Horns Up: Civil rights group asks AISD to fundraise for low-income schools

The Texas Civil Rights Project is pushing the Austin Independent School District to fundraise for its schools with low-income and minority students, the Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday. The civil rights organization claims AISD is leaving behind the students who are most in need of a well-rounded education, particularly in East Austin schools. The fund the project is hoping AISD will create would enhance art and science programs as well as extracurricular activities, in addition to reducing class sizes. Horns up to the project for proposing a tangible way for the district to improve schools that are working with limited means. 

Horns Down: Texas ranked first in 2013 exonerations

In 2013, Texas exonerated 13 wrongfully convicted prisoners — the highest number in the nation. Texas tops the recently-released list by the National Registry of Exonerations, followed by Illinois with nine and New York with eight. It is great that the state is working to undo its mistaken convictions, but this ranking shows that Texas prisons — with the highest combined population in the nation — are housing many people who don’t deserve to be there. The state needs to continuing sifting through old case files to double-check if prisoners’ convictions are valid. The saying “everything’s bigger in Texas” should not hold true for wrongful conviction ratings.