefits that could be well given to other individuals that do need the help. A lot of times people who do need the benefits are denied to them; for example, Children that need surgery's, elderly people or handicap people. Those are sometimes denied with the help. Now, it's not fair for people to take advantage of the system while they can work and provide to their family's. Somehow the federal government has provided 50 percent of the state's cost in administering the program, 50 percent of the state's costs for Food Stamp Program investigations and prosecutions. However, its simply not enough to make the system work properly.

November 15, 2007 9:30 PM

Proposition 16

The article title "Colonias advocates in Nueces Country hope for Proposition 16's passage." A proposition that would provide $250 million bond to low-income neighborhoods who don't have water nor sewer services, like Richard Trevino who washes his plates and pots in a cooler on his back porch because he has no potable water inside. Rep. Norma Chavez, Del Paso says that it is unconscionable for anyone in America to have to cart water to bathe in every night. However, proposition 16 marks the third time lawmakers have asked voters for money to bring water and wastewater infrastructure to colonies. In 1989 the legislators established the Economically Distressed Area Program to provide grants and loans to those areas that need water and sewer services. The same year votes approved a $100 million bonds and another $150 million in 1991. Including the money awarded by the Texas Development Board, which was more that $517 million in state and federal funds for construction projects. Now, it is estimated that $5.4 billion is need it to bring water and wastewater to colonias in Nueces. Yet, the problem hasn't gone away.

I think proposition 16 is a good idea, but i don't think the $250 million are actually going to solve the problem in Primavera Estates Colonias because there is other issues that should be taken into consideration. For example, the Texas Development Board can provide the colonias with the sewer system and potable water, but what if residents don't have enough money to connect their house to the service. Maybe is not even worth the effort because a lot of the house don't have proper indoor plumbing that needs to be taking care off before putting to work any project.
The Texas government instead should help the people from Nueces to create their own form of government to work out their problems. It is evident that the problem would not go away by investing $250 million bond into these colonias because it would not be the first time Texas government provides aid to such colonias. There is the need for other alternatives so people won't be living in such hard conditions.

Teachers' Bill of Rights

I found a commentary article in the Austin American Statesman called “Teachers need a bill of rights.” The contributor to this commentary article claims that we are too worried about reforming education that we have forgot that teachers too need certain resources to keep working more effectively with students. Therefore, Stevenson from O. Henry Middle School believes that teachers need a bill of rights to help them be more productive when it comes to teaching students. Yet, she gives six issues that should be included in this bill; however, she fails to maintain her claim because she goes off the subject by talking about student’s poverty and how they shouldn’t be categorized as rich just because of their district. Then she goes back to her claim saying that no teacher should have to teach more than five classes per day without getting pay of list other $5000, which I believe is correct because many school teacher don’t get pay much, but still work a lot of hours. They are practically offering more labor than what they are actually getting pay for and that’s not right. Stevenson also states that no teacher should have to teach more than 140 students per day because it is hard for students to maintain a relationship with the teacher, and it's also more difficult for a teacher to control a big crowd of students. Later, Stevenson continuous, but instead of given an other reason she keeps talking about the same issue of class overloaded. Her fifth issue is a bit more convincing because she talks about teachers not having a full-time technology specialist to repair computers that are used for instructional purposes and also provide a satisfactory salary for them. Finally, Stevenson claims in her last issue that the library budget should be increase to buy the necessary books and material for instructional purposes because it’s not enough with a budget of $2 dollars per students to keep the library with the current collation of books. I agreed with most of Stevenson's commentaries because teachers hardly complain about anything, mainly because they loved their work and value their profession. I don't think there is anything wrong by imposing a few rules that not just going to benefit themselves but also students.

http://statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/10/10/10

The Forgotten Lives

The article “state schools raise the quality of life for the mentally retarded,” by Susan Payne, it’s quite excellent because she offers a serious of facts, statistics and credible opinions. She explains that mentally retarded are forgotten lives in the state schools, but not by their parents, caregivers, employees, mentors, volunteers, and friends. This people are simply forgotten by advocacy groups that make decisions ignoring the feelings and opinions of other, such as parents and relatives of the residents. Advocacy groups just want to go ahead and close the institutions and redirected the funding to community groups homes; however, Payne’s believes the “forgotten lives belong to the state school residents who are severely and profoundly mentally retarded, and have severe behavior differences and have ongoing medical needs.” She also claims that the supreme court of the United States reinforced the right of choice and closing state schools would take away choice. The advocacy groups just do not understand that state schools are necessary for the mentally ill people because it prolongs lives beyond their teens or early adulthood because they are maintained active all the time. They go shopping, to church, to dances, to theme parks, out to eat, to jobs and to life skills classes. Statistics from the Department of Aging and Disability shows that 54 percent have lived in the schools for more than 20 years; meanwhile, community groups disrupts the lives of the residents, families and the circle of worderful people that volunteer, and mentors that care for the state school residents. Payne’s definitely succeeds by saying that closing state schools for the mentally retarded would only cause suffering for those that already reside there and feel happy.

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/editorial/stories/09/28/0928payne_edit.html

Anti-littering 'superheroes' aim to implement ideals in children

Media Credit: Mike Paschal Two members of the newly-formed "Litter Force" encourage a strong response against littering from students at Pease Elementary School. The Force is a recent effort by the Texas Department of Transportation to convey the anti-littering message to kids across the state.

Littering is a problem everywhere and Texas is not the exception. Therefore, the Texas Department of Transportation has implemented an anti-littering campaign to help teach children about the importance of keeping Texas clean. Analysis show that the most common roadside litter is tobacco waste as the top trash found on Texas roads, accounting for 33 percent of trash, followed by food with 29 percent and beverage container with 11 percent. Also, Doris Howdeshell, the director of the Travel Division at the Texas Department of Transportation, said the "Don't Mess With Texas" program, aimed at educating Texans about litter prevention, used to focus largely on the 16 to 24-year-old age group. The department even mentions that if we educate our children at a young age about litter problems; they would eventually not get the habit of littering. The litter Force campaign will go out to five different cities across Texas, including Austin, so Don't Mess With Texas!!

http://www.blogger.com/www.dailytexanonline.com