Nicole Spradlin, Johana Dauphin, Emily Carrillo, O'kayhvia Ferguson, Endia Scales
This memorandum analyzes intellectually structures the many ways the lack of widespread accessibility to comprehensive sex education in Texas contributes to the negative health outcomes for youth and the policy developments and implementations that can be made to improve overall sexual health outcomes. The previous research reveals that sex education within Texas is influenced by religious beliefs, abstinence-only education, limited emphasis on contraception, and STD prevention. The consequences of these policies negatively affect the youth within these schools. The lack of information leads to higher rates of teen pregnancy, STDs and STIs, and general misinformation that can create dangerous consequences.
To combat these policies and promote equitable access to proper sexual education, we propose the following policy alternatives:
Alternative 1: The "abstinence-plus" model in sex education offers a viable alternative to abstinence-only education by promoting abstinence as the safest option while providing information on contraception and safe sex practices.
Alternative 2: Educating parents about the importance of sex education is crucial for y attitudes and behaviors in youth.
Alternative 3: The "Make it opt-out" alternative aims to close the access gap in sex education by changing the default option from opting in to opting out.
Alternative 4: The "Making condoms more accessible" alternative focuses on promoting healthy sexual activity by ensuring the affordability and availability of condoms.
The attached policy memorandum provides a detailed analysis, supporting evidence, and specific recommendations for each alternative. We urge policymakers to review the full memorandum and consider implementing these necessary changes.
Jesse Fager, Melanie Figueroa, Nina Liebes, Hollis Plexico, Natalia Uro-De Leon
Kennede Boyd, Vanessa Garcia, Ed Lawrence Hagape, Laura Rosas, Nicole Shariatmadari
Julieta Dentone, Samrah Khan, Maya Merritt
Industrial sites, including fracking facilities, hazardous waste sites, and steelmaking plants, present a significant human health problem to their surrounding communities. These adverse health effects include but are not limited to reduced lung function, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. Generally, the communities closest to these industrial sites that receive the most adverse health effects are low-income. This is largely due to the fact that the companies and businesses that own these facilities see low-income communities as the easiest to build in because they lack the funding, resources, and political support to reject such facilities, making it easier to place the facilities near these communities.
California is specifically burdened with this issue, as many of its communities are overburdened with large amounts of pollution. San Joaquin Valley’s residents live with polluted air and water, with limited solutions proposed in recent years. Many residents in areas such as San Joaquin are also people of color, who experience disproportionate exposure to industrial pollution. In the entire state, people of color are nine out of 10 residents who live near oil and gas wells (Woodcraft, 2023).
While many potential solutions to this issue exist, our group proposes two possibilities: cap and trade and buffer zones. We discuss the proven benefits of cap and trade programs and explain how the program has fallen short in its time-tested history. Further, we discuss the potential benefits of buffer zones, including their introduction in the California legislature in 2023 (Horseman, 2023). We discuss the policy alternatives’ limitations from both a scientific and political lens, and we propose potential monitoring agencies that could help implement a buffer zone program.
Hien Bui, Louise Claussen, Marquelle Ogletree, Rachel Overstreet
The students were put into five groups based on a general topic area of their choosing. The options were education, criminal justice, environmental justice, international policy, and health.
After they chose their area, they wrote a policy problem statement that identified a policy problem within that area. Several small assignments helped them prepare for their primary assignment, policy memos. They then created the poster based on their policy memos. The memos (and the posters) were to include (1) the policy problem, (2) evidence of the significance of the problem, (3) a set of policy alternatives and criteria for assessment of them, (4) Simple projections of the likely effects and outcomes of the alternatives (5) the team’s recommendations, based on the application of your criteria to outcomes (6) Discussion of limitations and uncertainty associated with your analysis and (7) Suggestions for monitoring outcomes. They also were required to include one table, graph, or other graphic.