TODAY IN THE NEWS ON HEALTH CARE MANY PEOPLE ARE ARGUING ON WHETHER OR NOT ABORTIONS ARE INCLUSED IN HEALTH CARE. WELL, WITH FURTHER ARGUMENTS PEOPLE ARE NOW SAYING THAT ABORTIONS ARE INCLUDED IN HEALTH CARE. IN OTHER NEWS EDUCATION IN TEXAS:
Texas needs to do a better job of preparing middle school students for success in high school and college, state leaders said Tuesday. "They're betwixt and between, and they're kind of overlooked," state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said during a visit to Dallas' Dealey Montessori and International Academy, where seventh- and eighth-graders demonstrated a University of Texas at Dallas program to teach critical thinking. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said he wants the Senate Education Committee, which Shapiro heads, to brainstorm ways to improve the middle school experience so kids are less likely to drop out later on. "I want to make sure we're holding on to our young students," he said. About 15 percent of Texas ninth-graders end up repeating that year because they haven't passed enough classes to reach sophomore standing. And state test scores show a marked decline when students hit high school. For instance, 79 percent of eighth-graders passed the state math test last year, but only 67 percent of ninth-graders did. The state Legislature awarded $6 million of federal stimulus dollars to a UTD project called the Middle School Brain Years program, which teaches students how to analyze and make sense of what they learn, not just read and memorize a bunch of facts. UTD researchers say that adolescence is a crucial time for brain development and that it's the best time to teach critical thinking. At Dealey, students showed state lawmakers and others how to think critically, such as retaining important details of what they read while losing the trivial points.