Failed bill on education in Texas - Term Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages... The Texas education bills passed in the recently were on the expected economic constraints. The recent global economic shortfalls too have affected governance and political engagements in policymaking and legislation. A bill to cut expenses on education in Texas faced rejection from the teachers since it would reduce their salaries and they would be laid off without compensation. In addition, the appropriation bill had a shortfall in students allocation per head this affected the number of entries of new students and the it was seen as if it would compromise on output by teachers (Collegedegrees.com, 2011). Apart from that the political differences also affected the bills since different positions were taken not to give more money to the financially derailed schools and hoping for organizations to chip in and sponsor some programs. Whilst most legislators were interested in maintaining their strength in the house, the bills were falling back. Legislation is all polices and the game of politics is never a clan game but various personal interests are vested upon at the expense of the commoners, hence, you find that implementations of bills don’t meet the threshold so as to bring actual enactment required since the politicians played their cards close to their chests. The bill that failed to pass in Texas was that which could allow concealed weapons on campuses. Proponents of the bill argued that responsible armed students can make campuses safer than before and assist in preventing shootings like the one witnessed in Virginia Tech in 2007. It had a lot of support from the public, the governor, eighty eight co- sponsors, two thirds of the senate and one hundred and fifty members from the house of representatives, the public were sure it will become a law but the bill faced several procedural roadblocks and could not reach the governor’s desk and be passed. In addition, those who proposed the bill argued that this bill was based on matters of self-defense in cases where harmless students are attacked. On the other hand, opponents of the bill argued that if guns were allowed on campus, it could lead to increased violence (Austin, 2011). The school voucher bill was viewed as one that will take away money from the public schools and that this would work contrary to their favor as much as the bill gave parents a choice and liberty for their children to enjoy private schools at the expense of taxpayer’s money. The charter bill also did favor the military and treat children of the rich families as very special. Citizens must be treated equally without favor or prejudice. In addition, level of abilities must be known and those of less ability should be given better terms while enjoying their liberty of choice. Some bills would give parents unwarranted powers, for example, to close down a low performing school. This was viewed as a self-gun shot in the leg since parents would peck their fingers and over demand. Parents cannot be trusted with some powers, given to them, this would bring undue unrest and hatred amongst the students and teachers as scenarios of students accusing the teachers would be witnessed. This bill was ill motivated and was not guaranteed to succeed for the sake of teacher-parent relationship and coexistence between the teachers and students (Austin, 2011). One of the failed bills was to favor charter schools in which they would be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities at traditional schools. The approach to win it was tactful but it failed since it was acquired that this would be more work for the public schools as those in charter schools made their choice at the expense of co curricular activit ...Download file to see next pagesRead More