Civic Studies in schools: A lack of citizenship=Lack of voters?

The teaching of civics in some schools nationwide seems to be the topic of much controversy as of late. With more emphasis on reading comprehension and math, it would seem there is little time left to learn it and little money in most school's budgets left to teach it.
Members of the Utah State School Board gave preliminary approval October 8th to a policy that would clarify how parents can opt their children out of state-mandated tests at school, however, for this test, opting out could come at a high price.
State lawmakers this year passed legislation requiring Utah students to pass a civics exam, one administered to those applying for U.S. citizenship, in order to graduate from high school. In the same year, the Legislature approved a bill clarifying the state's opt-out policy to include any state or federally mandated assessment. While the new law allows parents to opt their high school-age children out of taking the civics exam, it doesn't remove the requirement that students pass the exam to get their diploma.
"The consequence with this one associated with current legislation is if they do opt out, they opt out of graduation," said Rich Nye, associate superintendent for data, assessment and accountability at the Utah State Office of Education. https://www.ksl.com/?sid=36870887&nid=148
The case is not so different a few states over. The civics class requirement for high school graduation in Nebraska was redefined by that state's Department of Education. The department formerly required three semesters of social studies; which included one year of American history and a full semester of civics education. That requirement has since been doubled, to six semesters.
Nebraska State Senator Adam Morfeld, who represents district 46 in Lincoln and the founder of a group called Nebraskans for Civic Reform, said since the No Child Left Behind federal educational mandate was implemented in 2001, a more stringent testing protocol has resulted in an increased emphasis on stronger math and reading skills that, as a result, has led local school districts to focus less attention on social studies and civics education.
“If people check out, our democracy will become less representative and as it becomes less representative people become more skeptical of it,” Senator Morfeld said. “So we have to break that cycle, and in order to do that – I believe that the best place to start is with our youth.”
The senator said the facts are clear; all around the country voter turnout is seriously lagging.
“Well everybody’s voting at a lower rate than previous generations including young people – but young people more so than most age demographics.”
In Douglas County alone, voter turnout during general presidential elections has fallen from 79 percent of registered voters in 1992 to just 68 percent bothering to cast a ballot in 2012. University of Nebraska at Omaha political science professor Paul Landow said there is a growing recognition across the country for the need to reinvigorate civics education in the high schools.
“A lot of states are rethinking their government civics education requirements,” Landow said. “Many students, High school graduates and frankly, college students just don’t have a basic understanding of the pieces and parts of American government.”
Senator Morfeld believes civic involvement doesn’t need to start so late in the education of our youth.
“You can go to any of our classrooms, kindergarten through fifth grade even and ask young people, ‘What are things that you really like about your neighborhood’, ‘what are some things you’d like to change.’ And they know and they understand.”

The senator said it’s important for Nebraska (and perhaps all American youth as a whole) youth to understand the processes of the American political system and the importance of voting. But, just as important, is having youth who are engaged and critical thinkers, who take the time to seriously study the issues for themselves and then take action towards solving problems in their community.
http://www.kvnonews.com/2015/10/civics-education-key-to-informed-society-says-nebraska-legislator/

Listening Posts

For every person, there's a “listening post,” or gathering spot where information is exchanged among colleagues, friends or family. It may be a physical place, like a barber shop, the truck stop, or your local diner. It may even be a website chat room or social site. It doesn't matter where it is, as long as its a place where people gather to exchange and spread information.

For me, major listening posts I frequent include Skype, Twitter, Facebook, and the website memecenter.com. I have many friends and follow many major news sources on all of these, allowing me to find out about events and happenings, local or global, fairly fast.

For many years growing up, my family has had two major listening posts: the church, and grandma's house. Ours is a southern evangelical pentecostal church that goes back to the early 80's, so naturally many of the congregation members know each other and talk about anything and everything going on at work, with their children and spouses, a wealth of news on various topics, especially as a community. When I was younger, I remember how we'd have to wait for my dad after church, because he loved to talk to other church members.
Sunday lunch at my grandparent's house often reflected this on a closer level. My mother, my aunt and my grandma often would and still do talk about everything and everyone they know, about what their kids and their friend's or neighbor's kids are doing, who got divorced, married or re-married, who died, who got pregnant, and so on. 

It doesn't matter if its news or gossip. Listening posts just happen to be where people talk about anything and everything.

Public Records Transparency-Paris, TX

The Public Records website for Paris, TX is very clear and easy to use. The latest city utility report can be found there. According to the report, the courthouse used the most electricity (a cost of $7154.15) while the county sheriff's office and jail had the greatest use of water and natural gas. This cost difference could likely be explained by the courthouse's age and inefficient lighting. http://tools.cira.state.tx.us/users/0085/docs/Utility/2015/0815%20UTILITY%20REPORT.pdf

The Utility reports can be found under the Financial Transparency tab. Also under the same tab are the proposed budgets for 2014,2015, and 2016. According to the 2016 proposal, total property taxes for 2016 will be raised 0.8% more than the previous budget, a difference of $98,935, whereas $165,802 of the total amount will be tax revenue raised from new property to be added to the tax roll this year. The vote was presided over by County judge M.C. Superville, Jr. and signed by him August 24^th, 2015. The total amount of debt obligation for Lamar county, according to the report is $4,163,325 as of October 1^st. http://tools.cira.state.tx.us/users/0085/docs/Financial/Budgets/FY%202015%20-%202016%20Proposed%20Budget.pdf

At the bottom of the tab menu of the Lamar county website, one may access foreclosure sale notices. This will show a list of notices, with multiples for each month. AS of 10/16/2015, there are seven sales happening in October, six in November, and 3 for December. The links show up a s scans of trustee forms with other coinciding legal documents. http://www.co.lamar.tx.us/default.aspx?Lamar_County/Foreclosures

Upon further search of public records for my home area, I found a non-affiliated website that generates crime maps for selected areas. It was able to generate a crime map for Paris, which showed 86 total incidents inside Loop 286, which surrounds the city (by this writing date, 10/16/2015). These include 11 incidents of Assault, 1 count of assault with a deadly weapon, 15 counts of breaking and entering, 41 counts of theft, 9 counts of theft from a vehicle, many others with multiples details. Sex offenders may also be located through this map. https://www.crimereports.com/map?CRSearch=paris,%20TX 

Public Information access nationally: Maryland gets more transparent

Maryland's government just got a little more transparent, thanks a revision in the state's Public Information access protocols.



First enacted in 1970, the Public Information Act covers all state and local government agencies. Anyone can request access to public records. The tricky part is that some documents are exempted from public access, such as juvenile court records, adoption records, personnel records and others.
Approved by the General Assembly during its last session, the revision creates a new compliance board to consider complaints about fees, and an ombudsman in the Maryland Attorney General's Office to mediate disputes between those seeking access to records and those who keep them. The new requirements put more responsibility on government agencies to justify exempting records from public access. The attorney general's office has also drafted guidelines for denying access, said David Nitkin, director of communications.



"Our proposed regulations on denials are: If a request is denied, the custodian shall provide the applicant, at the time of the denial or within 10 working days, a written statement that gives the reason for the denial," Nitkin said. Just as well, in situations where the law allows the agency to decide whether to allow access, a custodian must also provide a brief explanation of why denial is necessary and why the harm from disclosure would be greater than the public interest, he explained.
If there's any disagreement over whether records should be made available, or if it's taking too long to produce them, the ombudsman should attempt to resolve it. However, its decisions aren't binding, and if the dispute is not resolved, the next step is to go to court. If a judge finds against the government, the new rules allow the court to impose statutory damages of up to $1,000 for the case.

Neither the compliance board, which only considers whether fees for looking up and copying records are reasonable, nor the ombudsman have been appointed yet. "We are awaiting the appointments to the compliance board by Gov. (Larry) Hogan," Nitkin said. "The office of the attorney general will accept complaints in the interim, and the board will act on them when a quorum exists." No funding was provided in the current budget for the ombudsman position, leaving the attorney general's office to wait to fill it, he said. (News Source)

SAU Centennial Homecoming

Southern AR University's 100th anniversary Homecoming was this previous week. One couldn't wish for a better turnout, culminating in Saturday’s Mulegating, crowning of the king and queen, a Mulerider Football game and a Baseball Championship Ring Ceremony.
According to “The Mulerider School’s Centennial History,” the first homecoming football game in 1915 saw a “hard-won, 7-0 victory” for SAU, then called the Third District Agriculture School (TDAS). The “Magnolia Aggies,” which became Muleriders in the early 1920s, defeated the Boll Weevils on a rainy Thanksgiving Day.



The week leading up to game day held daily homecoming-related activities, including a Monday evening pep-rally in the Greek Theatre, a Tuesday night drive-in movie at the Reynolds Center parking lot, and the popular Great SAU Campout and Bonfire Friday night.
Other weekday events included the Rankin College of Business’ third annual “Light for the Fight” ceremony Monday evening. SAU’s new Tuesday night Team Study initiative hosted a centralized celebration and study session in the Reynolds Center Grand Hall. Also, the 32nd annual Murphy Lecture which featured CNN’s Christine Romans Thursday morning in Harton Theatre.
https://web.saumag.edu/news/2015/09/30/sau-hosts-centennial-homecoming-oct-10/



The game at Saturday was against the Oklahoma Baptist Univ. Bison. Prior to start, the homecoming results announced Mia Hyman as homecoming queen, as well as recogniing several individuals for the Mulerider Hall of Fame. The first half of the game saw a lot of build up in tension, with little scoring until the second quarter, when many scores were taken aback by a referee's flag, mostly on the muleriders. The second half even things out, though it wasn't a “great” game, it wasn't a bad game at all. Overall, the Muleriders came out on top with a score of 38 over OBU's 20.

http://muleriderathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=football&id=1348

Campus Crime Report: More crimes being reported at North TX campuses

Sex-related crime reports increased at the University of North Texas and Texas Women's University this past year, according to recently released Clery Act data. The federal Clery Act requires colleges and universities to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. Previously, sex crimes were listed as “forcible” or “non-forcible.” Now, new and more precise reporting requirements categorize sex crimes as rape, fondling, incest or statutory rape, Interim UNT Police Chief Ed Reynolds said. According to the Clery Center, a new amendment to the Clery Act also added stalking, domestic violence and dating violence data to the information collected.



At UNT, 12 rapes were reported in 2014, and 11 of those took place in student housing, police said. That compares to seven rapes reported on campus in 2013.The recently released data also includes non-police reports, Reynolds said. Eight of UNT’s 12 reported rapes in 2014 came from security sources such as resident assistants in dormitories, he said.



Chief Reynolds said he believes national awareness and education have spurred more victims to report sexual assaults to authorities, rather than stay silent. Reynolds said the new reporting requirements present a clearer picture of campus crime.
Dean of Students Maureen “Moe” McGuinness said UNT has ramped up education about sex crimes on campus, making students feel more comfortable in distinguishing between consensual sex and sex crimes. She said her office hears from students about sex-related crimes — recent cases as well as incidents from childhood.
“I would definitely attribute an increase in numbers to awareness and education,” she said.
In each of the 12 rape cases, an acquaintance of the victim was the alleged perpetrator, Chief Reynolds said. He described UNT as a “city within a city.” If no sexual crimes were reported, that would raise an eyebrow, he said. This reflects similar situations on most large college campuses.



At Texas Woman’s University. six reports of stalking were reported on campus in 2014.
Elizabeth Pauley, TWU’s director of public safety, also attributed the increase in reported crimes to the new federal reporting requirements.
“If there was an inkling that a report could have been stalking, we reported it. It’s better to over-report than under-report,” Pauley said.
One rape was reported on campus in 2014, and it was not a case of stranger rape, she said.
Drug arrests at TWU slightly increased this past year, but Pauley said those resulted mainly from parties where “students tried their wings” early in the semester.
“College kids are college kids,” she said. “We are going to enforce the law.”



Meanwhile, Students at both university campuses (located in Denton, TX) said they feel safe despite knowing rapes, aggravated assaults and burglaries have happened in the past year.



Rebecca Montoya, president of TWU’s Student Government Association, said she feels safe and thinks most other people do as well. Some students have expressed concern about poor lighting in some areas around campus, she said.
She also noted that the emergency poles on campus, with buttons to call police if a student is scared, in danger or wants a police escort, make her feel more safe.
“I think it has a lot to do with having (campus police) on site, and you always see them driving around, and we have the emergency poles,” she said. “I feel like it’s been really safe, and you don’t hear about much violence like you do at a lot of other campuses.”



More than 34,000 students are enrolled at UNT, and currently more than 11,500 students are enrolled at TWU, according to fall statistics. http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20151002-12-rape-reports-at-unt-in-2014.ece