For a campaign that trails in the polls, John Edwards is generating a lot of substance -- even more than all the other candidates. When you look at what Edwards is proposing, he is definitely the candidate most likely to help the poor, middle class and college students.
Edwards sat down with the to discuss some of the proposals. This is impressive:
John Edwards says if he's elected president, he'll institute a NewDeal-like suite of programs to fight poverty and stem growing wealthdisparity. To do it, he said, he'll ask many Americans to makesacrifices, like paying higher taxes.
Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, saysthe federal government should underwrite universal pre-kindergarten,create matching savings accounts for low-income people, mandate aminimum wage of $9.50 and provide a million new Section 8 housingvouchers for the poor. He also pledged to start a government-fundedpublic higher education program called "College for Everyone."
"It is central to what I want to do as president to dosomething about economic inequality. I do not believe it is okay forthe United States of America to have 37 million people living inpoverty," he said in a meeting with Monitor reporters and editors thisweek. "And I think we need, desperately need, a president who will saythat to America and call on Americans to show their character."
Republicans like to talk a lot about family values. These proposals have 'family' written all over them. If voters vote on issues, Edwards wins.
, which critics say has amounted to an of least $40 billion, depleting local governments of budget money, is about to expire. Bush wants it renewed with changes. Democrats and some Republicans might prevent that from happening:
The bill would remain in effect even if it is not renewed, but theadministration is seeking changes to it, and some opponents would liketo see it thoroughly revamped. If Congress reauthorizes the bill withits basic components intact, it would be a welcome, and rare,legislative victory for Mr. Bush on Capitol Hill, one that could helpcement his legacy in education policy, an issue he has cared aboutsince he was governor of Texas.
The president wants a bill by theend of the year, but administration officials do not sound entirelyconfident. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said after the RoseGarden ceremony that she was “cautiously optimistic.â€
At leastone of the civil rights leaders in attendance, Wade Henderson, said hefeared that the reauthorization effort could collapse amid challengesfrom Republicans, in much the same way that the president’s immigrationproposal was brought down by his own party. Mr. Henderson, president ofthe Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said Mr. Bush seemeddetermined to see the bill through.
All too often, supporters of No Child left Behind accuse critics of not wanting high education standards, even though that is quite the contrary.
The question is not whether standards are important, the question is what standards are important, and how should tests shape a school's curriculum. Many teachers that I know oppose NCLB. The bill forces teachers to teach to the tests, as opposed to making sure students are well-rounded. And if teachers fail to teach to the tests, the schools get penalized.
You cannot say this would ever happen under a Republican Congress. On Friday, the Democratic Senate and House passed legislation that would :
Congress on Friday approved the largest overhaul of education fundingin more than 60 years, a $20.9-billion program that would boostfinancial aid to students and reduce interest payments on their loans.
Students who enter certain public sector jobs would have their debtserased under the plan, the total cost of which would be offset byslashing government subsidies to lenders. It also calls for a$510-million investment in minority colleges.
The program would have particular impact in California, which has morerecipients of low-income student grants than any other state. Thebill's increases to those Pell Grants are expected to benefit about 5.5million needy students nationwide.
As a recent college graduate who had to deal with student loans, this legislation is incredibly good news. In many cases what we have happening are people even as old as 28 still paying off college debt, mostly due to all the interest. The average student graduates with .
Specifically, here are the key :
Maximum Pell Grant increased from $4,050 to $5,400.
Interest rates cut from 6.8% to 3.4%.
All of the changes would take affect by the year 2012.
The Senate passed it by a vote of 79-12, and in the House it was 292-97. Bush is expected to sign the bill.
A Reserve officer who followed through on his duty to serve in Iraq was let go by the Sacramento School District once he returned. , the teacher, is taking the matter to court:
An officer in the U.S. Army Reserves has sued the Sacramento, Calif.,school district, saying he was denied his old job when he returned fromactive duty.
Edward O'Gilvie found a job in Chicago. But hesays he is making less money than he was as an assistant principal atKennedy High School in Sacramento and had to pay to get a master'sdegree and to move, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Because it's a public school district, I really didn't expect a problem with getting my job back, O'Gilvie said. I was hurt, shocked. It was the last thing I expected when I came back.
O'Gilvie, who was , filed a in court on August 3rd. The school district refused to comment.
According to the Sacramento Bee, what the school district did was :
Federal law is clear that soldiers returning from service within fiveyears of leaving a job generally are entitled to get that job back orbe given an equivalent position, said Jerrold Jurin, Californiacoordinator for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a Departmentof Defense organization that promotes cooperation between servicemembers and their employers.
Feel free to the Sacramento City Unified School District to voice your concerns.
We see this happen each presidential election cycle. Washington insiders journey out onto the campaign trail in places like Iowa and New Hampshire, and are forced to justify in layman's terms why failed policies ought to be continued. And in the short-term, many of the candidates suddenly develop a hidden populist streak.
Sam Brownback is becoming the latest victim in this populist mayhem. He is proposing to completely :
The Kansas senator, who voted for the measure in 2001, said itsdifficulties stem largely from provisions that force local schools tospend money on certain things while other problems go unfixed.Brownback mentioned the plan during an educational forum at theUniversity of Northern Iowa, where he fielded questions about collegeaffordability, high school standards and the nation's scientific braindrain.
"Where it failed was not giving flexibility to thestates," Brownback told a crowd of 120 at the Gallagher-BluedornPerforming Arts Center.
Maybe he is onto something. The law is an unfunded mandate that takes a toll on state budgets. Those state are either forced to cut other programs, or underfund this one. Over the last five years, No Child Left Behind has been .
Recently, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll noted that liberals read more books than conservatives. This combined with a poll noting that in the US did not read any books in 2006 indicates a trend toward sound bites and slogans. Pat Schroeder, head of the American Association of Publishers, has a theory as to why this is the case. Note: The following section may be considered offensive to our conservative readers. Fortunately, according to the AP-Ipsos study, no conservative readers will manage to read this far.
"The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes. It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page."
Once again, we're stuck with a generation of voters on the right side of the aisle that don't want to actually be informed of the very issues that affect their lives. The Right packages up talking point slogans and bores them into the heads of the American people. "Terrorists hate our Freedom. Iraq is making Progress. Democrats want to 'cut and run.' We fight them there so we don't have to fight them here." Without context, these slogans mean nothing. But through the miracle of incessant repetition, people start to buy into it. One poll I would love to see AP-Ipsos run would be applicable only to the population of Americans that still support the president and his war. There only has to be one question; multiple choice of course! Question: Where do you obtain your information on the government and the war? A. Newspapers B. Newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch C. The Internets D. Television News Stations E. Television News Stations owned by Rupert Murdoch F. I read a book about it
See how many of these conservatives want to know more about the world than the sound bites they hear on Fox News.
(a rare pasttime over there) that several parents are pushing for the President of Virginia Tech to be fired due to the negligence and poor handling of the tragedy yesterday.
“My God, if someone shoots somebody there shouldbe an immediate lockdown of the campus,†said John Shourds. “Theytotally blew it. The president blew it, campus police blew it.â€
I can't say I disagree. The warning disseminated to students was a , more than two hours after the first incident and ten minutes after the second had already started. My sends me about 80 junk mails a day (most universities sell their student email lists to advertisers), so many student don't even check their student accounts. Those who do have to fish through scams and spams; once they actually find the email, are we to expect them to react quickly when the email is squished between Lunch Specials and Student Club sign-ups?
. Not sure if there were , and if there were, they aren't pursuing anyone for the first shooting. Tons of speculation in the press conference.
I know this kind of thing isn't supposed to happen, but parents should hold the university accountable for parts of the disaster that could have been minimized or avoided altogether.
famously predicted that technology and information would lead us to what he called a revolution of technology that would inevitably unite us and give us the ability to communicate to anyone in the world at anytime with just about any means.
I am a senior in and in three weeks I'll graduate with degrees in Advertising and Public Relations. One of my morning classes deals with : how to handle tough situations, having a plan in place, communicating facts and answering questions appropriately, etc. My morning class today, Persuasive Communication taught by Dr. Robin Meyers (author of the famous speech, and author of ,) took a detour from the syllabus - about Marshall McLuhan - to just talk. It's difficult to gauge how you're feeling as readers, but as a student I find myself not needing to see political banter or politics for a few hours, at least a few minutes, and rather find myself just wanting to talk.
As a student in , I felt the building shake as I sat in my fourth grade classroom at 9:02AM on April 19, 1995, the morning of the . I drove through the torrential rains and heard my mother scream as the phone disconnected the night she was buried underneath her own house by the - May 3, 1999. I sat in my 11th grade Government class and watched as the second plane crashed into the . Yesterday, I sat in an empty room, the living room where I'll soon occupy in my new home, and listened to the cries of a university, a city, a state, a country, about the horrors of what transpired at .
My life and the technology within it has allowed me to step out from a small suburban classroom, from a city-wide terrorist attack, from a statewide natural disaster, into what was the first of, unfortunately, many global tragedies. The global village has its ups and downs, and the down is that we must all experience the devastation of tragedy without ever feeling the ground shake or hearing the shots fired.
At the time of this publication, we have learned and and have begun to piece together the history of the individual: , , . We've watched a university stumble in crisis from , , and We've watched media outlets frantically interview second- and third- and fourth-hand witnesses and provoke emotional reactions. We've watched Fox News tell you how this will impact the stock market and the war on terror and the security and sanctity of our schools. Unfortunately, until now, we have yet to just talk.
McLuhan says, In this place, the home of inclusion and open-mindedness and intelligent dialogue, I hope the message can resonate from those values. I needed to engage the global village, to speak back to it instead of merely observing it. I hope you'll do the same.
If there's anything you'd like to share - comments, critiques,condolences, thoughts in general - please use the comments section todiscuss.
Just as President Bush proposed , he will cut a number of education programs in 2008. In all, education would receive an 8% -- more than $4.9 billion in program reductions.
So what in education would be cut? Among the most notable, Bush wants to for financial institutions that lend money to students. Stocks like Sallie Mae fell sharply today as a result. One analyst put it bluntly:
The administration "may be doing the equivalent ofthrowing the student loan industry under the bus.''
However, the Pentagon budget will by 62% this year. Maybe Dwight Eisenhower had every reason to be about the size and scope of the military industrial complex. It prevents us from making the education of our youth the number one priority.
A Kerny High School history teacher his class that if they didn't accept Jesus, they would go to hell:
A Kearny High School student has accused ahistory teacher of crossing the line between teaching andpreaching - and he's got the tapes to prove it.
Sixteen-year-old junior Matthew LaClair says he wasshocked when history teacher David Paszkiewicz, who is alsoa Baptist preacher in town, spent the first week lecturingstudents more about Heaven and Hell than the colonies andConstitution.
"I would never have suspected something like thiswent on in a public school," LaClair said yesterday.
He said Paszkiewicz told students that if they didn'taccept Jesus, "you belong in Hell." He alsodismissed as unscientific the theories of evolution and the"Big Bang."
Here is the and .
If you want to preach what you perceive to be the word of the Lord, do it at church. Or, get a job at a private school.
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