I choose to critique this editorial article in the Saturday January 22, 2011 in the Austin Statesman, written by the staff of the Statesman. While I agree whole-heartedly with what the piece was saying, I disagree with the way it was being communicated.
You see ,it was written no differently than a normal news piece found in the Statesman, filled with technical jargon and no real details about the impact the state budget would have on life for your average Texans, even for Texans on the upper income spectrum. This lack of communication left an otherwise good article open to attack to "right-wing trolls" who dismissed it at just more liberal whining.
When the author said your taxes will rise at a local level, he meant local sales tax rates, court fees, ticket fines, library fines, and any other way your local city can think of to cover a revenue short fall. It is possible that state and county agencies will have to increase fees for registrations, drivers licenses, permits, etc.
The budget woes in the school districts will mean there will be less teachers, larger class rooms, more paper work back log, more need for parental volunteers to cover the shortage in staff in the class room as aides, cafeteria, the office, and as crossing guards. Disciplinary actions may become more broad and less individualized as the school just doesn't have the time to deal with students one on one any more, causing swift one size fits all punishment leading to deeper student/parental dissatisfaction.
In addition, college students will take a very large hit. The state of Texas offers 16 different types of student financial aid including waivers, loans and grants. The article mentions a 41% reduction in funding which would more than likely affect loans and grants before waivers. With more and more students enrolling in higher education due to the recession, options for school funding will become more and more limited. This is an issue of great concern to me, as I received a grant this semester, as I'm sure many of the students in this course did as well. It made a big difference in my financial aid package and it was one less worry since I did not have to pay it back. Next semester that amount may have be filled with a loan instead.
Decreased funding in Medicaid providers will push the already scarce amount of doctors and clinics to close their doors to needy patients forcing more and more patients to overworked, under-staffed emergency rooms who are not equipped to provide the long term care many of these patients require. In addition, elderly patients on Medicaid living in nursing homes may find themselves forced to either find alternate ways to pay for their care or be taken in by relatives. Working families are already struggling to find ways to make ends meet, adding additional medical expenses for relatives is just another burden residents will have to shoulder.
The article itself does speak the truth. The budget bill currently being considered by the house will cripple the state for many years to come. Now, I realize that the opinion writer(s) probably did not have the space to go into as much detail to cover all the topics as needed, but if I'm reading the opinion section I actually want an opinion, not repeated numbers and factoids found in the normal news stories. It appears the staff at the Statesman who wrote this opinion article did not get into "opinion" mode before publishing. When I look for an opinion on a subject, I want an analysis on how certain news could affect my life and it's opposing views so that I may consider the whole picture. This article , in my opinion, lacked this kind of coverage.
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