Final Blog!!

In Megan Webb's blog she states a lot of facts about what is going on with Texas Public Education. How Perry denied to participate in a federal program that could have brought money into Texas' Schools. How standardized tests are detracting from an actual education. All in all she highlighted some strong points about why and how Texas' Schools are failing and are ranked at the bottom when compared to other schools in the nation.

We know this but how are we going to fix it? That is the one thing she does leave out. You can point out what is going wrong, but I believe that you must also point out what can be done to improve the situation.

First of all it seems that a lot of people including Rick Perry would much rather let the private sector take over education. Corporations like IDEA Charter school, a school that is trying to come to the East side of Austin. It might be my paranoid mind but in a lot of ways when you start to see dollar signs on our children's foreheads this is a problem. It makes me think that people like Perry and other politicians would like to get rid of the entire 'money drain' that is public education and sell it off to the highest bidder. We can not let this happened.

We need to make politicians understand that education is important and more important we need them to let schools do their jobs and not scare them with standardized tests or the possibility of being closed down and replaced if they fail. If they are worried about money we can start implementing a more fair tax rate and maybe even start a state income tax, which yes you would have to amend the Texas constitution, but Texas is used to that right? Being that Texas has one of the highest amended constitutions what is stopping us? Is it that the more well off are scared they might have to forgo on of the many luxuries they currently posses to make our state a little better and our children more educated?

We need a reboot! I say this all the time. We need new people in our government. People who are actually connected with the working class, people who have not been corrupted. We need a big change soon otherwise it will start with the children losing their ability to access a decent education.

Take our LABOR BACK!

We have an ever widening gap between the rich and poor in this state and in this country. Jobs are disappearing because major corporations are trying their hardest to make more of a profit by sending jobs to other countries where they can get away with paying workers the least amount of money. Jobs are also changing and becoming more and more technical as our technology improves. Minimum wage stays the same for the jobs that are left and it is far from a living wage.

Currently minimum wage in Texas is $7.25 an hour. If you work a 40 hour a week job that is $290 a week before taxes. Poverty level for a family of four in the state of Texas is a household that makes less than $20,000 a year. Let us do some math to see how this works out...

There are 52 weeks in a year, 52 times $290 equals $15,080. Now, lets double that and go off of a two person income and that comes to $30,160. This is before taxes, this is before anything that could come up as it will in a family. One of the parents has to stay home part time because they cannot afford childcare. So that cuts the $15,080 in half and now brings the total to $7,540 lets add those together once again. 15,080 plus 7,540 equals $22,620. Hey look they are still just above the poverty level right? They will be fine! Ohh crap the game of life continues as the dice rolls again and it appears little Susan has a tummy ache!! Ohh no!! But, wait doesn't your job have health insurance? Nope....Now one of the parents must stay home with Susan while the other tries to work more hours to try and pay for medical bills that keep piling up. Anyway, I think you get the idea. I could go on about all the various possibilities that could occur in our fictional family, but they are endless! Needless to say the current minimum wage is a joke and the poverty level should be a little higher than 20,000 for a family of four.

When our government sets these minimum wages do you think they consider life as a factor? Or do they just look at the numbers? My guess is it is a lot of numbers and most of the people who make these choices probably make $20,000 in a month and are so removed from this world of minimum wage they have no idea how hard it is survive on so little.

My solution to this problem. Screw them! Let us take back our labor! But, how do we do that? We have to come together as a community. “Like talk to people and stuff? But I am watching American Idol!” We have to get out of hum drum lives and start to make real change and the first step is to support local businesses, small businesses that actually do have the community in mind. After that we can really start to take back our labor. Start a coop! All it takes is a group of dedicated people to come together with like ideals and commit to it!

There are a few already in Austin! There are many different coop models to choose from!

Check out these:

http://www.austincooperatives.coop/

You might be asking but how will this make me rich? Well, it never will but it will make your life easier and you will be making a living wage. Coops are run by the employees that work there. They vote, come to consensus on the wage they will all make, usually a living wage, which in most, if not all, cases are way above the current minimum wage. Coops can function for profit but that profit is then divided up however the workers see fit, shared among the workers, sometimes it is put back into the business. It is a process that we have lost. Workers working for themselves? Weird concept right?

Taking back our labor from major corporations is just one of many ways we an start to improve our lives and we can do it for ourselves and not have to wait for big corporations, who do not really care about us, to come along and offer us that magical job that will make all of our money problems disappear. We can make these jobs ourselves and by doing this we can start to provide for our own communities and stop worrying about being laid off.