Midterm Elections.

Brown Campaign
Jerrybrown.org

Jerry Brown has taken the cake for the california midterm elections. Jerry Brown wants to make more jobs by focusing on renuable energy, improve the education system by changing the way schools work and by giving more to colleges, fix the states bugdet problems, do more to protect californias environment, rewrite the rules concerning pension plans, ensure california has safe water for future generations, and he wants to fight for civil rights. How will his election affect californias future? And who would of done a better job at raising california up to it's former glory? Well, right now all we can do is watch and wait.

A 'Clean Campaign'.

Feifei Sun, TIME
Time.com

John Hickelooper Showers Away Negative ADs. O :

This ad says a lot to me. I think that some campaign ads do more to hinder elections than to help it. Because most of the voters I know choose who to vote for by simply watching TV. Where there are endless canidates doing nothing but ish talking on eachother. So, whoever is the better trash talker always wins, but they wont neccessarly be the best for that state or whatever they are running for. This really bugs me, which is why I appreciate Mr. H for showering away trash talking.

How Will Elections Effect Education Reform?

Meg Whitman on Education Reformm.
Whitman campaign
www.megwhitman.com
The fact that elections are coming up is no secret. But what are the canidates going to do for the education system? Let's start with a canidate close to home. Meg Whitman is running for governer of california. According to her website, "If our schools don't improve, prisions will continue to be overcrowded, welfare  costs will continue to spiral upward, and we will lose our ability to be a center of innovation." All in all, she says that if our schools don't improve, working families will have to pay more in taxes for inferior government programs. So what does Meg Whitman want to do to reform education? First, they want to direct more money to the classroom. Only 60% of education spending in california goes to schools. Meg will usher in reforms to collapse categorical grants into more simplified grants for special education, rewarding outstanding teacher and school districts, and programs that contribute to achievement. Second, she will eliminate the cap on charter schools. She wants to do more to create competion for the public school system. She will grade schools A-F. That info will be posted on a website to let parents know how their schools are doing. If the school is failing, the parent can petition to turn that school into a charter school, or have the chioce of sending thir kid to a different school. Power to the people! Third, she will make it easier for parents to change schools into charter schools. once a school is failing, parents can petition to turn it into a charter school, only requiring a majority vote for the change. Fourth, She will invest $1 billion for california UCs and CSU systems. Due to the recent cutbacks UCs, the best public education system in the world, has had to cut programs and decrease per student spending. Fifth, Make the process of becoming as teacher harder. She wants to create a stystem where only the best of the best can teach. Where only people who actually know what their talking about can be in the classroom. All in all, Meg promises alot. But will it help our failing system?

Political Choices Matter for Education Reform.

http://unlvrebelyell.com/2010/10/04/political-choices-matter-for-education-reform/
Matthew Jarzen
The Rebel Yell
Thanks to recent news stories, everyone notices the problems with the education systems. And most people point to school funding as the problem, and in turn, point to more funding as the solution. The Washington D.C. public school system has graduation rates well below 50 percent if you exclude charter schools. Yet, despite being one of the worst school districts in the nation, D.C. schools spend an average $28,000 per pupil, one of the highest per-student expenditures in the nation. On average, New Jersey spends $22,000 per pupil and it too has some of the worst graduation rates in the nation. Per pupil, spending has tripled over the last four decades, with zero results in either test scores or graduation rates. Nationally, the graduation rates are a little over 60 percent, so 3 out of every 10 kids won't graduate. And rougly half of minority students won't graduate either. The Department of Education has a budget of nearly $80 billion and some 4,800 bureaucrats. And even with all of this, we wonder why this program can't graduate 3 out of 10 students. the ED determines the curriculum of students should focus on, taking power away from states, local schools and parents. And also sets regulations that schools have to follow to get funding.  This leads to the No Child Left Behind Act, which forces teachers to teach towards a standardized test instead of teaching students what they were actually supposed to be learning. Another problem is teachers unions. In Washington D.C., they had a voucher program, which attached money to the kids, letting the parents send their kids to private schools rather than public schools. This program produced better results. Yet because of pressure from teachers’ unions, Obama killed the voucher program. Vouchers were a threat because they removed money from public schools and gave it to parents. Less money in public schools means fewer public school teachers. Fewer teachers means less money being paid to union dues. If our economic recovery depends on our education recovery, then perhaps it’s time we support candidates who stand for common sense reforms that will make education better for all students and not line the pockets of teachers’ unions or corrupt politicians.

Riverside denies Race to the Top...

Riverside does not buy into federal reform plann.
DAYNA STRAEHLEY
The Press-Enterprise

Saying they don't have clear information and too little time before the deadline, Riverside school officials declined to sign up for Race To The Top, the federal effort to reform education. Riverside Unified School District Superintendent Rick Miller said "It appears there's a lack of information on Race To The Top," Top state education officials asked school districts to sign an agreement by Jan. 8 to participate in the program. However, the Legislature still hasn't passed the legislation necessary to make California eligible. "The conference call was clear we all need to sign up, but we don't know what we're signing up for," Miller said. Most of the board members were more concerned than exited. Superintendent Kent Bechler also told the board that he probably wouldn't recommend Race To The Top participation. Corona-Norco district could expect up to $700,000, mostly for schools with high percentages of low-income students, he said. School districts throughout California expect to slash millions more from their budgets. Many schools are already using some elements of the program, such as using test scores for informing instructions. Teachers use that to plan lessons on what students still need to learn rather than what they already know.

However, most disagree on other elements, like using test scores as part of teachers' evaluations. Teachers say it's not fair to compare scores of classes with gifted students or classes with large numbers of English learners, or to compare schools with many low-income children with schools in bad neighborhoods.

Money well spent...

Obama Suggests Extending School Year
Richard Sisk and Corky Siemaszko
Daily News

 Obama says "A month makes a difference." Obama wants to extend the school year considering the fact that countries like India and China are far surpassing the U.S. when it comes to education. "Money without reform will not fix the problems." Obama stated. Obama administration's "Race to the Top" program is forcing states and school districts to improve, but he said parents need to get more involved in their kids' education. He also wants to improve the math and science programs. He said that some public schools are "struggling." But, will the students be happy about losing a month of their summer vacation?

Broken laws; broken families; broken opinions... p. 2

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/is-arizona-s-sb1070-in-best-interest-of-u-s
camjdavis; Opposingveiws.com

  SB 1070 is about enforcing the idea that illegal immigration is just that: illegal. 55% of Americans support Arizona and SB 1070.  Some of those people say the Arizona law will benefit the U.S. immensely and have no harms to our society as a whole. They say that racial profiling is a big issue with the new law. However, governer Brewer stated that police will go through training to execute the new law without it becoming racial profiling. "This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States," (Brewer; 2010) Also, past laws such as Slavery and Jim Crow laws had racist problems too. the difference is that those laws prohibited people from progressing in society and actually harmed innocent people. This law benefits the US and does not harm innocent people. Such as the economic benifits. "Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.(Center for Immigration Studies, 2004) This law will decrease the fiscal deficit that the US faces because of illegal immigration because it will reduce the number of illegal aliens in our country.