If taxpayers do not pass the Tax Ratification Election, the El Paso Independent School District is in trouble. As it is, the district is in a hole, and not due to mismanagement of funds, as many vocal yet misinformed members of the community have suggested. Simply put, the district is expanding beyond its means, far too rapidly for even the best functioning organization to keep up with. Without additional funds, the EPISD will be forced to cut several vital programs and fire many teachers at campuses across the city.

The new editorial staff would like to give thanks to our mentors as we prepare for the future.

You would think that most people would recognize the obvious, but in fact, people text messages in the most unsuitable of places. I have witnessed text messaging in church, at a funeral, in class and behind the wheel. One must learn the etiquette of texting and recognize when it is okay to do so and when it is just rude and unacceptable.

Almost a year after a similar incident, students who participated in the National Day of Silence were called to the office over the loudspeaker and made to remove tape that they had placed over their mouths to raise awareness of bullying and harassment on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual students and those perceived to be LGBT.

With 958 killings, March 2010 was Mexico’s ‘bloodiest month’ ever since President Felipe Calderon launched a military operation against the drug cartels in December 2006. The state of Chihuahua accounted for the majority of those deaths with 670; Juarez has been crowned “murder capitol of the world.”

When Harvey Dent, the fallen hero in the 2007 movie, “The Dark Knight,” proclaims, “You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair,” we close our ears and shout, “Never!” because a part of us still wants to believe that there can be decent men in a decent time.

As part of the recent New Border Vision Forum at UTEP, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin and U.S. Congress Representative Silvestre Reyes outlined the future goals of the Obama Administration in revamping border policy.

As tension over immigration reform mount, assistance for asylum seekers needs to be an important deciding factor. Zebrowski analyzes the complex situation.

As college application deadlines approach and seniors begin to make decisions as to where they will attend school, most can’t wait to get out of El Paso for good. Whether you’ve lived here your whole life, or you have just moved here, you have probably noticed a perception held by many: El Paso is a wretched land, devoid of entertainment and opportunities.

In a school with over 2,000 students at the main campus, it is an inevitable fact that face-to-face contact with one of six guidance counselors is a rare occurrence, especially in an era of complicated college and scholarship application processes. It would be worth the additional costs to Franklin High School and EPISD to hire additional counselors to handle college application and entrance. Such an act would specialize and lessen the workload of each counselor and help to speed up and improve the college application process and increase the college readiness of our students.

The 2008 presidential election was definitely one of the most jaw-dropping elections of the nation’s history. Barack Obama was elected as our first African American president, but even more shocking was the fact that John McCain chose the now infamous Alaskan governor, Sarah Palin, as his running mate.