Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 257, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 15, 2010 Page: 4 of 10
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Viewpoints
Page 4 ■ Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sweetwater Reporter
DEDICATED TO PROUDLY DELIVERING LOCAL NEWS SINCE 1881
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TA
MEMBER
2010
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
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EDITORIAL POLICY
The editorial section of the newspaper is a forum for
expression of a variety of viewpoints. All articles except
those labeled "Editorials" reflect the opinions of the writ-
ers and not those of the Sweetwater Reporter
Kay Bailey
Hutcltisan
GUEST COLUMN
American competition
and innovation begins
in the classroom
Over the past month, families across Texas have readied
their children for the new school year, Supplies and back-to-
school clothes have been bought. Fall sports and marching
band practice are well underway. And many students are
already hard at work on nightly home-
work assignments. While our students
might have their sights set on next week's
football game or an upcoming science
project, as a nation, we must focus on the
overall preparedness of young Americans
to be the leaders, thinkers, and entrepre-
neurs of tomorrow.
Science and technology are at the core
of America's ability to compete in an
increasingly globalized economy and to
solve 21st century challenges like energy
independence, biotechnology, communi-
cations, and healthcare.
Alarmingly, the National Science
Board's Science and Engineering
Indicators 2010 report shows that U.S.
leadership in research and development
(R&D) and technological innovation is declining. If this trend
continues, we risk forfeiting our global leadership in techno-
logical development to other nations. We cannot allow that
to happen.
In order to compete, the U.S. must not only train the best
scientists and engineers in the world, but emphasize math
and science in American education so our students are quali-
fied for the high-paying, high-tech jobs of the 21st century. I
have been a vocal proponent of encouraging young students
to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and
math (STEM). However, the rate of American students going
into STEM fields still remains alarmingly low.
In Texas, only 41 percent of the high school graduates are
ready for college-level math (algebra), and only 24 percent
are ready for college-level science (biology). Furthermore,
with current trends only two percent of today's American 9th-
grade boys and one percent of girls will attain even an under-
graduate science or engineering degree. In contrast to these
troubling numbers, 42 percent of all college undergraduates
in China earn science or engineering degrees. In 2000, nearly
80 percent of the 114,000 science and engineering doctorates
awarded worldwide were from institu tions outside the Uni ted
States. This situation has only worsened in the last decade.
Despite these troubling statistics, we can and must make
America even more competitive and innovative than it is
today. To grow high paying, highly skilled American jobs,
we must increase investment in research by lowering the cor-
porate tax rate, including a permanent extension of the R&D
tax credit. The President has proposed a temporary one-year
extension but this tax credit must be permanent. We need to
encourage student interest in careers in math, science, and
technology. And, we must foster an atmosphere of private-
public partnerships between our educational institutions and
those companies that need STEM graduates.
We must also build a solid foundation for a scientifically
literate workforce, which begins with developing outstanding
K-12 teachers in science and mathematics. Unfortunately,
today there is such a shortage of highly qualified K-12 STEM
teachers that many of the nation's school districts have been
forced to hire uncertified or under-qualified teachers in these
subjects.
Today, many American middle and high school math-
ematics and science teachers are teaching outside their own
primary fields of study. While a U.S. high school student has
a 70 percent likelihood of being taught English by a teacher
with a degree in English, that student has only about a 40
percent chance of studying chemistry with a teacher who was
a chemistry major.
The University of Texas has led efforts to combat this prob-
lem by offering a combination of an undergraduate degree
in a STEM field with teacher certification through electives.
Beginning in 1997, the University of Texas' UTeach program
has produced more high school teachers with degrees in
STEM fields and has become the national benchmark for
teaching excellence. It was recommended in the National
Academies' "Rising above the Gathering Storm" report.
Recently, I included a provision in a bill reported out of the
Commerce Committee that would create a national initiative
to encourage colleges and universities to adopt the UTeach
program. Modeled after UT's successful concept, it would
help participating institutions recruit and prepare science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics majors to become
certified as elementaiy and secondary school teachers.
I have also introduced legislation that will correct a discrim-
inatory provision in a U.S. House bill that singles out Texas
and denies our state $800 million in education funding. Our
students and teachers deserve a quality education, and my bill
will try to allow Texas schools get their fair share of support.
The challenge of educating a 21st century workforce can
be daunting, but we should consider it an opportunity to
strengthen America as a global leader of innovation. And the
work begins in classrooms in Texas and across the nation.
Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior U.S. Senator from
Texas and is the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Any comments
can be emailed to editor@sweetwateiTeporter.com.
GUEST COLUMN
Preserve, protect and defend
Even America's bitterest
enemies understand why
we mark July 4th with
parades, speeches and
fireworks: to cel-
ebrate the signing
of the Declaration
of Independence.
We're proud of our
nation, and justifi-
ably so.
So why do we
virtually ignore
September 17th?
That's the date,
in 1787, when
our Founding
Fathers signed the
Constitution. And
if any one factor
can explain why
our republic has endured
— indeed, thrived — for
223 years, it is this unique
charter, which outlines
the form of government
best designed to safe-
guard "life, liberty and
pursuit of happiness," as
the Declaration puts it.
Yet today, on many
issues, this vital document
is frequently ignored,
even undermined, by
some of the very people
who have taken a public
oath to uphold it.
Consider the debate
over Arizona's immigra-
tion law. Here we have
a state understandably
frustrated by the federal
government's failure to
control the flow of illegal
immigrants. So it passed
a law to enforce immigra-
tion laws already on the
Edwin
Feulner
books. Hysteria ensues.
The Justice Department
demands that the law be
struck down.
Susan Bolton,
the federal judge
who subsequent-
ly ruled on the
law, didn't go
that far, fortu-
nately. But she
did suspend cer-
tain parts of it,
such as a provi-
sion authoriz-
ing the arrest
of an individual
"where reason-
able suspicion
exists that the
person is an alien
and is unlawfully present
in the United States."
Why? Because that
might go against the
Obama administration's
practice of not enforcing
i mmigration law in many
of these cases. But what
she could not say is that
the Arizona law was some-
how inconsistent with the
actual federal immigra-
tion law. She simply rel ied
on judicial fiat to produce
a conclusion that flouts
precedent and tradition.
Is she unaware that it's
her job to interpret the
law, not rewrite it?
We see this same
destructive impulse in
the fight over California's
referendum on same-sex
marriage. The state fol-
lowed the law to the let-
ter, allowing its citizens to
make their voices heard
on this important issue.
Then along comes U.S.
District Judge Vaughn
Walker, who strikes down
Proposition 8.
Did he refute the sub-
stantial evidence in favor
of Proposition 8? No,
he didn't even mention
it. Did he cite binding
Supreme Court precedent
to justify his action? No, he
ignored it. In 1972's Baker
v. Nelson, Minnesota was
accused of violating the
Constitution by issuing
marriage licenses only to
opposite-sex couples. The
Supreme Court unani-
mously threw out the
case, finding that no sub-
stantial federal question
existed. In short, it was a
state matter.
Now, no matter what
Walker thinks about
Baker, he has no busi-
ness disregarding it. As
former U.S. Attorney
General Edwin Meese
III explained in an op-ed
for The Washington
Post, "Walker's ruling is
indefensible as a matter
of law." The judge also
should have weighed the
evidence supplied by
Proposition 8's support-
ers. Instead, we have a
judge acting outside the
boundaries laid down by
the Constitution.
Judges aren't the only
offenders. In the matter
of health care reform,
lawmakers in Congress
are the ones acting as if
their power is limitless.
Supporters of Obamacare
claim they can regulate
(i.e., force you into) buy-
ing health insurance
because the Constitution
allows Congress to regu-
late commerce. Just to be
clear: the argument is that
your decision not to buy
something is commerce.
The Supreme Court has
ruled repeatedly that the
Commerce Clause has
limits, and that Congress
saying that it's regulating
commerce doesn't nec-
essarily make it so. Yet
some in Congress act as
if they can compel a free
people to do anything
they want.
Enough. It's easy to see
why Constitution Day is
so important: We need
judges who interpret this
vital document as it was
written, not as they wish
it were written. That's the
only way to ensure it's
around for another two
centuries.
Ed Feulner is presi-
dent of The Heritage
Foundation (heritage,
org). Heritage is current-
ly sponsoring "Preserve
the Constitution,"a series
of panel discussions by
distinguished judges and
other top legal experts.
For details, go to www.
heritage.org/Research/
Projects/Preserve-The-
Constitution.
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GUEST COLUMN
Is it time to start using the I word
I have little doubt that
critics (and perhaps even
fans) of these columns
are tiring of my weekly
harangue over the sorry
performance of Barack
Obama. And just when I
think I can spend a week
actually thinking about
something else
on which to com-
ment, he renders
such fancy impos-
sible by proposing
yet another inane
scheme for spend-
ing our great, great,
great grandchil-
dren's hard earned
tax dollars. This
week is no excep-
tion.
His latest elec-
tion-year, let's-
throw-this-against-
the-wall-and-hope-
it-sticks proposal is a
$50 billion boondoggle
he wants to earmark for
"infrastructure." Now that
all those census-worker
positions have gone away,
thereby throwing cold
water all over his celebrat-
ed "Recovery Summer,"
this is his latest lame pro-
posal to create jobs.
No one anywhere in
this administration seems
willing or able to explain
what happened to all
those "shovel-ready jobs"
that were supposed to be
financed by the nearly
one trillion dollars in so-
called stimulus funds last
year. They also don't seem
inclined to tell us just what
industries are being stim-
ulated, although increas-
ingly we see signs along
the road that read, "your
stimulus $ at work" — or
whatever absurd senti-
ment Obama's bureau-
crats think we are stupid
enough to accept. (Note:
he may have stimulated
the sign market, but we
have no real economic evi-
dence of that, so that state-
ment is still speculative.
Doug
Patton
Rumor has it even they
are laying people off.)
Like his hero, FDR,
Obama seems destined to
expand the current reces-
sion into a new Great
Depression. Honest his-
torians now agree the
New Deal lengthened and
deepened a nasty
fiscal downturn
into a fifteen-
year economic
catastrophe that
did not truly end
until after World
War II, but none
of them have
jobs in Obama's
regime.
T h ankfully,
presidential term
limits preclude
this man from
being elected
four times, as was
Roosevelt. But then, given
Obama's radical leftist ide-
ology, combined with his
complete dearth of expe-
rience (FDR at least had
a few years experience as
governor of a major state),
BHO would likely not
need twelve-plus years to
destroy the Republic. Two
full terms, especially with
liberals running amuck in
Congress, would be plenty
of time, thank you very
much.
So, the question arises,
is it time to start using the
"I" word? I pose this ques-
ti on without recommenda-
tion, with all due deference
to the U.S. Constitution,
which defines the criteria
for such action vaguely as
"high crimes and misde-
meanors." Looking at the
two presidential impeach-
ments in U.S. history
(Andrew Johnson and Bill
Clinton), neither of which
resulted in expulsion from
office, it is easy to dismiss
both as political vendet-
tas.
In Johnson's case, he
was Republican Abraham
Lincoln's Democrat vice
president at the time of
Lincoln's assassination.
Distrusted by the postwar
congress when he imple-
mented his Presidential
Reconstruction, Johnson
pushed policies favored
by his Southern Democrat
cronies, allowing them to
implement racist policies
toward newly freed blacks
throughout the South.
Congress subsequent-
ly passed several laws
restricting Johnson's
power, most notably the
Tenure of Office Act,
enacted over Johnson's
veto. This law denied the
president the power to
remove from office any
official appointed by a
past president without
the advice and consent
of the U.S. Senate. When
Johnson attempted to
replace Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton, who had
been a ppointedby Lincoln,
the U.S. House impeached
him. The Senate failed by
one vote to remove him
from office.
Clinton's circumstance,
of course, was much dif-
ferent. His initial offenses
were personally embar-
rassing and politically
damaging, but his legal
woes came after he per-
jured himself by lying
under oath to an inde-
pendent counsel. He, too,
was impeached by the
House of Representatives,
but a two-thirds major-
ity of the Senate (thanks
to Democrats) remained
unwilling to convict him
of his obvious crimes and
misdemeanors.
In Obama's case, vir-
tually everything he pro-
poses is at odds with the
Constitution. Is that an
impeachable offense?
You make the call. In any
case, right after the first of
the year the GOP should
be calling the shots in
Congress.
Doug Patton describes
himself as a recovering
political speechwriter
who agrees with himself
much more often than not.
Now working as a free-
lance writer, his weekly
columns of sage political
analysis are published the
world over by legions of
discerning bloggers, cou-
rageous webmasters and
open-minded newspaper
editors. Astute supporters
and inane detractors alike
are encouraged to e-mail
him with their pithy com-
ments at douifpatton @
cox.net.
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 257, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 15, 2010, newspaper, September 15, 2010; Sweetwater, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth229268/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sweetwater/Nolan County City-County Library.