Blog Stage 3- Green: Tuition law helps Texas economy

Considering that my last blog post was about the challenges that the state of Texas has in helping under-prepared students graduate from college I thought choosing this particular commentary to review would be a great fit.  Not only did the commentary titled "Green: Tuition law helps Texas economy" tie in with my last blog post but it is also relevant with our upcoming participation topic regarding an immigration law in Texas.

The commentary was written by Joshua Green who is a national correspondent at Bloomberg Businessweek in which his column appears in The Boston Globe.  This particular commentary appeared on statesman.com and the title itself caught my attention. As I began to read Green's commentary, I noticed that his intended audience was probably anyone who watched last week's Republican debate, but more so geared towards conservatives.

Green states last month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry shot to the front of the pack when he joined the Republican presidential field, but his disastrous performance in last week's debate might propel him toward the rear and could eventually drive him out of the race, if he can't find a way to recover from it. Green goes on to say that Perry was challenged about signing a 2001 law that allows children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition rates if they've lived in Texas for three years and plan to become permanent residents.  Green believes that is a serious provocation to a Republican primary electorate that has grown steadily more nativist and less welcoming of minorities.

Green further states that Perry went beyond just defending the law to accuse his critics of lacking "heart" in which that statement is where Perry really got himself into trouble.  Green's views is that invoking compassion or social justice before conservative audiences that think nothing of booing a gay soldier in Iraq or cheering the prospect of the uninsured being left to die...is bound to cut into one's support.

Green suggest that Perry would have done better if he presented a different rationale for the law, namely that it helps the state economy.  Perry's campaign is, after all, premised on the idea that he is better qualified than any of his opponents to create jobs and grow the economy.

I found Joshua Green's commentary very insightful towards the current immigration/education standpoint.  I work closely with the Round Rock Financial Aid Office so I hear and see many students of different races and backgrounds upset about the recent financial aid cuts from the state.  Such programs include work-study, Texas Educational Opportunity Grant, B-On-Time, Top 10 Percent Scholarship, and The Tuition Equalization Grant just to name a few. There are quite a few people who are upset about the tuition law in Texas in regards to illegal immigrants, but reading Joshua Green's commentary provides a different, more positive view, on that particular law.

Blog Stage 2: State faces challenge in helping underprepared students graduate from college

I noticed this article on statesman.com and the photo associated with it is an ACC student hugging her instructor because this student is on track to graduate from ACC despite the fact that the student had to start with developmental courses.

The article titled "State faces challenge in helping underprepared students graduate from college" states that half of the state’s 473,487 community college freshman and a fifth of 103,900 public university freshman matriculating in the coming weeks will need developmental education and many of those students will never earn a certificate or a degree.

Raymund Paredes, the state’s higher education commissioner, had his agency, The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board compile records which showed that only 14 percent of community college students in developmental math courses go on to complete a college-level math course, while only about a third complete a college-level reading or writing course.

In Texas, about 30 percent of students who enroll full time at community college to pursue a certificate or a degree achieve that goal within six years while the six-year graduation rate for public university students is 56 percent. However, there is a problem that occurs earlier in the educational pipeline since 20 percent of Texans age 25 and older have not finished high school. This statistic is higher than in any other state according to a report by the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp. The national average is 15 percent.

This article just goes to show that government and politicians should not cut funding from Texas education. The huge amount of layoffs from school teachers and budget cuts in education in the state of Texas will not help this situation at all. In fact it will worsen it. When our children attend elementary, middle and high school we expect that they are receiving a good education to where they can attend college and actually take college level courses. Newly graduated high school students should have the proper tools to be prepared to take and pass college level courses. The fact that half of the state’s community college freshman as well as a fifth of the state’s public university freshman entering this year will still need to take developmental courses says something about the lack of proper education in Texas. 

Blog Assignment 1

I don't have any political ideologies and there isn't a political party that I side with. To be honest, I'm taking this class to fulfill my 6 credit hour government requirement for Texas State. I took U.S. Government over the summer and learned a lot of interesting information that I actually enjoyed the class. So I have a feeling that I'll be learning a lot from this class as well.