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I’m commenting on a classmate’s blog, “Save Texas Schools”, she states that Texas ranks 45^th out of the 50 states in the United States with the least funding for schools. Reading this blog makes me very sad and disappointed of Texas. Texas is a well-known state with great things about it. To hear how low our budget is for schools it’s atrocious. I would like for every state to get the equal amounts all around or accordingly to the population of students. I don’t understand why we would get 5.4 billion dollars cut off from our already low budget, making it worst for the student’s education. I would have liked more in-depth details of the subject. This blog brings a good point of view on our schools in Texas and can catch any one’s attention regardless if you’re a parent or a student. Overall I have never paid much attention to school funding but when I read about matters like this I can’t help but feel the need to join our voices and make a change for not only the present students but for the future students. I agree with the blogger in the aspect that the legislature need to increase funding for publics schools. All states in America should receive the same high quantity and quality of education as the others.

Texas Hospitals are becoming alarmed by the expiration of the Medicaid Waiver 1115. Veronica Zaragovia speaks of this matter on a post in the KUT.ORG on July 14, 2015. The waiver will expire in September 2016 and Texas must be re-apply for it, before that date. Texas Officials are having to go through a rigorous negotiation process with the federal Medicaid Officials, to secure the federal funding. If Texas does not get the funding, it can affect many citizens needing surgeries for life threatening situations or to cope with a trauma.

The federal Medicaid funding is currently assisting hospitals in Texas with health care improvements, care for uninsured patients and programs that are not currently covered by insurance providers. The programs are setup to help patients and their families to cope with a traumatic event or to help them with the after effects of surgery. 

The denial of the funding from the federal government would cause the hospitals to not be able to get more advanced equipment or new technology to better assist with helping patients. It would also cause hundreds of hospital employees to lose their jobs due to the lack of funding. The providers will not be covering all the medical cost or special programs with the loss of the waiver.

In the time of them deciding whether to renew it or not, they will run with the consequences of not receiving as much funding as they did before. Which most likely they would need to raise the reimbursements for Medicaid.

A Bill For Students to Carry a Concealed Handgun

I am compelled to agree that it is a mistake that Governor Greg Abbott signing the open-carry bill. To see the issues with the bill from the perspective of a student gives you more insight into honest concerns of students carrying handguns.  The “deadly weapon” is giving citizens the entire power of the second amendment. How many unnecessary concealed handguns are already in school?  Making it into a bill for citizens to carry a concealed handgun to schools would be far more dangerous. The blogger gives insight as a college student and perceives college students in time of being stress, dealing with alcohol and drugs, might not be smart to give them the right to carry a concealed handgun. It questions those student’s integrity and intentions of using their guns properly by obeying the law, which would be just for it to be used in case of an attack or any other emergency.

My opinion about Governor Greg Abbott’s idea towards this bill, is that it would be encouraging more shoot outs. This blog obviously needs to be heard especially because it comes from a student.  Like myself, as a student, I will have to agree with not giving the power to students to carry a concealed hand gun. We have security in our premises, let’s give them a shot in their jobs, to protect us.

http://nextgenfeminist.blogspot.com/

Youth Empowerment Services Wavier

The Texas Department of State Health Services has been having some issues to roll out a new program, the Youth Empowerment Services(YES) Wavier, which helps parents get care for their children that have SERIOUS emotional disturbances. The program will not only help these parents get medical treatment for their children but, it will also help the parents deal with their children to keep them in their homes.  This new program will in the long run keep the children from going to long term or permanent medical facilities. The YES Waiver could cut down on state cost to support these facilities.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has started rolling the program out to the counties within Texas but has been facing some barriers from some counties. I believe we need to get the program pushed forward and knock down these barriers. If we do not address these issues we will just be adding more children to the Mental Health System. If that becomes the case, it could mean more State Funding will be given to the Mental Health Facilities. This could cause for more taxes for the residents of Texas or less funding for other things. With the YES Waiver, it would address the problems within the children, keeping them from these Mental Health Facilities. This could keep the cost down and also keep families from having to be separated for a long period of time or possibly forever. All children of any color shape or condition deserve to be treated fairly, and we have to find the way to suppress our medical priorities at any cost.

Cruz Against Abortions

On the Burnt Orange Report, Katherine Haensche wrote on July 22, 2015 a blog "Ted Cruz Can’t Sleep at Night if A Women Can Still Get A Pap SmearIn America." She writes about Ted Cruz wanting to pull funding from Planned Parenthood, but she argues that Planned Parenthood is more than just a place for abortions. She states that only three percent of abortions are conducted annually, and most of their services are the women’s health checkups. Planned Parenthood conducts pap smears, mammograms, sex prevention and education and many other services. Katherine Haensche is informing other women with valuable information that might interfere with and effect their health services. She not only writes about the facts but she has the statistics from Planned Parenthood's records. She claims that Ted Cruz is a typical Republican that wants to ban abortion clinics without considering all of the other health services that they provide for women, men and children. She describes his understanding with a "kindergarten-level reading skills" on the matter. In her blog certain accusations are made about Ted Cruz which can affect her credibility due to being a one side and judgmental blog. Clearly she is Democratic and dislikes Ted Cruz's attempt to pull the funding from Planned Parenthood, which I do as well. Planned Parenthood helps many women that might feel unsecure about going anywhere else to get their checkups or can’t afford anywhere else. In general women require more medical attention than men do for our womanly parts and issues.
 

Documenting Immigrants

Bud Kennedy wrote an article on July 18, “In Texas and elsewhere, no sanctuary from anger over immigration” in the Star-Telegram Newspaper. The article speaks of immigrants not being registered in the system due to America not wanting them to be part of our country. This brings many problems such as the ones mentioned in the article; not having records on those who are criminals, not issuing birth certificates to illegal parents of American children and unable to trace any of the one million illegal foreigners. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez argues about these matters. He also claims we have “a broken system”, which I agree. I also agree with granting work permits or some sort of permission to be here in our country. They are already here and the only way that we can see if they are criminals or not is if we put them in our systems, otherwise it will always be hard to know who they are, what they are doing here, or if they are paying taxes, etc. Some of these immigrants have built their homes and are raising their American children here. It’s so easy to point your finger at the outcasts and blame them for our broken system and the criminal activity, but we must realize that anywhere in this world there is some type of criminal activity going on. Yes, we can decrease and we should decrease it. I’m aware of the ghetto parts of Houston, which many illegal workers live there and the government can’t fix it without being able to collect taxes from them. Many people complain of immigrants taking their jobs and not paying taxes, but those jobs are there because the American people do not want to work them or because the people in charge decide to take advantage of it. This is the American dream, even for Americans and just like the Irish, British, Spaniards, and Africans who migrated to the U.S, kicking out the Hispanics, it will not stop all the other immigrants from coming to our country so let’s work with what we have and take care of it the best way we can.

Marriage Equality

On July 3, 2015 The Austin Chronicle published “Marriage for Everyone” article by Mary Tuma who writes about the ruling of the Supreme Court, legalizing same sex marriage in all fifty states. The short article describes the over joyed residents of Travis county who gathered at the clerk’s office to receive their marriage certificate. We all know that the struggle to legalizing same sex marriage has not been that easy, and with it comes those who protest against it. The article points out how our anti-gay Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tried to persuade the county clerks that they had the right to not issue a same sex marriage license based on their religious belief. This would have led them to be unconstitutional and it was their job to obey the law, according to the fourteen amendment. They didn’t have any option but to follow suit.