Education must be made a priority if we are to give our children the best tools to succeed. That means providing better resources, smaller classrooms, and more teachers. If we can fund the War in Iraq we can fund education. According to the Congressional Research Service we are spending over 275 million dollars per day on the war. We can and should make education a priority instead. We need to bring back neighborhood schools. By doing so we would create new jobs and strengthen our communities. The fate of the world is determined by the generations to come. We cannot afford to shortchange the future.
I will support:
- Smaller classrooms equipped with technology for the 21st Century
- Free text books for all elementary and secondary students
- Better pay and incentives for attracting qualified teachers
- Curriculum that promotes critical thinking, problem solving, and sciences and arts
- Tuition assistance for families with children in colleges and universities
- Programs for pre-school children, and adult education to encourage life-long learning
I also think we need to find a new mechanism, other than reliance on property taxes, for financing our schools. The property tax is an unfair tax because it is not based on ability to pay. It hits the elderly and those on fixed incomes the hardest. In addition, it creates tremendous disparities between rich and poor school districts. Resources of our government should be distributed to our children equally. It’s not fair that affluent children get to enjoy giant swimming pools and elaborate sports arenas, while less affluent children go without basic necessities.
I am opposed to unfunded mandates, such as President Bush’s Leave No Child Left Behind Act, which put undue emphasis on test taking and measuring performance designed to penalize the very schools most in need of help.
