What Texas Government Needs

I believe that the only way for anything related to Texas government, politics, and voting to improve Texas MUST raise the education standards.

It is appalling how little Texas high school students know about the local and state government and unless they go to college they will never know. Typically a student in a Texas high schools spends only two weeks learning about Local and State government, this adds up to only 6 hours on this topic in their whole high school education. Speaking only for myself I must admit that fresh out of high school I would never have thought that voting for anyone other than the president of the United States should have any priority in my life. The most important way to get your voice heard is by voting locally for candidates who will represent your opinions and your needs on a national level. How will any change occur if no one understands this basic principle? How do you expect anyone with an infinitesimal amount of knowledge of our political system to go out and vote, to understand what “tricks” the politicians are playing, to understand the importance of taking part in our local and state government.

Raising the bar for high school government classes will increase voting, involvement in government, and political understanding in Texas. The lone star state seems to be all about immediate gratification, so will young citizens educations ever improve? It might not help at this very moment, but by increasing teaching material for high school government courses it will increase awareness of many Texas’s government issues. The younger citizens of the lone star state if better educated would learn where to find reliable, truthful sources on politics and as a result would have a better foundation for making well informed decisions. Texas will have higher educated people interested in government and politics and therefore resulting in more qualified candidates being elected for any government position.

Everyone needs to take part in the political system in order for there to be order and honesty within that system. It behooves candidates to reach out and inform the younger populous in order to get their party additional votes. Being informed and having basic knowledge of politics and government will get rid of narrow minded decisions, will broaden an individual’s involvement, and will help create a healthier political culture.

Dirty Tricks in District 47

I went to the Austin Chronicle’s website to find an informative blog on the political news in Texas, and what I found was a piece written by Richard Whittaker about dirty tricks Paul Workman’s campaign has done to try to insult Valinda Bolton. Richard Whittaker has written for the Austin Chronicle for quite some time. When researching his older articles I found over eighty pages of his writings. He has written about a large variety of things including, reviews, elections, festivals, surveys, education, and politics. As with many of the political bloggers in Austin at the moment Richard Whittaker has been focusing a lot on the upcoming elections. This blog was intended to appeal to anyone in district 47 which includes Austin; I base this on the fact that Workman and Bolton are both candidates for house district 47. I love how Whittaker states that “politicians are trying to recreate reality in the way that fits their world view” and he gives an example of how Paul Workman tries to do this by altering a picture of his opponent to include a picture of Barrack Obama, then in bright red Workman writes that Bolton is an “ultra-liberal”. The funny thing about this fiasco is that under that picture it confirmed that the picture was added because of the perception that Bolton is aligned with Obama. What is next…Whittaker claiming Bolton is a so called ultra-liberal because she wears blue? This blog really points out how low politicians will go to make their opponent look bad, and anyone with any kind of standards would see how dirty this tactic is. Whatever happened to just making yourself look good as a representative of the people? When did politics become trying to slander your opponent better than they can slander you? I would suggest anyone to read this blog post as it is informative and humorous.

Why Won't Perry Sign?

    The article, Perry’s Latest Temper Tantrum, by Brooke Breitling is about the governor refusing to sign an application to receive 830 million dollars for Texas education because he does not want to fork up the required amount to receive these funds. Brooke writes that last year alone Perry received 3.2 billion dollars in stimulus funds and now he is avoiding meeting a measly 830 million dollar requirement to receive the available funds, and to make himself look blameless he points the finger at the department of education. The author wants everyone to know that the department of education has stated that they have guaranteed this money to Texas education, and that Rick Perry’s press release and law suit is just a smoke screen that is wasting time and tax payers’ money.

    Brooke Breitling wants voters to know exactly what Rick Perry has been up to regarding educational funding. I believe that she intends to not only have this article appeal to parents but to everyone.  Who is Brooke Breitling, patriotic journalist or communist saboteur? Only the future will tell, but what we do know that Brooke is an intern at the Texas Observer and her focus is on the stimulus watch in Texas. In this particular article she uses a statement from the Department of Education and the special requirements for Texas to receive additional funds to further prove her point.  She also uses humor comparing politicians to six years olds to clearly demonstrate the antics of Perry and his party to the reader. I believe this article to be accurate, however she does not give any reason as to why Rick Perry would refuse to meet the requirements to receive the stimulus funding, which makes the article very confusing. Also Breitling fails to inform the reader of last year’s requirements for Texas to receive the 3.2 billion dollar stimulus. In my opinion the article was very informative and had some good points that were well supported, but there seemed to be too much researching on my part to understand it.