That Guy is my President!

I voted for Obama! I did. I was excited and proud in the months leading up to elections.I saw in our future a truly amazing change and was thrilled to be a part of it.
Flash forward to now, 2011 end of February. I am still thrilled to have helped start the ball of of change rolling!
Because of my enthusiasm I'm finding it hard to stomach some of the latest approval polls. It seems quite a few of those who voted for President Obama aren't quite as excited as I am. It seems to me that a huge sticking point has been Obamacare/Affordable Care Act. Not actual Obamacare/AFCA though, the perception of Obamacare/AFCA. It seems like a lot of people are not really sure what is going on.Conservatives seem to think it's encroaching on their right to... rack up thousand of dollars in debt because their pre-existing condition that wasn't covered by their health insurance became an issue? I'm not exactly sure why they're upset. The unhappy liberals really wanted the universal health care to happen, but I feel like the first round of reform went really well and a lot of the changes make good sense for everyone. I don't feel let down in the slightest.
Still though, there are many people like me. I think President Obama is going a great job. Every good leader is capable of balancing the best of intentions with the realities of compromise.
I found a columnist that has similar thoughts on this issue. Louis Black from The Chronicle has done an awesome job of breaking down the whos and whys behind those polls. He starts out with a pretty easy to relate with experience of people being coy about their general positive feelings about Obama and his progress so far. Black then breaks down some of the misconceptions that some groups had/have concerning promises from Obama and general misguides disappointment and where it might have stem from.
His ideas seem well informed and not overly angry, just annoyed and expressing it with some humor.
I really enjoyed this column and I'm looking forward more of Black's views!

AISD plans to cut 1,000 positions for the 2011-2012 school year?!?!

I am the mother of two young children. My oldest will be starting Pre-K this coming fall.So I probably don't have to say that public school is on my mind, has been on my mind since before he was born.Austin is a tricky place for schooling.There are plenty of well run schools with dedicated teachers and attentive students with oodles of parent interest to keep everything running smoothly...and then there are the rest. You might say, "Just transfer! No big deal!" but you would be wrong! AISD has been on a transfer freeze for several years leaving concerned parents without the income to support a move to re-zone their child for a decent school with very few workable options. Those options are about to shrink quite a bit more.
AISD is preparing for a cut of 1,000 positions for the 2011-2012 school year. The superintendent is splitting that between 771 campus positions, which seemingly will include teachers as well as "secondary" staff and 246 to the central office staff, that includes a lot of different administrative type positions.They are also planning to close several schools and move the students to near by schools. The superintendent says,"Make no mistake: reductions of this magnitude will have a fundamental effect on public education as we know it today in Austin. But as we restructure, the District will make the most effective use of our more limited resources, and we will continue our efforts to improve student achievement.”
I personally am both horrified and curious about how they plan to make this work. There is just no way I will let my children be a part of that experiment.