Monday, May 16, 2011

A Couple Political Planks

I know everyone loves it when I write ill-founded political rants, (something largely missing on the Internet), so here's a couple things.

First of all, no one should ever die of being poor. We don't have to make everyone equal, but we should have an arrangement where basic preventative medical care and basic living needs are provided to those that would die otherwise. Right now, people below the poverty line, (a quickly increasing population), die five years or more, on average, than those that have a living income. That's not OK.

Second, we need to pay more on schools and education, with a focus on having decent facilities and teachers. Yes, technology teaching is good, but the first priority must be on having teachers capable of teaching.  I heard once a teacher say that they had never received an evaluation of any kind in how they are teaching. Helping teachers measure their own performance would be the first step, after which, if the teacher could not reach some sort of standard, they would be removed from their position. In other words, you'd have a chance to shape up before you were kicked out, just like any regular job. Where a Republican plan has the goal of firing a lot of teachers, my plan would increase the amount of teachers, and only fire those teachers that couldn't meet a standard of quality.

No comments: