HISD Board Candidates

I read an article on the blog Burnt Orange Report titled “HISD Board: Experience & Leadership or A Parent with an Ax to Grind?” This blog is biased to being more liberal. This article was written by Andrea Greer, which there is no information provided from the website about her when you click on her name. With a little more research on the website, I found on the about page a link to meet the authors. There was not too much about her in general. She is an activist and feminist was a law degree. 

 Her intended audience would be people who live in the Houston area and those with kids in the public school system. The article is about the people on the ballot for HISD Board and whom she thinks the people of Houston should vote for. She starts with the four people running (Anne Sung, John Luman, Victoria Bryantand, and Danielle Paulus) and immediately dismisses two of the candidates (Victoria Bryantand and Danielle Paulus). She dismissed them for not going to very many many board meetings, if any at all, and for not speaking with people who are currently on the board. She states that Danielle Paulus didn't even show up for the interview. From the start of the article she states the person she backs up, Anne Sung. She states that Anne Sung has spoken with all the members of the board where as John Luman has only meet with half. She provides a few questions they were asked and their responses. On each question it seems to make out Anne Sung as the best fit. 

 The article seems like an endorsement for Anne Sung as a whole. The article seemed to me to prove her point. After I was finished reading it I thought she was the best candidate. The article was a little hard to keep up with since she switched back and fourth between talking about the two candidates. She provided a little background of the candidates and what they had done so far to get ready for their position if they were to win. Although she provided a few of the questions and answers, she did not always ways post both candidates replies. Her article provided a strong argument that she convinced me of, so I believe that this article would be effective.

Mental Health of Travis County

I read this article by Josephine MacLean called “Texas policy alienates mentally ill” on the Daily Texan. The author MacLean doesn't have very much information about her on the website. She is an advertisement student. I don't think that makes her too much of a credible source to receive information from. The audience for this article is travis county citizens and perhaps UT students.

The article suggests that we fix the mental health availability of the county. The jail system is currently the main provider for mental health aide. The article did not really provide any sort of way of suggesting to change the system. They were mostly compelling about something we should fix but not caring enough to put more insight into the topic. MacLean thinks we should start with adding more funds and hospital beds for state hospitals. They did not suggest where the money for the changes should come from. Her arguments are not very strong. She makes good points that a lot of tax payers are paying for mental health aid for prisoners and getting help sooner would help the public. She didn't follow threw with her plan.