OPINION

05/14/2009

LaDawn Fletcher: I want the best for all kids, not just mine
I can't be content that my daughter, full of hope, promise and potential, will attend this fabulous elementary school, if someone else's daughter, equally full of hope, promise and potential, gets a substandard start because their property values are lower.

Melissa Nelson: High-stakes tests come with high risks, too
I'm all for college readiness. I try to prepare my students for their futures every day. But I don't think students should have to show "college readiness" to get a high school diploma.

René Villareal: Allow children of illegal aliens to dream
Most families migrate to improve their lives, not to wreak havoc. True, per the letter of the law, parents of immigrant children entered the country illegally. Nevertheless, is it criminal to escape violence, poor economic conditions or oppressive governments?

Leonard Pitts: Private pain, public fascination
To suggest that there are lines one does not cross, even with celebrated people, is to encounter pushback from those who insist they have a right to invade the lives of those their adoration has made wealthy. And celebrities, they say, have no right to complain.

05/15/2009

Philip Taubman: Obstacles to nuclear disarmament
It would require a sea change in a dizzying array of defense matters, from core defense policies to highly technical weapons programs. Consider what would have been involved had the great powers of the 19th century decided to abolish gunpowder.

Rod Dreher: Truth, culture and cognition
Why should we, in the modern West, confidently presume that we have the completely correct way of discerning truth? Many assume that scientific materialism is the only legitimate epistemology. Religion, to them, is nothing but a vile illusion.

Regan Hofmann: Should people who spread HIV go to jail?
In most U.S. states, there is some sort of law making it a crime to either knowingly transmit, or expose someone to, the AIDS virus. When these cases involve consensual sex, why are we not discussing the culpability of both parties?

Meghan Daum: Safe, legal, rare and a big deal
That's not to suggest that, back in the day, women put abortion in the category of getting a tooth filled, nor is it true that all women today agonize over the decision. But there's no denying that the language and overall tone around abortion has changed.

David Brooks: Health reform and fiscal suicide
If Barack Obama is going to sustain his agenda, he has to control health care costs, now the crucial issue of his entire presidency. What exactly is he proposing to help him realize hundreds of billions of dollars a year in savings?

George Will: Markets spot - and punish - scalper greed
Perhaps it would be a good idea to give moral reasoning a rest and give economic reasoning a chance. Would-be price gougers are at the mercy of a public armed with information, which is what markets generate and communicate.

David E. Martin: Too often trading iron bars for invisible ones
Though our Constitution forbids trying a man twice for the same crime, many of our incarcerated men and women are perpetually tried and sentenced to time in prison and then once outside, for the rest of their lives, by the immense hurdles they face.

05/14/2009

James A. Fry: I put away an innocent man
Charles Chatman, imprisoned for 27 years for a crime he didn't commit by my prosecution, tragically is not unique. The staggering number of exonerations attest to just how easily the innocent can be convicted.

Cornyn and Harkin: Jumpstart workplace wellness
Corporations are spending billions on illness, hospitalization, absenteeism and lost productivity. Wouldn’t it make better sense — and better profitability — to shift a large share of those health care dollars toward wellness and disease prevention?

Balance of Opinion: Curing the GOP blues
Colin Powell thinks Republicans are out of sync with the mainstream. Dick Cheney thinks Rush Limbaugh is a much better Republican than Colin Powell. What's a party to do? The punditry is trying to sort it all out.

05/13/2009

Carl Leubsdorf: Will voters tolerate big deficits?
Republicans believe Obama's big budget and big deficits offer a juicy political target for the 2010 and 2012 elections, especially if it forces lawmakers to raise some taxes. But the administration holds some important political cards, too.

Margaret Spellings: Texas can keep educational lead
Texans should be proud of our work on education reform, but we cannot be satisfied. Our achievement gap is still large, our standards are too low, and our work is unfinished. It's vital that we stand strong on accountability standards.

Margarita Martín-Hidalgo: Grandstanding Hispanic activists
Hispanic leaders are not focusing on the real issues that affect everyone. The conversation is dominated by a handful of people with self-serving agendas, who cloud real concerns and pander to feelings of ethnic pride and prejudices.

Rebecca McGowan Jensen: A TAG teacher's argument
Why should we oppose special treatment for the specially skilled, talented or motivated? The magnet schools serve the best and the brightest in the same way that our football programs serve the strongest and fastest. The discussion is silly.

Dawn McMullan: Put a priority on DISD magnets
Newsweek recently ranked the Dallas school district's TAG magnet high school second in the nation and Science & Engineering No. 4. And these are the schools you want to fundamentally change?

05/12/2009

Mark Davis: Really, no apologies necessary
You are free to like or dislike what David Feherty wrote about Nancy Pelosi, but is it something that requires a public apology? Of course not. And, for that matter, neither is Wanda Sykes' tasteless, off-color rant on Rush Limbaugh. Enough of this already.

Kathleen Parker: Anti-Rush comic's offense? Not funny
There's nothing un-funnier than Saturday night's jokes reviewed by the caffeinated light of Monday morning. Which is why we probably shouldn't quarterback a comedian over coffee when she was performing for a crowd primed on cocktails.

Richard Cohen: What if Cheney's right about torture?
I have written a column in defense of Dick Cheney. I know how upsetting this will be to some Cheney critics, and I count myself as one, who think that everything he says is a lie. Yet I have to wonder if what he is saying now is the truth – i.e., torture works.

Bob Herbert: Murder and the media
The press is still very color conscious in the way it goes about covering murder. Editors may not be asking, "What color is that victim?" But, on some level, they're still thinking it.

05/11/2009

Sebastian Mallaby: Banks need steady dose of stress-testing
The real significance of the stress tests goes deeper. They answer the perplexing long-range question: When the financial system emerges from this crisis, how can it be prevented from blowing up again?

William McKenzie: Will Texas meet its water challenge?
Societies periodically run up against epochal changes. They emerge from them more adept at dealing with their future, or they get left behind by the economic, political or cultural shifts of their times. Texas faces such a moment with its water supply.

Jeff Kline: UNT student argues for local public law school
After comparing costs of private vs. public law schools, I realized private schools were way too expensive for a recent college graduate. That shot a hole in my plan to save money by living at home in Plano while attending law school.

Ellen Goodman: When medical 'rationing' may be rational
Health care reform is not just a matter of spreadsheets and patient charts. It's a repository of the personal narratives we carry around in our family hard drives.

09/02/2008

Clint David: The problem with lawyers
The legal profession has long suffered from a significant image problem. When a profession's compensation model is based upon "the more time you spend, the more you make" or "the bigger the prize at the end, the more you make," then you have set yourself up for these problems.

09/01/2008

George Will: The Schwarzenegger model
If John McCain becomes president, he will be confronted by a Congress with significantly larger Democratic majorities than today's – majorities furious about high hopes dashed by an eighth Republican victory in 11 presidential elections. For that reason, it is pertinent to survey Arnold Schwarzenegger's governorship of one-eighth of America's population.

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