Chad’s Morning Brief: Texas Schools Not Meeting Standards, Gun Laws, & More
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of August 9, 2012. Give us your feedback below and tune in to Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty for these and many more topics from 6-9 am.
1. Texas Schools Not Meeting Standards (link)
Texas Schools aren't looking good. Locally, things aren't much better at all.
Schools across the state, including Lubbock ISD, continue to miss federal standards.
Lubbock ISD as a whole missed the Adequate Yearly Progress standards, due to reading performance, mathematics performance, and graduation rate, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The TEA ranks districts and schools through improvement categories called stages. If a school or district that receives Title I federal funds fails to meet AYP for two or more years for the same indicators, it moves into the School Improvement Program stages.
Stage 1 requires school officials to approve a campus improvement plan, and give students the option of transferring to another school. Once a school reaches Stage 5, the school or district has missed AYP for the same indicator for six or more years, and must implement a major restructuring. The required intervention grows with each stage.
Lubbock ISD has been ranked as Stage 3 overall.
Coronado High School missed AYP due to mathematics performance, and has reached Stage 2 requirements. Monterey High School missed AYP due to mathematics, and is at Stage 1, and Lubbock High School missed AYP due to mathematics, and is now at Stage 3.
The District’s low performer is Estacado High School, which missed AYP due to reading, mathematics, and graduation rate. They are now at Stage 5.
You can read more about some of the other local school districts by clicking on the link above. What do you think is wrong with out schools? Not one LISD High School met standards.
2. Stricter Gun Laws (link)
Many Americans believe that stricter gun laws would not stop those set on mass shootings. The NY Times reported a new poll out that says that and that not everyone is for stricter gun laws.
Most voters in Colorado, Virginia and Wisconsin are not clamoring for stricter state laws covering the sale of guns, with majorities in each state saying more restrictions would not prevent violent attacks like last month’s killings in Aurora, Colo.
Still, roughly 4 in 10 likely voters say gun laws in their individual states should be made more strict, new Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News polls find. But as many voters in Virginia say the laws should stay the way they are, as do about half of voters in Colorado and Wisconsin. (Most interviews in Wisconsin were conducted before Sunday’s shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis.) The polls found that 6 percent in Wisconsin, 8 percent in Colorado and 9 percent in Virginia want their gun laws made less strict.
Many voters seem to lack confidence in the effectiveness of more stringent laws. About 6 in 10 voters in Virginia and Wisconsin and two-thirds in Colorado say stricter laws would not deter gunmen intent on mass shootings.
“I honestly believe that criminals can get guns no matter where or when or how,” Phyllis Everitt, 65, of Aurora, Colo., said in a follow-up interview
3. Over 100 Million Receiving Federal Welfare (link)
Barack Obama and his campaign disputes Mitt Romney's ad that claims the President promotes a culture of dependency. This won't help Obama's argument.
"The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs," the Senate Budget Committee notes. However, the committee states, the figures used in the chart do not include those who are only benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare.
Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large--and growing--chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011," says the Senate Budget Committee. "Spending on food stamps alone is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade."
The data come "from the U.S. Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011.
100 million people. I wonder how many of them will vote for Obama just to keep getting the handouts.
What are your thoughts?
4. Paying the First Lady? (link)
President Obama seemed to have been complaining yesterday that Michelle Obama doesn't make any money as First Lady.
President Obama spoke to women supporters today at a Denver event.
"...I wanna make sure that when she's working she is getting paid the same as men, I gotta say that First Ladies right now don't, even though that's a tough job!"
Why on Earth would we pay the First Lady?
Other Top Stories:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
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