What political issues are important to you? Why are the important?
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CanadianM
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But tell us what you really think!!! Interesting observation.. but then being Canadian I don't have to decide which one to vote for...
I'm not planning to vote because they both bad for the country.
wild175133
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Lady C I understand your frustration and anger this political season. I also agree with you to a certain extent. How ever I do believe staying home and not voting for one candidate or another is more or less a vote for the candidate or part who you disagree with the most. That is why I started this discussion about the issues. I will be honest here in that neither candidate energizes me in any way. How ever I do believe we have several issues in our country that need to be discussed and dealt with otherwise we are in for some serious trouble.
I think we should start the discussion as to what role the federal goverment should have in our society.
Do you think it has enough power?
If not what should we do about it?
Do you think it has too much power?
If that is the case what limits should we place on it?
How should we go about making the changes?
I preferred Bloomberg.
wild175133
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Like I said before I would be the first to admit neither candidate lights my fire. To be honest this is the first political season in a long time where neither party had any one in the primary process that made me stand up and take notice. I will also admit as a country we all need to stand back and take a serious look at the dialogue with in our political system. I think it has degenerated to the point where both houses of congress has become ineffective in carrying out their duties.
I think we need to drop this us versus them philosophy when it come to political dialogue. While as a nature we are a very competitive country we need to stop thinking in terms of win/loss. We should move towards what is best for every one as a whole. Let's face it some of the things that are problems in our country should not be a problem at all. When it comes to things as education, transportation, and law enforcement we are not talking rocket science here. Other issues like Energy, National Security, Taxes and our very own interpretation of Constitutional Law. There are major differences among the two major parties and the candidates.
wild175133
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One issue that has come up is Education. Education is on of those issues where the canidates and parties run to. In many ways it is like waving the flag and each party or individual takes every opportunity to twist their opponents words to make it look like there are against education or they are more for education than their opponent.
How ever it is one of those issues that does need to have a real close look and reform does need to be taken.
I live in one of the smallest suburb of the largest metropolitan area of my state. The school district here has a 400 million dollar bugdet. They have 30,683 students enrolled in the district. That means we are spending 13.000 dollars per child. Their average class size is just under 30 students. the average teachers salary is between 45.000 and 50,000 per year. In looking at the numbers for this district it is clear money is not a problem. What is the problem is gross mismanagement of the budget. Mismanagement of the annual budget is not the only problem this school district has. It also suffers from a annual drop out rate of 8% between the grades nine through twelve. Just in case you don't know what that means, it means more than half of the ninth graders will drop out by their senior year. The school district also suffers from falling test scores that put the school district near the bottom ranking of the state school districts.
To add insult to injury students in the private schools in my state continually rank higher on test scores than the public schools. The students who are home schooled also have better test scores. One solution my state legislature has for the test score discrepancy is to out law home schooling or to make it so difficult people would not use it as an option for their kids education.
What I am going to say is next is probably going to shock some of you. This school district is no better or no worse than school districts in major metro areas. Frankly I think we have the type of schools we deserve in my area because the school board is made of of people who are movers and shakers of of my state Democratic Party and they viciously defend their turf. They choose to spend money on out of town conventions in exotic locals and consultants who they can not show what they have done for the district.
The one thing that has shocked me is that I have heard state Democratic political leaders say that learning communication and anylitical skills is not as important as teaching the children how to think. Which means they put their emphasis on teaching our kids how to be good liberal democrats.
Education is not a national issue, it is not a state issue, nor should it be a county issue. It is a local issue and until we start becoming more involved at the local level and start holding the local school boards accountable we will have the crappy schools we deserve.
In this case both canidates are big spending big goverments types for this issue so i gues it is a wash.
How ever it is one of those issues that does need to have a real close look and reform does need to be taken.
I live in one of the smallest suburb of the largest metropolitan area of my state. The school district here has a 400 million dollar bugdet. They have 30,683 students enrolled in the district. That means we are spending 13.000 dollars per child. Their average class size is just under 30 students. the average teachers salary is between 45.000 and 50,000 per year. In looking at the numbers for this district it is clear money is not a problem. What is the problem is gross mismanagement of the budget. Mismanagement of the annual budget is not the only problem this school district has. It also suffers from a annual drop out rate of 8% between the grades nine through twelve. Just in case you don't know what that means, it means more than half of the ninth graders will drop out by their senior year. The school district also suffers from falling test scores that put the school district near the bottom ranking of the state school districts.
To add insult to injury students in the private schools in my state continually rank higher on test scores than the public schools. The students who are home schooled also have better test scores. One solution my state legislature has for the test score discrepancy is to out law home schooling or to make it so difficult people would not use it as an option for their kids education.
What I am going to say is next is probably going to shock some of you. This school district is no better or no worse than school districts in major metro areas. Frankly I think we have the type of schools we deserve in my area because the school board is made of of people who are movers and shakers of of my state Democratic Party and they viciously defend their turf. They choose to spend money on out of town conventions in exotic locals and consultants who they can not show what they have done for the district.
The one thing that has shocked me is that I have heard state Democratic political leaders say that learning communication and anylitical skills is not as important as teaching the children how to think. Which means they put their emphasis on teaching our kids how to be good liberal democrats.
Education is not a national issue, it is not a state issue, nor should it be a county issue. It is a local issue and until we start becoming more involved at the local level and start holding the local school boards accountable we will have the crappy schools we deserve.
In this case both canidates are big spending big goverments types for this issue so i gues it is a wash.
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