Education

The only way a nation can improve itself is to educate it's citizens. Education is not just for the rich or just for the extremely intelligent, it is for everyone. It is in our best interest as a country to educate each and every citizen to the limit of their potential. No citizen should ever have need to say -I planned to go to college but I can not afford it-.

Education should not be part of a class system where the children of wealthy individuals get a better education that the children of the poor or middle class. As a result I am against a voucher system or charter schools that takes money away from public education and gives it to private organizations. The logical conclusion to this sort of program is the eventual bankruptcy of the public education system and a society where only the rich get basic education.

Education should not be a tool for special interest groups or for parents to perpetuate anti-social behavior to their offspring. Education must be maintained in a fashion that offers a wide degree of public scrutiny. There is too much temptation for some educational organizations to use their private status to spread their own beliefs (while revealing no alternatives to those beliefs) to children before the children are old enough to make a rational choice.
As a result I oppose so called Home Schooling or any type of schooling which is enclosed in another agenda like religion or other cult beliefs. These efforts need to be publicly discredited so they are not available as a education alternative.

With this in mind, I am in favor of a National program that insures that all citizens of the United States are guaranteed an equal basic education through the 12th grade (High School), and that any citizen who wants to go to college and exhibits the motivation to follow through with this desire will be able to go to college to obtain whatever degree(s) they so desire.

Having said this, I must also point out that the public school systems obligation ends with providing the education. They should not be responsible for the motivation of the students to take advantage of this privilege of education. They should also not be required to permit some students to adversely effect the quality of the education being provided in their classroom. In order to realize this it is necessary for the Department of Education to implement a program that either:

  1. Creates a new arm of the Department of Education that steps in when the Parents of a student are not providing a student with sufficient motivation to appreciate the privilege of education. OR
  2. Give the schools the ability to remove a student from their rolls if the student does not show adequate motivation when they attend class. (Students in this category would be required to attend a military school format where they can recieve the proper motivation for becoming a contributing member of society.
This last suggestion stems from my working at a substitute in Sonoma County schools. Many students do not do the assignments and when asked will say "I do not do assignments". For these students I believe an experience is required to help them appreciate what a privilege an education is. And when they form this appreciation they should be welcomed back to school, but not until.

There is one more item that deserves more discussion. What industry will interview candidates for jobs and expect the candidate to pick up the tab for the expenses, whether they get the job or not?

What industry pays it's employees at a rate lower than what they can get if they were to use their talents in another industry?

Give up? The answer is the education industry. The government of this country takes advantage of the people who are willing to work for less because they have a calling to teach. Good teachers are penalized for teaching. This is wrong! and needs to be changed.


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