I believe that every person has the right to public education without distinction of any kind, such as age, race, color, sex, sexual preference, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, or property. Public education should be free and compulsory at least through high school or until an individual has reached 18 years of age.

Funding for public education should be provided equally to all citizens of each state regardless of school district or school location. In other words, I don't believe rich suburban areas should be allowed to sequester money for their school district only, but rather should be forced to share their financial resources with poorer districts. I am in favor of a state-wide distribution system that provides an equal distribution of money to each school based on student population as opposed to the current district based distribution format.

I believe that it is a right of parents to choose the kind of education that their children receive (i.e. private, home school, etc) so long as the educational requirements of the state are met. For example, I believe that if parents are qualified to teach and agree to state mandated education requirements, they should have the right to home school their children.

I believe that the government should financially support public school choice; but not private or parochial choice for three main reasons.

1. Vouchers do nothing to address the problems inherent in district based funding systems. Poor districts, which are primarily urban, rural, and/or are predominately comprised of minority groups, remain disadvantaged and may actually lose students as a result of vouchers. Vouchers cannot solve the discrimination and discrepancies inherent in the current US model of education as not all inner city and rural students will be able to afford or attend private schools. Instead, the government should create new legislation and provide funding to level the playing field for these students and enhance the education network that is available to all citizens.

2. School voucher systems have a lack of accountability to the taxpayer. In many states, members of a community's board of education are elected by voters. Similarly, a school budget faces a referendum. Meetings of the Board of Education must be announced in advance, and members of the public are permitted to voice their concerns directly to board members. Although vouchers may be used in private and religious schools, taxpayers are not able to vote on budgetary issues, elect members of the board or even attend board meetings.

3. By law, the public schools must accept any student regardless of race, sex, sexual preference, etc. Private schools are not bound by these same regulations as they are not government funded and exist as private entities. Therefore, a private school could refuse to admit homosexuals, minorities, women, etc. As such, I do not believe public money should be used to fund an educational system that can actively discriminate against citizens.

I believe in the complete separation of church and public schools. Religious activities and religious ideals should neither be condoned nor condemned by public education. In other words, the government should take a neutral position. I strongly disagree with any movement that seeks to place/require religious texts in public school systems, establish prayer in public education, or masquerade religious doctrine as scientific theory (i.e. creationism). However, I do believe that schools should make reasonable attempts to respect the religious beliefs of their students (i.e. allow a student an excused absences to celebrate an important religious holidays, allow individual, silent, personal prayer, allow the formation of religious organizations, etc.).

I believe that creationism and similar religious based educational system have no place in US classrooms. Creationism is not science and should not be masqueraded as such in pubic forums. By definition, science is knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws as obtained and tested through scientific method. Critical to the scientific method are the ideas of falsifiability (i.e. ability to prove something is false) and testability (i.e. ability to test your hypothesis via experimentation). Creationism fits neither of these basic criteria as one can not test the supernatural and one cannot disprove the existence of supernatural causes. Therefore, creationism can not utilize the scientific method, the essential underpinning of every scientific discipline and endeavor. It is not science and should not be presented as an equal or competing theory to evolution.

I believe sexual education should be taught once children reach the age of puberty. While I agree that abstinence should be taught, I disagree with the idea that it should be the only sexual education a child receives. Information regarding the use of contraceptives, the effectiveness of various forms of contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual health should be taught along side abstinence programs.

I believe that having a more educated workforce will enhance the United States' economy, will allow the United States to remain a leader in the global marketplace, will provide a better tax base for state and local governments, and will provide our nation with more responsible and capable citizens. As such, I believe that federal funding of post-secondary education and need based post-secondary scholarships should be increased. In addition, I also believe the federal government should outlaw predatory student college loan rates over 10%.

I believe that the United States must increase both the quality and quantity of its teaching force with particular attention paid to high-demand areas. I favor strategies that:

1. offer financial incentives, including increased salaries and pay for performance, as well as incentives for high-need areas (e.g. student loan forgiveness, housing assistance, etc.).

2. offer alternative certification programs for highly qualified individuals who wish to teach in high-need areas. For example, professionals (doctors, scientists, accountants, etc) willing to entering the teaching profession should be offered alternative means of certification (e.g. pass a competency test and take a prep class) rather than being required to earn a Masters in teaching.

3. increase professionalism and improved working conditions (e.g. enhanced license reciprocity and pension portability between states, increase teacher quantity to reduce teaching loads, etc).

I believe that free public access to computers and educational material through local public libraries is essential to providing educational opportunities to the public. In particular, I feel that public library should focus on (1) providing stronger services for teens and children, (2) address illiteracy and poor reading skills among adults, (3) providing ready access to information about government services, including making public documents and forms readily available and (4) providing even greater access to computers for all.

I believe that the United States should officially adopt a National Secondary Education Exit Assessment. This assessment would be required for any high school student (regardless of whether they attend a public, private, or home school) who wishes to earn a high school diploma. In order to successfully pass the assessment, a student must score a 75% or high.

1. Coursework – 40%. The coursework component would be based on a student’s high school GPA. Students with a higher GPA would receive a higher % than students with a lower GPA (e.g. students with a 4.0 average would receive the full 40%, students with a 3.0 average might receive 30%, etc). Students would be required to achieve at least a “C” average in order to pass this portion of the assessment (i.e. a “D” average would result in a 0%)

2. State-mandated end-of-course exams – 30%. The end-of-course exams component would assess basic information and routine procedural knowledge as well as critical thinking, reasoning, creating, and problem solving. In other words, exams would include performance tasks in addition to having a modest proportion of multiple-choice and short-answer items.

3. State-mandated performance assessment – 30%. The performance assessment component would be a multifaceted portfolio of work to test the student’s critical and analytical thinking skills as well as their problem-solving skills. This assessment would include literary essays that demonstrate analytic thinking, problem-solving assessments in mathematics that demonstrate high level conceptual knowledge, original science experiments that demonstrate understanding of the scientific method, and original research papers that demonstrate the use of evidence and argument.

I believe that the United States Department of Education should recommend that all states lengthen the school day from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In addition, I believe the United States Department of Education should recommend that all states lengthen the school year from the average 180 days a year to 230 days for students K-8 and to 300 days a year for students 9-12. States would still be permitted to develop their own educational programs and would be permitted to ignore the federal recommendation. However, those states that choose to not implement the federal recommendation would be prohibited from receiving federal funding for education. The primary justifications for this are:

1. extending the school day by one and a half hours a day means that children receive 7.5 extra hours of education a week. Considering the US is beginning to lag behind other developed nations in terms of education, lengthening the school day is one way to ensure that we retain a highly competent and educated work force

2. having a longer day would be advantageous for inner city kids, particularly if schools mandated after school participation in activities (i.e. chess club, athletic teams, reading clubs, etc). Having a longer school day means kid spend more time socializing with peers, are off the streets and away from gangs, and could potential receive three healthful meals per day if schools chose to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner (you'd be surprised how many poverty struck kids rely on schools to give them nutritious and regular meals).

3. extending the school year would reduce the length and frequency of “dead periods” (i.e. times when students receive no instruction).

I believe that the United States Department of Education should develop a “minimum core structure” for secondary education. By “core structure”, I mean classes that every high school student would be required to complete. States would still be permitted to develop their own educational programs and would be permitted to ignore the federal recommendation. However, those states that choose to not implement the federal recommendation would be prohibited from receiving federal funding for education. The core structure (based on a five hour and a half classes per year/20 classes total schedule) would mandate that high school students take and complete:

* 4 years of science (1 year of biology, chemistry, physics, and a science elective).

* 4 years of mathematics (1 year of algebra, geometry/trigonometry, statistics, and calculus or a math elective)

* 2 years of English (1 year of literature and 1 year of writing/composition)

* 2 years of history (1 year of world history and 1 year of American history)

* 2 years of foreign language in the same language

* 1 year of American government

* 1 year of accounting, personal finances, economics, or business related coursework

* 1 year of health education that includes a sex education program (not abstinence only)

My personal opinion is that the benefits of school uniforms (increased discipline, less attention on socioeconomic standing, more professional appearance, etc) outweigh the negatives (decreased creativity/expression, cultural issues, etc). As such, I think that uniforms should be strongly encouraged in school, but I am against requiring them.

My first step to a better education is getting rid of the Department of Education altogether. It has been a total waste of money and infact never worked. "No Child Left Behind" has been a total joke. It should be up to the states to determine how to run their state's education system.

I do think county school districts are the way to go. It allows competition. And if a family moves to another town within the school district it allows the kids to go to the same school that they was always in. Under this system vouchers wouldn't be needed. I do like the charter school system.

I think that the states should have more programs for tech fields. Not everyone is going to be a biologist, lawyer, a doctor. Construction, manufacturing, electrical work, ect is what makes this country go. So why not give kids a choice by the time they graduate 8th grade. Plus not everyone is booksmart "so to speak" so why not utilize their real talents for the good of society. You don't need to know that Vikings landed in Greenland during the 1000's-1100's. But those that want to be History Major's in college should learn something that basic in HS.

I do agree with your opinions on the state run tests and their collective scores, for those that take the HS route instead of the Tech route.

I beleive that sex ed should be taught at the house and at school, with abstinence as the center piece. But things such as STD's and what not should also be driven in really hard. Like showing slideshows of those that was effected. Handing kids condoms is stupid in my opinion. Its like handing a teenage boy a basketball and telling him not to shoot hoops. The best way to end this sex revolution is to not air shows like 16 and Pregnant and encouraging our artist not to have sex drivin songs. We all know thats not going to happen. But at the end of the day, its still the parents responsibility to teach right and wrong here. But a strong curriculum on STD's will go along way to lower the teenage pregnancy rate.

I agree with you on school hours and length of the school year.

As for college prices and whatnot. If there was a more of a push for Tech schools it could help drive the prices of college down. It seems that the more money the Feds drive into the system(grants ect) the higher the prices of college goes up.

no child behind left was a failure because it mainly taught to a standardized test. it also wasn't funded the way it should have been. kinda hard to promote public education when at the same time you are trying to push more people to the unregulated private education sector.

the department of education is not the problem. the people running the department of education are the problem. instead of making education more accessible and equitable to everyone, conservative administrations tried to find anyway they could to shut it down. less money for schools meant more money for unneeded defense projects and tax cuts for the wealthy.

like i said above, there aren't any private school regulations. they can teach you whatever they want. so if they choose to, they can teach intelligent design and never mention the big bang theory. they can choose to teach abstinence and never teach real sex ed. they could teach religious classes and never mention any of the great philosopher. by abolishing public education and providing for vouchers for private education the government could then by default be recognizing religion.

i would also put the blame on conservative governments for making college do damn expensive and out of reach. the university of california system used to provide for free education for california residents, at least until ronald reagan showed up in the governors mansion. george w. bush allowed for big banks on wall street to become middle men in student loans the government could issue perfectly fine, and at much higher interest rates.

get actual educators in the department of education and we should all be fine.

I agree with you ctkats. There should be teachers and professors running the DOE. Money is being thrown around to the wrong parts of the DOE. If it was funded correctly to the right resources and research's then i'd agree that its needed. But until then, the DOE is a drain on the economy.