Exceptional Editorial

The discussion on Texas Exceptionalism really made me think, so when I saw this article written by Michael King in his op/ed for the Austin Chronicle I was excited to see this theem as it applies to current politics. King's intended audience seems to be those of us in the public who may unconsciously believe in Texas exceptionalism, and therefore take Governer Perry's words at face value. The claim he is making is that Perry has made "a recklessly callous exaggeration" in saying that  "By any meaningful measure, the state of our state is strong." The evidence he uses to back this up is well cited, concise, and clear in pointing out that in fact our state has several key weak points that the government seems to be ignoring. He makes some other points that are less sustantiated however, such as stating that the currently proposed budget is going to adversely affect the Texas economy. The evidence he presents most centers around the current situation being less than rosy, not what led us to this poor situation and what will plunge us further. I do think he was a little unfair in pointing out that Perry did not specify what his sources of "meaningful measure(s)" were because Perry, giving an address to the Legislature, was unable to defend himself and cite sources in response. Maybe that's green of me, but it seems unreasonable to tear down someones argument in that way without them having an opportunity to respond. His arguments and information are well done on the whole, though, and I for one found myself seeing things from his perspective.

Library Lacerations; An Article Summary

As a business major I've spent some time studying economics, and as a member of a nation whose economy has seen recent decline I can hardly afford to not pay attention to what makes an economy stronger. One of the most important things to a strong economy is an educated workforce. Education betters not only the individual, but the society as a whole because human capital is a crucial resource, and with more resources comes more productive capabilities. 

Unfortunately the Texas State Legislature is not of the same mind. In this article in the Austin Chronicle, it is stated that our legislators have passed a bill in both the senate and the house to cut 28 million dollars from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, completely eliminating three statewide programs that make information available to the masses. The three under the chopping block are the Loan Star Libraries program, which provided 6 million dollars in funding to all but 20 Texas libraries in 2010 on a grant basis, the TexShare program, which provides access the the world's best databases to any Texan for a little over a tenth of what each library would have to pay individually for the same resources, and the Texas State Law Library, which provides publicly accessible legal reference material, hosts historic legal documents, and provides research services for the Texas Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Texas Attorney General's Office. In other words, you can kiss your public library (and all of the great services provided there) goodbye. No more money for new equipment or books. No more access to job training, genealogy databases, or searchable, online, reliable reference materials. No more online access to your legal options if you're in a bind. Nada.

You'd think that Texas could find a better place to tighten its belt instead of cutting off the flow to its brain.