On the Issues - Education

Greetings again! This blog series promises to be quite lenghty so please bear with me. I will create a seperate entry for each of the issues we will cover. The issues are The Economy, Energy Policy, National Security/Immigration, Foreign policy/Iraq, Healthcare, Education, Ethics/Civil Rights.The following information in bold is take directly from the candidates web pages. I have elected not to name the candidates until a seperate blog to be presented after all of the others, not that the enlightened among us won't be able to figure it out. All that said lets begin with the issues, Education:

Easy cheesy, I predict EVERYONE favors education!

Candidate 1: School reform starts by shifting control over education from government to parents. We must abolish the Department of Education, eliminate federal grants and regulations, and begin moving power back to the states and local communities. States should consider tax credits or deductions for parents who home school or send their children to private schools. Public schools should be managed locally, increasing accountability and parental involvement.

Candidate 2: Throughout America's history, education has been the vehicle for social and economic mobility, giving hope and opportunity to millions of young people. Our schools must prepare students not only to meet the demands of the global economy, but also help students take their place as committed and engaged citizens. It must ensure that all students have a quality education regardless of race, class, or background. He is committed to strengthening our public schools to maximize our country's greatest natural resource - the American people. he believes that we must equip poor and struggling districts, both rural and urban, with the support and resources they need to provide disadvantaged students with an opportunity to reach their full potential. Too often, our leaders present this issue as an either - or debate, divided between giving our schools more funding, or demanding more accountability. He believes that we have to do both, and has offered innovative ideas to break through the political stalemate in Washington.

Candidate 3: Excellence, choice, and competition in American education. he believes American education must be worthy of the promise we make to our children and ourselves. He understands that we are a nation committed to equal opportunity, and there is no equal opportunity without equal access to excellent education.My Thoughts: Candidate 1 wants to move education from the Federal to the State and (more importantly) local level. I'm sure this is no longer a surprise to the readers. This is the only way to move forward on education, let the people who are receiving the SERVICE make the decisions about what it is worth. Pay the providers of the service (teachers) what they are WORTH. The crappy ones get crappy pay, maybe they'll quit and go be burger flippers!

Candidate 2 is annoying and he goes on and on about how he supports education (just like I said). In one breath he makes the claim that everyone needs good education regardless of race, class or background...in the next he says he wants to help (only?) the poor and disadvantaged...what are we going to do about the whole burger flipper thing mr candidate 2?

Candidate 3 is a cop-out who favors education, and equality...

The Bottom Line: The bottom line is i'm growing tired of voting for 3rd party candidates just to make a statement, while being stuffed with the idiot candidates of the masses....if you don't know (by now) who the 3 men are PLEASE DON'T VOTE!