In response to Hannah Newborn

In Hannah Newborn’s post about STAAR testing, she talks about how the test scores have not changed that this presents a critical issue in education. I think that teachers and people in charge of the curriculum should not have to bear all the blame. Although the argument can be made that teachers should just teach harder, the same argument can be made for the students as they should just study harder. A student unwilling to learn can be considered a lost cause at times and having a teacher that wants to teach them will not always make the student learn.

However, I completely agree with the fact that if standardized is such a big deal to the education of students, then these test should be taken better care of and students should not have to worry about whether their test were graded correctly or if they were even graded in the first place. Standardized test can decide the fate of a student on whether they have to go to summer school or even repeat a grade, losing any test or being graded incorrectly should always be seen as unacceptable.

I don’t think that standardized testing should be taken away completely because although these test can at times be random on what they test, they can serve as a way to gauge just how well a student has been taught over the year. This does have its drawbacks such as having a curriculum specific to the test instead of a curriculum that could help with development of the student’s mind. However, there is now better alternative to standardized testing and I believe it is up the citizens of Texas to take charge in correcting these major educational problems.

The Unlawful Polititians

In our Texas Government course, we have learned that Texas has some some trouble with keeping politicians in line. With the people that Texas residence vote in running amok and the supposed net that is the law trying to keep them from wrong doings failing, I believe that Texas has failed in keeping the government to be for the people and not for business.

This can be seen in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as he has been seen doing some shady business with his recent trips to North Texas. It seems that he has recently used over $78,000 in his trips expenses up to North Texas. Now the problem here is that  he is using the money and that it’s the fact that he is using the money for his own personal gain. In his trips, he is seen being picked up my many people that look to be security and this can be described as overprotective for just normal trips. There is also the fact that he has a business in the north and he is using the money to help his business.

I am baffled that there is no policing net that can prevent such things. Paxton has been doing such trips frequently and with taxpayer money, and yet no one has told him anything. Even with his recent criminal charges, this man is running around using taxpayer money for his personal gain and business. I think that such a man has no role in government if he feels the need to use his time in such a matter. There have been comparisons to Governor Abbott’s travel spending and it’s within the same range as Paxton, however Abbott is a governor and that is understandable. Paxton  is certainly not the only politician that has had problems with the law and or has worked the system in someway for their own personal gain.

I believe that with the constant wrongdoings that certain politicians have done, there needs to be a way for the people or for some group to police them and truly enforce the law. Maybe this can be seen as the fault of Texans for electing such a person, and maybe there needs to be a way to better educate Texans, but something needs to be done with unlawful politicians that are never punished.