(her answer on education in the last major debate was high point for me… especially challenging Cahill for “one shred of evidence” to which he could not respond. – promoted by eli_beckerman)
I am impressed with Jill Stein’s commitment to education reform. Her understanding of the issues and her positions for change come from the consideration of the human condition, instead of from the “how to” section of the Wall Street Journal. The current leadership, both state and federal, are going in the wrong direction to resolve the issues that create so much failure and not enough success. If Jill Stein can get her message out loud and clear to communities across the state, I have a feeling she will win a lot of support from not only the educators but parents as well. I hope that she will speak strong and often about this issue.
From Jill Stein for Governor:
Fully fund K through 12 education in every year, in every budget, for every student.
It’s a matter of getting our priorities straight. Do we hand out more corporate welfare and more tax breaks to well-connected CEO’s? Or do we educate our kids? Jill says that kids come first.
Put public schools first, and don’t undermine them with private charter schools.
Every child should have access to a quality public school in their neighborhood or community. Undermining public schools in search of privatization will inevitably lead to more expensive education, inequality, and loss of the democratic right to a free education.
Let educators and parents decide how best to educate our children.
Stop the takeover of the education agenda by private interests seeking to gain a business advantage. Stop the power grabs by state level bureaucracies seeking to impose their schemes on parents and local school districts. Schools should be responsive to and accountable to the community in which they are located. State boards filled with political hacks and privatization advocates should not dictate conditions to local school districts.
Stop punishing students and teachers for the failures of Beacon Hill.
Blaming teachers for deceptively labeled “underperforming schools” is an attempt to divert attention from the failure of Beacon Hill to properly fund schools and to address other factors affecting the ability of students to learn. And punishing students by denying them the diplomas they have earned through their coursework is a devastating punishment that is unfair and misguided. Punishing the innocent will NOT be part of Jill’s educational philosophy. We need to give students all the support they need and to work with teachers who are, after all, our school’s greatest resources.
Go Jill!
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evaluate teacher competence and student achievement. It puts so much pressure to accomplish high achievement at the lower grade levels that clearly not all children are ready to do. Some are, and that’s great, but the ones who aren’t and the ones who don’t have a huge amount of parental support at home, end up losing motivation and self-esteem early in the game and it can compromise the rest of their time in the school system. Once they are “left behind”, they never catch up and they feel worthless.
Teaching to the test takes away the time and ability to make school a fun and exciting experience for the young ones. It makes it a high pressure, high stakes, high stress experience. Some kids (and parents, unfortunately) just give up.
I do believe that the Teacher’s Unions play too much of a heavy hand in securing rights for teachers that are a detriment to the education of our students. Such is the case when they support and protect terrible teachers who are tenured. Protecting an awful teacher and keeping them in place for no other reason than because they have tenure is the most ridiculous protection for any employee. But I believe that this current union behavior cannot be fixed by MCAS, Race to the Top, or privatizing our schools. It has to be a discussion between parents and unions, where unions will stop, listen, and understand how their position is causing lifelong damage to our students and our communities. I truly believe that if they just took a step back and looked at the whole picture, they would understand the problem and work with us. If they don’t, the government will play a different and more dangerous game of “let’s turn our education system into a for-profit greed machine.”
We can’t let that happen. I know that Jill Stein will address the issues facing our schools with a calm hand and common sense. I trust her more than any of the others with this issue. She looks at it as a human rights issue, not a financial one.