Analyzing Campus Carry Legislation

This analysis is in response to a colleague's blog about the legislation for carrying firearms on school campuses in Texas. Mr. Chao, the author of the blog, did a great job of outlining the issue of concern. The issue being that there have been numerous shootings at school campuses across the United States, and not many effective countermeasure have been produced to restrict them. Mr. Chao uses his own point of view to interpret the factors that cause such tragedies, and forms a solution strategy to limit them. I really appreciated the way he took a general problem, isolated a specific issue, and strategized a solution that he truly believes would have a positive impact. He stated that the main concern which must be addressed is that the legislation currently restricts students from being able to defend themselves during an attempted school shooting. Mr. Chao made it clear that he would support any legislation that would allow for students to carry firearms for their own protection, therefore providing a progressive countermeasure to these school shootings.

I thought Mr. Chao's analysis and proposed solution are definitely warranted. Obviously these growing trends of school shootings need to be limited by some form of effective change. Mr. Chao did note that Texas has adopted a bill allowing students with concealed carry permits to bring their firearm on campus as long as it always remains in their parked vehicle. I do agree with him though, that further steps must be taken as the current bill still has some notable flaws. I believe allowing students, with the proper permits, to carry firearms on their body during school could definitely reduce the number of school shootings. I definitely support Mr. Chao's analysis and proposed solution, however, I do wish he would of provided some statistics to emphasize the need for new legislation. I think some data that correlates different States' "campus carry laws" and "frequency of school shootings" could be beneficial in emphasizing the need for a change in the current legislation. Overall, it was an interesting read and an issue that has direct relevance for our class.

Unemployment Fraud

The Texas policy concerning unemployment benefits appears to be very relaxed in its regulation. This soft style regulation calls for abuse of its system and negative consequences for the state. The eligibility requirements for benefits merely consist of having earned wages in more than one of the previous four quarters preceding one's claim. Also your base wages earned during that period must be at least 37 times more than your benefit amount. There is limited restriction on the cause of separation from one's prior employer. Even those who quit their jobs could remain eligible for unemployment, which is rightfully justified since there are always situations that could warrant such a decision. However, once one has become eligible for benefits, the obligations to earn the benefits are rarely regulated by state authorities. This creates a problem by encouraging unemployment fraud, which is both wasteful of state spending and unprogressive to the state's workforce.

The way the system is set up now allows for no solid evidence to the amount of fraud currently taking place. However, the enforcement to eliminate fraud is severely lacking, and it would be naïve to believe it doesn't take place. There are several obligations that one must complete in order to remain eligible for benefits. First, you must register to work in the state of Texas. Next, you must actively seek work. The requirement is for one to complete five job searches each week. A job search would consist of actually applying to work for a certain position. They require you to document your work searches weekly by filling out a document that requires basic information: name of employer, address, person contacted, and whether an application was filed. Finally, you must accept suitable full-time work. In order to actually receive the weekly payment benefit, one must fill out a payment request each week. The request only asks the individual to verify that they were available for full-time work and completed the minimum number of work searches during that period. There is no obligation for the beneficiary to submit any confirmation of their work searches. In my opinion, this allows for individuals to merely obtain state money without any "required" obligations. The only way for the Texas Workforce Commission, the state authority concerning unemployment, to catch fraudulent beneficiaries would be to audit the individual and verify their work searches. The audits, however, are very few and far between. A lack of resources could be the reason for such few audits, but this also causes the loss of valuable financial resources as well.

The solution to this would be to merely require individuals to submit their work searches with their payment request each week. Obviously, the Texas Workforce Commission would have to verify each individual work search to determine the validity of each claim. This proposes the biggest challenge, allocating the resources to be able to verify the vast amount of work searches. However, just by merely requiring the submission of work searches would deter some individuals from committing fraud. Plus the retaining of benefits, which are currently going to fraudulent claims, would allow the state to put more money into resources for auditing more claims. I believe this would cause more individuals to actively pursue jobs or pursue continued education for their benefit. It is hard to encourage those routes now when one can collect money for a period of time with virtually no real imposed requirements.

Unemployment benefits are definitely needed within our state. There are obviously many situations that warrant for individuals to be compensated for lack of wages. I just believe that state spending should be allocated with great priority, and that is compromised by a lack of regulation on this category. Requiring more documentation for the receiving of benefits will not completely solve this concern, but I do believe it would be taking steps in the right direction. Unemployment spending is very minimal in regards to all welfare spending by the state. However, it is still a vast amount of money and needs to be more firmly regulated.