Happy New Year! Check out Dr. Angela Valenzuela's Policy Analysis Course Readings in anticipation of the 88th (2023) Texas Legislative Session

Happy New Year, my dear friends and colleagues:

The holidays are always a good time to catch up on readings, social media, news, and videos earmarked for viewing. As a university professor, I am always thinking of my students and my classroom. 

For my master's-level, Policy Analysis class this semester—that conveniently coincides with the 88th Session of the Texas State Legislature—I have my students develop policy briefs and portfolios on the bill (or bills) of their choice that they'll be following throughout the semester. Though not required, invariably, there is always a subset of students that ends up testifying on legislation in House or Senate hearings. All students do a mock presentation based on their policy briefs at the end of the semester so that they can at least simulate the act of giving testimony before a legislative body.

To be specific, my master's students this semester are in the Education Policy and Planning (EPP) program within the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy (ELP). From here, many of them go on to careers in policy think tanks, to work in policy-focused non-profits, external relations for school districts, including assuming positions in the Texas State Legislature, the Texas Education Agency, Washington, D.C. and the like. 

A number have even become heads and leaders of coalitions or legislators themselves. So what our graduate students really appreciate is the opportunity to experience the Texas Legislative Session that meets biennially, or every other year.

This course doesn't always line up with the legislative session so when it does, that's a bonus. We also have a parallel Policy Analysis course for our EPP doctoral students taught by EPP faculty member and colleague, Dr. Christopher Brown whose approach will similarly have his unique signature.

Selecting required readings is never an easy or simply task, yet happy to share these below in case any of this interests you and you'd like to follow along.

 

Required Readings

Bérubé, M., & Ruth, J. (2022). It's not free speech: Race, democracy, and the future of academic freedom. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.

Cullen, D. (2019). Parkland: Birth of a movement. London: Hachette UK.

Garcia, D. R. (2022). Teach truth to power: How to engage in education policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Krochmal, M., & Moye, T. (Eds.). (2021). Civil rights in black and brown: Histories of resistance and struggle in Texas. Austin, Tx: University of Texas Press.

Lopez, F. & Sleeter, C. (2022). Critical Race Theory and its critics: Implications for research and teaching. NY: Teachers College Press.*

Phillips, S. (2022). How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good. NY: The New Press.

 *This book will be available for purchase soon.

In combination with articles that I am also assigning, these are recently-published texts that speak both to the art of policy making together with policy agendas and movements themselves, including, as you might infer from the readings, on today's "culture wars." By the way, for what it's worth, not a single "pinko-Marxist" text in the bunch!

The act of choosing some texts is inescapably the act of not choosing others. That said, the fact that I have had all of these students previously, I can pretty well anticipate what will be the pulse of the classroom and what will serve them well both for the class, but also for their chosen careers in policy. And they, of course, are taking other classes with other faculty in our program, department, college, and university who are making similar judgements like mine.

I'm excited about the semester and feel honored to cap off the entering EPP 2021 master's cohort with what I trust will be a very engaging experience this Spring. I've already informed them that session begins next Tuesday and so it's time to "buckle up" for the ride.

As a personal aside, I always say that those of us in policy have the most fun!

Happy New Year to all.  Feliz año nuevo!

Thousands of Central Texas students Rally, Stepping out of class tomorrow at 10AM

Thousands of Central Texas students rally for gun safety, stepping out of class tomorrow at 10AM.  They gather first at Wooldridge Square located at (900 Guadalupe St., Austin, Texas 78701) and then make their way to the Texas State Capitol.  I hope that adults at school honor them and allow them to do this.
Angela Valenzuela

Thousands of Central Texas students rally in National School Walkout

METRO-STATE

 

By Melissa B. Taboada - American-Statesman Staff

Posted: 4:33 p.m. Thursday, April 19, 2018

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Highlights

Central Texas students will walk out of their schools between 10 a.m. and noon.

The event marks the 1999 Columbine High School massacre anniversary, one of worst U.S. school mass shootings.

Students will gather at Wooldridge Square before joining Texas Capitol Walkout for Gun Safety rally.

When LASA High School sophomore Emma Rohloff hears about another school shooting, she isn’t so much scared or angry anymore as she is tired.

She’s tired when she hears what she says is rhetoric about why there shouldn’t be stricter gun laws. Tired that nothing more has been done to stop gun violence.

At 15, Emma is one of Austin’s organizers of the latest National School Walkout, the latest in a string of student-driven protests fueled by the February high school shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Fla. Planned for Friday, the event is timed to the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, when two teens killed 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

As they have during other local and national walkouts, students across the country on Friday will call for safer schools and action against gun violence.

“There will always be angry people who will take out their aggression on strangers,” said Emma, who wants a ban on civilian use of semiautomatic weapons. “A knife attack is going to be less deadly than a mass shooting. If we can take a step to reduce the number of lives lost, that is a step we should take.”

Last month, in the strongest show of force to date, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets and rallied for stricter gun laws during the March for Our Lives rally. An estimated 20,000 participated in Austin.

WATCH: Matthew McConaughey speaks at March for Our Lives rally in Austin

While the organizers of Friday’s rally don’t anticipate so large a turnout on a weekday, thousands of Central Texas students will walk out of class.

Multiple schools will time the walkout to the 10 a.m. national call, providing time for speakers and observing 13 minutes of silence in honor of the 13 killed at Columbine. Other students are chartering buses (with money they raised that also paid for city permits and PA system speakers) and will immediately depart their campuses and join other students participating in the Texas Capitol Walkout for Gun Safety, at which students, educators and politicians will speak.

“Gun safety is an issue that effects everyone in America, especially students,” said Olivia Hoffman, a 14-year-old freshman at Austin High School. “We’re hoping to incite legislative action and show everyone teenagers are a political force that people need to pay attention to. We are the future leaders of America.”

Hays High School sophomore Vince Johnson, 16, will walk out with about 100 students at his school.

“I don’t like the idea that a school is an unsafe place for kids,” he said. “It’s a place of education, a place of community, a place where people can be together. The idea that the modern high school has been so plagued by gun violence … it’s unthinkable to me.”

The Capitol rally starts at 1 p.m. Students will gather at Wooldridge Square to make posters and signs before walking the few blocks to the Capitol.

Austin High math teacher Steve Trenfield will march alongside them.

“There are some things bigger going on than Algebra II,” said Trenfield, who has taught for five years, including three at Austin High. “This is a time we need to stand up and be heard. What’s happening in our schools around the country is unacceptable.”

Every time there is a lockdown or a school shooting, Trenfield is burdened with thoughts of how he would handle the situation if it were his school: “I’ll do my best if something should happen, but feel like there should be a bigger response from the government because this is a national epidemic.”

Stony Point High School Principal Anthony Watson also will walk alongside his students, not as part of the protest, but to ensure their safety as they walk to U.S. Rep. John Carter’s Round Rock office to deliver a school petition calling for gun reform.

“I want to be with them in case they are met with resistance in any form,” Watson said. “I’m just glad our kids know that to be respectful and responsible is the way to get things done. They’re just trying to have a voice. Whether I agree or not, whatever side they’re on, I’m all of their principal. I can’t give them my endorsement, but they have my help if they need it.”

School districts largely are handling the walkouts with no disciplinary action beyond giving the students unexcused absences, so long as the protests and rallies remain peaceful. Teachers and other staff members are not allowed to participate in their official capacities and therefore must take a personal day if they plan to rally.

“We believe finding their voice is an essential part of our students’ preparation for college, career and life,” Austin school Superintendent Paul Cruz said. “We recognize that emotions are charged in regard to school violence, and we respect the different perspectives of both our students and employees. … Creating an environment where we can support our students with positive and open conversations is key to helping them deal with uncertainty.”

Retired justice urges repeal of Second Amendment

Here, here!  Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is weighing in on gun ownership in the U.S.  It's surely a sign of the times that mere consideration of an appeal of the Second Amendment is even happening.  It's not like we're inescapably stuck in a political-policy conundrum.  There are options, particularly with mass public support.

-Angela

#NeverAgain

Retired justice urges repeal of Second Amendment

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment to allow for significant gun control legislation.

The 97-year-old Stevens says in an essay on The New York Times website that repeal would weaken the National Rifle Association's ability to "block constructive gun control legislation."

Stevens was on the losing end of a 2008 ruling in which the high court held that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defense. He had previously called for changing the Second Amendment to permit gun control.

Stevens says the decision in that case, District of Columbia v. Heller, "has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power." Stevens retired from the court in 2010, after more than 35 years.

In his essay published Tuesday, Stevens talks about the "March for Our Lives" events on Saturday which drew crowds in cities across the country. Stevens said the demonstrations "reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society."

He said the support "is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms."

But Stevens called on demonstrators to "seek more effective and more lasting reform."

"They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment," he wrote.

Repealing the amendment would be extremely difficult. An amendment to the Constitution can only be proposed either by Congress with a two thirds vote in both houses or by a constitutional convention called for by two thirds of the state legislatures. The amendment then has to be approved by three quarters of the states.

Asked at a White House briefing whether President Donald Trump had any reaction to Stevens' comments, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president and administration "still fully support the Second Amendment."

"We think that the focus has to remain on removing weapons from dangerous individuals, not on blocking all Americans from their constitutional rights," she said.

The National Rifle Association also issued a statement in response to Stevens' essay.

"The men and women of the National Rifle Association, along with the majority of the American people and the Supreme Court, believe in the Second Amendment right to self-protection and we will unapologetically continue to fight to protect this fundamental freedom," the statement said.