"...the Constitution does not
authorize the Department of Education, and the founders never envisioned the
federal government dictating those education policies." - Ron Paul
Ron Paul is definitely not a good man. I have mentioned
many times in class that I believe a necessary step to reform education in America
is to attack it politically. If we, as a nation, are going to completely reform
education in this country, we absolutely need leaders who are willing to fight
tooth and nail for our children and their futures. I cannot even begin to comprehend
voting for an individual whose end goal was to completely abolish the
Department of Education and privatize the entire institution. That’s crazy,
right? Please for the love of god, tell me that I’m not the only one who finds
this appalling.
I am a product of the public school system and I am
immensely proud of it. I will admit that I was lucky in a few ways. My initial
years of living, I was what I would refer to as privileged. I had two supportive
parents, lived in an ok neighborhood, and went to an average school. I was
tested in first or second grade and scored high enough to be labeled as gifted.
This label helped me excel.
Though it is a bit off topic, I briefly want to explain
how the mere term “gifted” may have affected my entire life. In 1965, Rosenthal
and Jacobson performed an interesting experiment on children labeled as academically
gifted. The researchers approached teachers and informed that a few students
from their class had performed exceedingly well on a test known as the Harvard
Test of Inflected Acquisition. The test indicated which students were most likely
to be academically gifted. High scorers were most likely to succeed in the
classroom. In reality, the test never existed. The children that were labeled
as gifted were actually chosen at random. At the end of the year, the researchers
compared the grades of the “academically gifted” children in comparison to the
normal children. Surprisingly enough, these students had significantly higher
grades. It seems that the simple fact that the teacher of the class believed
that these students were different changed how she interacted with them and
pushed them harder than their classmates. (This has study seems to also imply
that it works in the opposite direction. Labeling a student as academically
disadvantaged may push them in the opposite direction.)
I support public schools and I support teachers. Who
would have ever thought that would be a party dividing statement? I mean
seriously, if we’re going to look at potential presidential candidates, things
are going to get scary. I have mentioned that Ron Paul is out of his mind
trying to dismantle the department of education. However, I have not yet spoken
about the other Republicans in the presidential primaries. Let’s look at the
other candidates briefly. Nobody could be nearly as terrifying as Ron Paul,
right?
Newt Gingrich just took forty percent of the presidential
primaries in the state of South Carolina. That’s a great sign for his campaign,
but unfortunately, it’s a terrible sign for the state of education in America
should he be elected. Let’s take a short gander at his views. Gingrich has been
quoted as saying "education is the number one factor in our future
prosperity, it's the number one factor in national security and it's the number
one factor in [our] young people having a decent future. I agree with Al
Sharpton, this is the number one civil right of the 21st century."
Fantastic! Finally, there’s a presidential candidate that believes in our
children. Oh, wait. Gingrich wants to drastically cut funding to the department
of education. He has stated that he wishes to "…dramatically shrink the
federal Department of Education, get rid of virtually all of its
regulations." As if that’s not bad enough, in November, Gingrich proposed
a revolutionary idea to help lower class schools. He wants to fire the
unionized janitors and employ the school’s children as custodial staff. Come
on! This guy cannot be serious! He’s the Republican front runner and he wants
to destroy education in America!
Alright, what about the other Republican candidates? Mitt
Romney came in second with twenty-seven percent of the vote. Romney has been
known as the moderate Republican candidate. In 1994, Mitt Romney, during his
campaign for the US Senate, stated that he wanted to abolish the Department of
Education. Recently Romney has recanted this position and instead believes that
the best way to fix education in the United States was to “hold down the
interests of the teachers' unions.” Did you know that teacher unions are evil?
They’re constantly campaigning for higher wages. How greedy is that? Did you
know that if you do the math, teachers get paid $1.42 an hour per student in
the United States of America? How dare they ask for more money? Also, Romney
has also stated that teacher unions are using overcrowded classrooms as a ploy
to hire more teachers. Not to mention that Mitt Romney is a vocal advocate of
No Child Left Behind. He has stated that “[standardized testing] allows us to
get better schools.” This has to be a joke.
These are the Republican leaders of our nation. These are
potential presidents. These people have the power to be in charge of our entire
country. How is everyone not completely outraged? Where is the anger from the
parents of school children? Republicans don’t want to educate our children
properly. In fact, many of them are campaigning against the interests of
education in America. I am actually shocked at the statements made by these
men. I refuse to support a candidate that does not support public education and
the belief that every single child in this nation has the right to a fair, equal,
and comprehensive education. If one were to consider just how important out
presidential election is, our nation’s future is currently in the hands or the
American public. Please for the love of God, don’t choose these guys.
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