Immigration.... again?

My fellow classmate has an very interesting argument about the issue of immigration. Our Government is dealing with the immigration issue for more than two to three decade. As I read Albert's post about illegal aliens in Texas, I, too agree that supporting or preventing illegal immigrants is a difficult issue to solve. The more than $4.7 billion in costs incurred by Texas taxpayers annually result from outlays in the Education, Health care, Incarceration. The bills that are being presented that allow illegal aliens, but "punishes" them is a great approach to it. Trying to prevent and deport all the illegal immigrants would end up causing Texas to spend even more money. Also, the idea of denying the illegal aliens wouldn't be a guarantee success due to major loopholes.

The immigrants comes in by the thousands each day, so deporting them all of the illegals is hard if thousands are going to come flooding in again. Statistically, there are many benefits that some may overlook, though; some can argue that illegal immigration causes nothing but trouble “and money is coming out of our pockets for nothing.” Also, a sense of morality sets in. Seeing how most, if not all, of the illegal immigrants are working for dirt paying salaries brings about a sense of pity. Some can also argue that due to the large amounts of influence from the immigrants, some fear that Texas would one day completely lose its culture.

The solution I think might work will be like giving illegal immigrant a green card of some kind of status where they can pay taxes, that’s what we need and secure the border so than no more illegal immigrant would able to come in this country. As more and more people will apply for citizenship, revenue will increase and by no time we will see this problem getting to disappear and revenue will flow.

Closing schools not the Answer nor Solution

Closing failing schools does not fix failing students. The state's misdirected law that essentially requires the Texas education commissioner to shut down schools that flunk state standards five years in a row. I certainly agree with this editorial, and do believe that its not just school who is responsible for bad records and grades, its an individual students too. You can do all the transferring that you want and it still will not make a failing student into a high performing one. Send him/her to private school and the only difference will be is that they will be failing in private instead of public school. You have to address the reasons that they are not passing. Some are working full time jobs after school to help the family survive. Some have been caught up in the system and now feel there is no use to try hard. but most of all it comes down to having the family structure that will not accept nothing less the their best. I did not come from a rich home but my parents would have a belt waiting if I brought home an "F". Then I would be made to go to summer school. This attitude is lacking today. Closing isn't the right answer, but it's easy, cheap, and putative, which is what large governmental bodies seem to lean towards. I also believe even if the school stayed open, that would mean some students would still be stuck at a failing school. No matter what happens to the school, the solution is to put the focus on the students. That is, let the money follow the student, and let the parents send the student whenever they choose. This would force the public school system to do what is best for the student in order to retain them. Currently the school system does what is best to protect itself, which often not what's best for the student. Closing buildings is not the answer — fixing problems is. That starts with strong principals and quality teachers. But schools also need the time and tools to fix problems. The revisions that give failing schools more time to improve and a way to rebuild without starting over are good steps.

"No Refusal" Policy

I heard about the "No Refusal" Policy, but never really gave a thought about it until I read this article. It was the latest “No Refusal” enforcement from the Austin Police Department, the program where if a driver is pulled over for an Austin DWI, they may not decline to take a breathalyzer test. And if the driver says “no,” the Austin police officer can get a warrant for their blood. This isn’t the first time the Austin Police Department has instituted the “No Refusal” policy/Austin DWI blood draws. They’ve done it two times previously. I really agree with my classmate in that issue that taking a breathalyzer test is different thing and taking a blood is totally insane. I know people get crazy on weekends; they get nuts but come on seriously! I do believe forcing out their blood is against the person's rights. I find it somewhat offensive because I think it is requiring people to incriminate themselves, I think it sets a dangerous precedent when we strap people down and force a needle in them to draw their blood. You may think it’s beneficial to everybody around to get the drunk drivers off the road, but you can take them to jail anyway if they refuse a breathalyzer and that takes them right off the street. I like the point while reading this articles about "Injury lawsuit waiting to happen", of course not all enforcement agency officer know how to draw blood which might put agencies into serious problems. I am very much into taking DWI out of the road but lets try some thing else which might as not be dangerous as drawing blood.

Do we really need a gambling in Texas ?

A question to ask our self "Do we really need a gambling in Texas"?, As part of the Governor's school finance plan, it has been proposed to legalize video gambling (called the "crack cocaine" of gambling) as well as allow use of credit cards for gambling. This would be a terrible mistake for Texas. Governor Perry argues that there are already a large number of illegal slot machines in Texas, and that this proposed plan would legalize gambling and allow it to be regulated by the state. If this argument were true, then we would legalize drugs since they are illegal and rampant as well. Thus, the argument of legalizing gambling and drugs is illegitimate.

Statistics show on free market.org, that it will lead to a net loss of resources for the state and invariably create pressure for future tax increases. Legalizing Gambling will affect taxpayers heavily due to increased social welfare costs and increased crime, increase bankruptcies, act as a regressive tax on the poor, hurt local businesses by diverting consumer dollars, increase problem gamblers to more than 10 percent of the population, with two to five percent becoming compulsive gamblers, destroy families by increasing child abuse, neglect and parental suicide.

In conclusion, I know there are people out there who have money to throw away, well for all of those people think about an average family, and values of Texas. If you got enough money to spend on gambling, FINE, go to Las Vegas and Have Fun !!!

Steroid Testing = Waste of Money

Steroid sure is a problem in Sports, but when it cost Texas more than a million dollars and only two high school athlete got caught last spring, Wow, what a HUGE waste of taxpayer money! As the brother of a high school athlete, I certainly do not want kids taking steroids but it seems like statistically we don’t have a problem. Why not have a “turn in” program where teachers, parents or concerned persons could request a particular athlete be tested if there was a particular concern instead of wasting more millions on testing innocent kids? I’ve read the UIL rules on testing and about the appeals process and kids would be scared to take Flintstones vitamins! If the manufacturer doesn’t clean his equipment before making them, some “banned substance” could be in them that could cause a kid to test positive. They then would have a mandatory 30 day suspension. This suspension DOES NOT start immediately after the positive test but the day that their sport begins! So if a student has a false positive test, he’s basically out for the season! Career hopes and dreams and scholarship chances could be ruined, through no fault of the kid, the parents or the school! Perhaps Dewhurst should create a scholarship fund using his own money for the athletes who may be caught in this trap… Spend taxpayer money elsewhere!!!
This program simply isn’t worth the money. The return on the investment, at least after the first round of tests, doesn’t justify continuing to test for steroids on such a massive level. Texas has more than 750,000 high school students playing sports, and random testing of just 10 percent of them would cost millions of dollars. Surely the state can find better uses for that money. Steroids stay in the system long enough that students couldn’t just refrain from taking them a day or two and it not show up in the test. This was a ridiculous waste of time, effort and money. Dewhurst didn’t care about the school kids — he merely wanted to look “tough” for some future run for office. If he wants to impress, he should direct this $3 million to classrooms.

Ride the Rails in Austin

Rails in Austin, we will be seeing computer rail service between Leander and downtown Austin. Good Idea? Umm I don’t think so. Computer rail has been a long time coming to central Texas, and there are many questions about riding the trains. The authors of this plan figured that it's better to have a very poor rail configuration than none at all. Me: I'd rather hold out and do things right, once. I believe this line is a great disservice to the city, the region, and to the long-term prospect of light rail. Shame. Well, at least the seven people who work at the convention center and live in Leander will get something out of it. A toast to them! There are two points I think which should be mention, first: if rail is such a hot idea just charge customers, the ones who benefit, THE REAL COST OF A TICKET. It’s simply unfair to load the impact of a subsidized fare on the backs of taxpayers. Second: If you would be willing to construct a special, stand alone highway, with its own bridges and underpasses, paint two gold lines down the middle of it, allow ONLY buses to use it, even on Sundays when traffic is light, IT WOULD BE LAUGHED OUT OF TOWN. The only thing that would make rail transport different than this bus alternative is the incredible high cost for the rail cars and the fact that said inflexible cars could not branch out and drop off riders at their real destinations. 105 million dollars! The rail will run 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon only! No nights or weekends. Hey, let's ride the rail to Leander hat a fun. It’s a sad day thing taxpayers. This is a classic waste of tax dollars and government. mismanagement. So I strongly believe this is not a good plan and I will never ride a train in Austin.

Texas Jobs

Texas jobs: We're in the midst of an economic downturn. People are losing jobs and homes. The credit market is tight. And there is a great deal of uncertainty. This stimulus project will create 269,000 jobs in Texas. Many of those jobs will be in construction and road building. This package will benefit people who don't have any jobs right now or even for those who can't get enough out of one job. it is estimated that 5,000 people would be put to work in road construction once the stimulus money kicks in.

I am still not sure if it really is a good idea or not, Rick Perry have not sign this package yet, doesn't mean he will not reject the package , but I am still thinking how much would this effect our economy in Texas, sure people will get jobs, but do we really need more toll roads. I am sure with that money we are getting from National Government, we could use in some other good way than making a toll roads, which by the way we have to pay to drive when the work is finish. I don't think this bill is good enough for our economy, It will create jobs for sure, but that would not last forever, we need to create some thing which stands for long.