Just stop, Rick Perry. Stop it.

Yeah, that's the guy who is messing up everything for women and NOW everyone else.

In the Burnt Orange Report blog, I found a piece written by Katherine Haenschen written on March 15th about how Rick Perry plans on funding a Women's Health Program by cutting in to Health and Human Services. The author is not only appealing to Democrats, but pretty much to anyone else who has a family, children, or is disabled. For someone that wants to make sure Planned Parenthood goes extinct and make sure women are getting the care that they were ALREADY getting at PP, eating away at funds that go to more than just women and rather families as a whole seems pretty freakin' retarded.

Katherine writes,
"Last session, the legislature cut $73 million from the state's family planning budget. Those cuts caused women's health clinics across the state to lay off workers, decrease services, or shut down entirely. The sneaky Republicans didn't merely eliminate the $73 million -- they diverted $61 million into other programs that serve the disabled, children, and the elderly, thus trying to force Democrats to vote against amendments to fund these programs at the expense of family planning programs. Now, HHS will have to look for any money that hasn't been spent yet, or bills that aren't due until later in the biennium, and divert the money back to the women's health program."

Like the author said, the Republicans were sneaky. Rick Perry cut this money to rid of Planned Parenthood and knew that less than enough people would vote against funding the other programs. Now it's just a big mess and we're looking at what, I believe is to be, an unnecessary cut with little to no pasting back where it belongs. We are going to have to extract money from where we put it (into the disabled, children and elderly) into a Women's Health Program which would not even have to happen had we kept Planned Parenthood.

Not only did the legislature make that cut, but they also underfunded Medicaid's last session by $4.8 billion dollars. Good job, Perry! Way to put us in a multi-billion dollar debt all because you didn't want to back up the program at 100%, which you should have. The writer also concludes that because of this underfunding, Medicaid will face a $15-17 billion dollar shortfall. Yikes.

What we have here is a (excuse my language) shit storm provided by our governor. "Rick Perry could have continued the successful Medicaid WHP Program that provides Texas with $9 in Federal funds for every $1 in state funds we spend on women's health and family planning. Instead, he's so determined to shut down Planned Parenthood -- which Federal law says Perry cannot shut out from the women's health program -- that he'll take funding for seniors, children, and the disabled down with him if he has to."

Who voted for this guy? Seriously.

Overall, Perry is going to put our state in a tremendous amount of debt, and it seems like there is little that we can do to stop him until he realizes that he dun'goofed and that millions are suffering on his behalf. I'm really hoping he wakes up from his crazy dream or someone else takes a stand and can stop this vicious cycle before it becomes unstoppable.

Scrapping for acceptance

In the Austin American Statesmen, there beamed a shiny editorial in regards to the policies and regulations of college admissions. While there is no author to give specific recognition to, there doesn't appear to be any specific audience other than one that believes in a fair and equal policy when it comes to admissions. This article is based off of a case of a white female student who was not accepted into the University of Texas. The story goes as follows:

"The UT case starts with the top 10 percent law passed by the Legislature in 1997. Under the law, Texas students who finish in the top 10 percent of their high school classes receive guaranteed admission to state-funded colleges and universities.

In 2008, Abigail Noel Fisher of Sugar Land applied to UT, but because she did not graduate in the top 10 percent of her class, UT put her application in a pool with other applicants who also did not graduate in the top 10 percent.

UT used race as one of several factors — experiences outside school, signs of leadership and so on — to decide which of these students would be allowed to fill out the fall 2008 freshman class.

Eighty-one percent of the 2008 freshman class graduated in the top 10 percent, leaving only about 1,200 slots available for students outside the top 10 percent. There were an estimated 16,000 students competing for those slots.

Fisher was not admitted. She enrolled instead at Louisiana State University and is set to graduate this spring"

Abigail intended to sue the University for discrimination. The author leans and agrees with Abigail's reasoning to confront the school, but also concludes that, in the end, "to reject one factor from consideration is to favor another." I can easily agree with both the author and Abigail. As a college student who just applied to go to a university where there are limitations on acceptance and make it more difficult to be accepted, I am intimidated that my 3.5 GPA and caucasian background will leave me scrapping it out against the few others trying to transfer out of state and requesting financial aid who may have a different background than I do. However, I know I'm a well-deserving student and despite my color not being the minority, I believe that I am just as equal a candidate as them.

Diversity should no longer be a factor. Diversity by color, anyway. Also when the author mentions the ridiculous percent of the school being accepted for being in the top ten percent of their high school, it's baffling to see that a mere 1,200 students who weren't are getting in based on how "diverse" they will make the school appear. It is unfair not only to the students who apply, but also to the school itself in depriving what possible "diversity" they hope to achieve by automatically accepting far too much of the top ten percent.

Rules and regulations need to be altered, but, again I will agree with the author and say that "there is no perfect college admissions policy"...however, that doesn't mean we can't try to create one.

Fix the education system!

I came across on article in the Houston Chronicle titled "Texas Democrats urge Perry to call special (school funding) session". The article relays the fact that $5.4 billion has been cut from educational funds and we are seeing classrooms exceed populations due to the closure of several schools and thousands of teachers losing their jobs. "The State Democratic Executive Committee of the Texas Democratic Party unanimously passed a resolution Saturday asking Perry to call the Legislature into immediate special session in order to restore funding to public education."

I think this is an interesting article to read because not only is the education of our youth most likely our top priority in the state and nation as a whole, but also because the Democrats are finally stepping up to the Republicans in a Republican state. The article also outlines a Democratic revolution, providing alternatives to reverse this huge error. "WHEREAS there will be at least $7.3 billion in the State Rainy Day Fund at the end of the current budget cycle, more than enough to restore the cut funding without raising any taxes and still leave billions in the bank". I believe that this situation can easily be reversed with commonsense alternatives such as this...it's just getting the Republicans to focus on what the real problems are in this state and do something about it.

Lack of education

Just an example of how "well-educated" our youth is. Still think teachers are getting underpaid?


Lunch Scholars