Where on the political spectrum do you lie? (Mods: Please don't move!)

[TonyDogs]

I would have to say I am a conservative Republican.
I am not a holy roller by any means but there is something say about living your life by some kind of commandments.
From a business point of view I am a republican all the way. I work hard and smart so why should my tax dollars go to social programs that have a losing track record. I want smaller goverment. Let me decide what to do with my money.
I know liberals are all about school systems but why do our public schools fail?
Moral issues abortion, Let the women decide what she does with her own body.
I have nothing positive to say about liberals, I have many friends that are.

Thats my take
TonyDogs

[Amanda]

Why do our public schools fail?

This is a very common question that has no single identifiable answer. First of all, the premise that public schools are indeed failing is an argument primarily made by groups and individuals who have a political interest in seeing public schools fail. With that said, a large percentage of our schools, particularly those in areas with the highest-risk student populations, are consistently producing unimpressive standardized test scores and graduation rates.

As someone a year and a half away from graduating college with an education degree, I can tell you that teacher pay is an issue. I currently work 24 hours a week as a waitress, but am expecting to take a pay cut when I become a full-time teacher. And there are states that pay even less than Iowa to beginning teachers. And all this at time when the conventional wisdom among the public is that teachers are being paid too much. When waiting tables four nights a week yields a better living than trying to teach math, science and history to a classroom full of students, it's a huge disincentive for the best and brightest to pursue a career in the education profession. Just as a company that wants to pay its CEO $50,000 a year is unlikely to score the most effective company leader, a society that wants to pay its teachers $23,000 a year is unlikely to attract the top caliber of educators.

Poverty is also a huge issue, much as conservatives would like to pretend it isn't. It's much harder to reach children in an impoverished climate (particularly urban poverty) because they're less likely to have high IQ's, less likely to have grown up in an environment with parents who planted the seeds of knowledge in them during their most formative early years, and more likely to face the distractions of gangs, drugs and daily survival in today's urban warfare culture. This will open up a whole new can of worms but my personal belief is that the entire urban culture, including its public schools, would benefit greatly if narcotics were decriminalized and distribution was shifted from teenage gang members to licensed pharmacists whose commerce is regulated. This is unlikely to ever happen, however, so further speculation on its potential benefits (and downfalls) is hardly worth mentioning.

Lastly, and this is the most controversial position I will take, is immigration. The most common denominator in all of America's public schools deemed "failing" is that their student body includes a higher percentage of first generation Americans than the national average. In today's America, corporations feel an entitlement to saturate the labor force with a revolving door of immigrant workers with the endgame of suppressing wage levels....and then leave taxpayers to pick up the bill for social costs. Highest among that list of social costs is schools overflowing with students who can barely speak English. As a future educator, it will be my duty to educate any young person who comes through my doors, but is sure will be more challenging if I end up in a meatpacking town whose student body is composed of 50% ESL students than it will be if I end up in suburban Des Moines teaching the sons and daughters of doctors and lawyers.

Bottom line.....as long as this country tolerates third-world living conditions for a quarter of its population while the rest of the civilized world is effectively alleviating poverty within its borders, public schools will NOT be utopian bubbles capable of obliterating every negative influence that young people experience outside the walls of the school.

[joshua]

My father is actuallya 3rd grade teacher and he used to teach at an inner city school. The problem there was it was under funded, under staffed, and the facility was in poor condition.

Now he teaches at a school which is mostly first generation american kids with immigrant parents. He actually has an easier time teaching these kids because the parents care more about their kids doing well and having bi-lingual classes and special programs because the school is better funded probably helps.

The whole no child left behind act however was a good idea, but then they cut the finding on it. So now students have to meet this stricter criteria but the schools don't have money to put into it to make sure the kids can pass. Some schools the children should be in special education at least part time but because of cuts to funding they can't afford it.

[Kenyth]

Lastly, and this is the most controversial position I will take, is immigration. The most common denominator in all of America's public schools deemed "failing" is that their student body includes a higher percentage of first generation Americans than the national average. In today's America, corporations feel an entitlement to saturate the labor force with a revolving door of immigrant workers with the endgame of suppressing wage levels....and then leave taxpayers to pick up the bill for social costs. Highest among that list of social costs is schools overflowing with students who can barely speak English.

I talk about this all the time. I don't know of any middle class American who doesn't find this a huge problem. Cheap Labor Conservatives can be worse than Socialist Liberals! Almost every job market is being affected by this in some way! Sending jobs overseas is another way our workforce is being pressured.

[Amanda]

Kenyth, the immigration issue makes for strange political bedfellows.

On one side of the argument, you have the populist liberals and the cultural conservatives who are opposed to our current immigration policy due to wage suppression, soaring social service costs, rising poverty, and cultural fragmentation. As a working-class girl who has seen immigration in the meatpacking industry turn her hometown into a miniature Detroit economically, I definitely fall into this category.

On the other side of the argument are the limousine liberals and the Chamber of Commerce conservatives, who embrace lawless immigration policy for different reasons, but are still on the same side of the argument. The limousine liberals have fantasies of a multi-cultural utopia while the Chamber of Commerce conservatives want to use immigration policy to micromanage wage levels. Both groups perpetuate the "jobs Americans won't do" mythology as a strategy for swinging public opinion their way. By and large, it seems to work.

And given our President's embrace of "amnesty" for illegal aliens, it's pretty clear that he knows which political lobby butters his bread.

[Kenyth]

Amanda, you've just explained why I'm middle road and disgusted politically. Some elections, I feel as though I'm choosing between a rock and a hard place.