College Republicans; Returning education to the family

By Emily Cutler

The success of our great nation rests upon the education of our youth. Certainly the best way to fight poverty and grow a healthy economy is to give our children the best education in the world. Though America set the standard for excellent education with the public school and higher education system, there has long been a need for Americans to "turn it up a notch" on the academics provided in schools to catch up with the rest of the world. Education in the last decades in the United States has gone from part of the "American Dream" to the prelude for the "American Nightmare."

The conservative viewpoint holds that parents, not the state, are ultimately responsible for a child's education. Parents ought to be able to choose what, where and how their child will learn. Those things should not be mandated by the federal government. Instead, education should be overseen locally, with parents in control. Public school should not usurp the role of parents by teaching expensive, character-based programs that focus on behavioral and ethics training. Schools must focus on their students' academic success in language arts, math and science, and leave the job of character-shaping to parents. A high self-esteem, rather than being taught in school, will come naturally as a student succeeds academically. After all, it really doesn't matter how you feel about yourself if you are so far behind your international peers that you can't find gainful employment.

Wealthy liberals do not enroll their children in public schools, because they know their children will not be best served by these schools. President-elect Barack Obama will not send his girls to the District of Columbia Public School System, our nation's worst. Rather, Malia and Sasha will attend the progressive (and expensive) private Sidwell Friends School. If he, and other Democrats, would choose a better school for their own children, why should they dictate for parents the quality of education our nation's children receive?

Rather than hypocritically preaching egalitarian rhetoric in support of public schools, Democrats should enable even our neediest children to receive a better education by supporting vouchers and tax credits for private and home schooling. Just as we were taught in Economics 110, competition creates innovation, and the bar will be raised in regard to the quality of education if parents are able to choose something other than the inadequate public school system.

Michelle Rhee, a staunch supporter of school choice, is reforming the worst public school system in the United States - the District of Columbia. Chancellor Rhee is a life-long Democrat, but is dedicated enough to our children's future to call her party out on pandering to teachers unions, rather than focusing on providing children with the best education possible. She respects a parent's role in a student's education more than anything. Parents must step up to the plate and teach our nation's children strong moral values. The family is the most basic unit of our society, and by teaching strong family values, more children will succeed.

The best education in the world is still available in the United States, if you're lucky enough to live outside the city or wealthy enough to escape a substandard public school system. The old saying was wherever you set the bar, children will rise to reach it. Well, America, we are sick and tired of tripping. It's time to make a change and get the bar off the floor. We all need to stand up and take a more careful look at what our children are being taught and help them to have a brighter future.

College Democrats; Quality education for our children

By Eliza Campbell

How do we work to achieve quality education for every child in every community? The answer is as simple as it has ever been: free, well-funded, well-staffed public schools. Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of our American democracy, understood and supported the idea of quality public education, and almost every democratic nation in the world has come to adapt this idea too. The needs of American students are incredibly varied and diverse - and that is precisely why a well-funded public education system should be part of the basis of our democracy. Although some students may benefit from charter schools, private schools or another mode of education, there will always be students who can achieve their best in public schools. There will always be American families who need and depend on public schools to provide them with access to education and opportunities.

Given the economic diversity of our nation, the establishment of free and quality schools ensure that every child will have the opportunity to succeed. This is why we should work to increase funding and support for our American public schools, which can suffer and have suffered without adequate public support. Free public K-12 education is one right that Americans have made a priority in their budgets and communities - economic support of education can only bring increased empowerment and opportunities for our children. The Alliance for Excellent Education reports that each year, the U.S. spends $9,644 per student compared to $22,600 per prison inmate. Clearly, our nation needs some restructuring of its priorities and attitudes toward dealing with education.

Where does this restructuring begin? Policies will be formed on national and local levels, and will be determined in many ways by our president. In the wake of failed Bush-era education policy, President-elect Obama has taken the initiative in forming plans to revive the American education system. The Obama-Biden "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents, and help states move toward voluntary, universal preschool.

On the K-12 level, the No Child Left Behind Act was intended to make schools more accountable for the success of their students. However, the routes taken to measuring this accountability were mandated standardized tests, and the systematic shutting down of any school that didn't meet a certain percentage of score improvement. This plan was designed to fail children - in some school districts, more than 40 percent of the schools were designated as "in need of improvement" - and as such, were denied funding, allowed to disintegrate and eventually closed. Communities lost their schools, and children lost opportunities. Barack Obama has made it a priority to reform the No Child Left Behind legislation by creating new ways of measuring academic achievement that aren't dependent on students using school time to practice for and take endless standardized exams.

And in the event that children decide to pursue a college education, Obama has promised to provide a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000. This credit will make college accessibility a reality for families who have never before had such an opportunity, and, incidentally, would make tuition at BYU close to free for most students.

Why is it important to consider the plans and implications of the educational policies of our national leaders? As we have seen, it is often these policies that create the national attitude toward education in a given era - and education has always been a priority in American policy, a crucial step on the way to accessing the American dream. By remembering the value placed on public education by our Founding Fathers, and working to help support educational policies by our elected leaders today, we will help achieve educational success for every American. We should encourage each other to look past party lines to help promote this idea together. In doing so, we help ensure peace and equality in our democracy.



Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Dec 2008