Blog 4

In Austin American Statesmen, I read one commentary titled We Must Act Now to Save Our State Parks. The author of this commentary is John Cyrier, and I think he is credible enough because he is chairman of the House Committee on culture, recreation, and tourism. The author's intended audience may be people who love parks.
The main point of the author's argument is that the government should not change the state park's fund to other uses.
Above all, state parks provide many benefits, which are our state's natural treasures, rich cultural heritage, and the great outdoors. Moreover, state parks and the Texas Parks and  Wildlife Department are central to fishing, hunting, outdoor sporting, and tourism industries. These can combine billions of dollars in annual economic impact and more than one million Texas jobs. 
However, When the Texas Legislative voted to fund our parks system with state sales tax revenues collected from sporting goods sales, only 47 percent of the nearly $2.8 billion collected have been appropriated to state parks. Furthermore, state parks have been among the first on the budgetary chopping block historically.
State parks encounter a crisis moment, so the author, John Cyrier, filed HB 1214 and HJR 39, which is that sports sales tax revenues go to their intended purpose of funding state parks.
I strongly agree with the author's opinion, which is that parks provide people with a peaceful, quiet, and healthy rest. In addition, many activities and exercises are also available. These are important factors that people cannot experience at their workplace.

Blog 3

I read one commentary titled The Texas School Finance Challenge from Austin American Statesman. I thought that the author's intended audience is people who are interested in education, especially live in "property poor" school districts. Also, the author's credibility is pretty reliable because they are Democrats representing Austin in the Texas House. In the article, the authors talk about a financial problem of the school. The main argument is that Texas government should consider improving the adequacy and efficiency of the school finance system for equitable funding for kids. One evidence supports their claim, which is that campus-level funding for Texas public schools has decreased. According to the National Education Association, an estimate of their funding is $2300 less per student than other state's average. Moreover, they insist that the government give more problems to local taxpayers for school funding because the government contributes only a third of the funding for school districts, and it is less than before. In addition to the funding problem, charter school state aid is also one of the issues that the government should consider. Despite the low student share of the charter schools, their state aid increased $1.467 billion. On the other hand, state aid to traditional school districts decreased by $2.6 billion. In my opinion, I agree with the author's opinion because I personally think getting an education is the most basic but essential right that every people have.  Financial problems in schools can have a direct impact on students and quality of education, so it is significant for the government to deal with it. The Texas government have enough financial advantage, I believe that they will monitor and solve this problem.