Education - Background

Background on Education
Education Buzzwords
Social Promotion: Candidates debate whether students should advance a grade merely to keep up with their peer group. 90% of K-12 students are promoted (10% per year are retained).
Teacher Pay: K-12 Teachers’ salaries average $34,200; college instructors average $63,000; compared to $50,700 for similarly educated non-teachers. Public school teachers earn 25% to 100% more than private school teachers. Generally, any reference to ‘increasing teacher pay’ implies opposition to vouchers while negative references to teacher’s unions implies support of vouchers.
Teacher Testing: Current law is that states certify teachers and decide what their requirements are; there are currently no national standards nor testing. Liberals favor raising teacher pay and oppose teacher testing on the grounds of treating teachers more ‘professionally’.
Student Testing: Many conservatives advocate for national testing standard or other forms of ‘standards-based education’. Generally, any reference to ‘standards,’ or especially to dealing with ‘failing schools’, implies support of school vouchers.
Smaller Class Size: Many liberals advocate for smaller class sizes, and/or building more schools to achieve them. Generally, any reference to ‘smaller classrooms,’ or especially to ‘building public schools’, implies opposition to funding private schools.
School Prayer: Current law is that schools allow religious groups to organize on school grounds as if they are any club. Schools are not allowed to conduct prayers at the beginning of school, but neither are they allowed to stop a student from praying.
Bilingual Education: Schools may conduct classes in Spanish or other languages using federal ‘Title VII’ funds, which totaled $380 million last year (1% of total spending). 13% of K-12 students speak a language other than English at home. Generally, liberals favor bilingual education while conservatives favor ‘official English.’
DOE: The Department of Education spent $38 billion last year (2% of the federal budget). But federal spending only accounts for 9% of education spending; most of the annual $600 billion comes from state & local sources. Hard-core conservatives favor abolishing the Department of Education, which was a Republican Party platform plank in the 1980s.
Phonics: Phonics is a method of teaching children to read by sounding out phonemes (groups of letters that represent sounds). Generally, a favorable reference to ‘phonics’ implies a conservative viewpoint on all the other education issues listed here.
School Choice‘School Choice’ generally refers to a school district allowing parents to decide which school within the district to send their kids to. The political issue is whether to allow the choice to include private schools, parochial schools, and home schooling at taxpayer expense. Taxpayer funding of parochial schools potentially violates the Constitutional separation of church and state. Taxpayer funding of private schools is controversial because it subsidizes parents who are currently paying for private schools themselves, and are usually more wealthy than the average public school family.
Charter Schools‘Charter schools’ are publicly-funded and publicly-controlled schools which are privately run. They are usually required to adhere to fewer district rules than regular public schools.
Vouchers‘Vouchers’ are a means of implementing school choice -- parents are given a ‘voucher’ by the school district, which entitles them to, say, $4,000 applicable to either public school or private school tuition. The value of the voucher is generally lower than the cost of one year of public education (which averages $5,200), so private schools (where tuition averages $8,500) may require cash payment in addition to the voucher.
Education BuzzwordsGenerally, any reference to ‘standards,’ or especially to dealing with ‘failing schools’, implies support of school vouchers. Generally, any reference to ‘smaller classrooms,’ or especially to ‘building public schools’, implies opposition to funding private schools. Further decoding of education buzzwords are detailed under Education.
K-12 Education Statistics
Total spending is $260 billion, (7% federal; the rest split state & local) rising by 5% per year.
Student population is 50 million, rising slowly (1 million per year) since 1984.
Public school spending is $5,200 per student, staying about even with inflation.
Parochial school costs $4,200 per student, not discounting church-provided buildings & other subsidies.
Private school costs $8,500 per student, not discounting scholarships or other financial aid.
90% attend public schools; about 6 million attend private & parochial schools.
78% of schools have Internet access; 97% plan to by the year 2000.
27% of classrooms have Internet access; lower in poor and minority schools.
College Statistics are detailed on the ‘Education’ page.
College Education & Cost Statistics
61% of high school graduates continue on to some post-secondary education.
43% enroll at 4-year colleges; 33% graduate college.
Race strongly determines the percentage enrolling at college (49% for Asians; 38% for Blacks; 28% for Hispanics).
Socioeconomic status even more strongly determines percentage enrolling at college (19% from the poorest ¼ of families vs. 70% from the richest ¼ of families).
Tuition plus room and board at public colleges averages $6,700, and at private college $18,500.
Public college costs 15% of the average family’s income, and the percentage is holding steady (tuition rises are keeping pace with median income rises).
Private college costs 42% of the average family’s income, and the percentage is also holding steady.
K-12 Statistics are detailed on the ‘School Choice’ page.




(Straight from On The Issues . org)

Abortion

This blog is about each candidates view on abortion. I will also add in a general Republican view and a general Democratic view. Finally I will close the blog with my own view. You decide.

Republican

Giuliani - Pro-Choice - Ultimate decision by woman, her conscience, and her doctor; in 2000 ran as a pro-choice candidate; forever against abortion, but respect others' choice; encourage adoption, ban partial-birth abortion

Huckabee - Pro-Life - no states rights for moral issues; no tax funding for organizations that promote abortion; believes that to hate abortion but allow it is like hating slavery but allowing it

Hunter - Pro-Life - defines that life begins at conception

Keyes - Pro-Life - only exception is to preserve life of mother; not okay to kill child of six, not okay to kill child in the womb; abortion is unjust and immoral

McCain - Mixed - support adoption and foster care, work together on abortion; restrict abortions, no partial-birth, no public funding

Paul - Pro-Life - federal government out of abortion decision

Romney - Pro-Life - would be delighted to sign federal ban on all abortions; government should not intrude; cloning changed his mind from pro-choice to pro-life; personally against abortion, but pro-choice as a governor

Thompson - Pro-Life - believes life begins at conception and abortion takes a life; state's should decide policy on abortion; opposes partial birth ban; voted against Planned Parenthood

Democratic

Biden - Mixed - No public funding for abortion; supports partial-birth abortion ban; accepts view that life begins at conception

Clinton - Pro-Choice - keep abortion safe, legal and rare into next century; lift ban on stem cell research to cure devastating diseases; fought for "plan B" contraceptives; late term abortion only if life or health are at risk

Dodd - Pro-Choice - conduct stem cell research; courts should decide abortion cases based on woman's health

Edwards - Pro-Choice - government should not decide for woman on partial-birth abortion; right to abortion is constitutionally protected

Gravel - Pro-Choice - any abortion decision should remain between woman and doctor; no limitation on stem cell research

Kucinich - Pro-Choice - women's right-to-choose is essential to gender equality; abortions should always be legal; women can't be free unless they have the right to choose; life begins at conception

Obama - Pro-Choice - against banning partial birth abortion; trust women to make own decisions on partial-birth abortion; pass the stem cell research bill; protect a woman's right to choose

Richardson - Pro-Choice - stem cell research as part of preventive healthcare; resist any effort to weaken a woman's right to choose

Republican overall

Pro-Life

Democratic overall

Pro-Choice

Me

I do not agree with abortions, but I believe in a woman's right to choose. By choosing to keep the baby, a pregnant woman is not giving up their choices. They still have the choice to keep the baby or to put up the baby up for adoption. Adoption is not always a good thing, however it gives the baby a chance to live.