• Strongly Support means you believe: Judeo-Christian values are American values. Belief in God is what America was founded upon, so tax-funding religious organizations, or praying in school, does not violate the separation of church and state. Displaying the Ten Commandments is appropriate because they are the moral basis for Western law. The Pledge of Allegiance should continue to include the phrase "Under God."
• Support means you believe: We need to teach values in our schools and account for our religious values in providing social services. The more our children are exposed to prayer, the Ten Commandments, and other traditional values, the better off they are.
• Oppose means you believe: Faith-based origanizations and prayer in schools are inappropriate because they fail to recognize American pluralism and religious diversity.
• Strongly Oppose means you believe: Separation of church and state precludes allowing school prayer, or providing funding for religious organizations. It also precludes other aspects of religion in government buildings, such as posting the Ten Commandments in public places. We should not violate the Constitutional principle in this case.

This question is looking for you views on how religion should play a part in public institutions.  However you answer the above question would be similar to your response to these statements:

• Keep God in the public sphere
• Post the Ten Commandments in public schools
• "Separation of church and state" does not mean "keep religion out of schools"
• "Separation of church and state" does not preclude "faith-based organizations" providing social services
• Nativity scenes on City Hall lawns are acceptable
• Organized Prayer In Public Schools

• Strongly Support means you believe in the principle that religious institutions should be involved in welfare or education.
• Support means you believe in practical reasons that religious institutions are better equipped than government to help with charitable causes and education.
• Oppose means you believe government oversight is needed for practical reasons of effectiveness or full inclusiveness.
• Strongly Oppose means you believe in the principle of church-state separation precludes the involvement of religious institutions in social services.

Welfare-to-Work

• The welfare reform bill, signed by President Clinton in 1996, ended the federal entitlement to welfare, imposed strict work requirements on recipients, and set a five-year lifetime limit for aid.
• In 1995, 88% of poor children received food stamps. By 1998 the figure had dropped to 70%.
• The welfare load currently stands at about 2 million recipients, which has dropped by about 1/3 since the welfare reform bill was enacted.

Faith-Based Organizations

• As welfare decreases, churches and other faith-based organizations (FBOs) pick up the slack.
• Churches are tax-exempt, and donations to churches and other charities are tax-deductible, so federal activity focuses on tax reform to encourage donations, by increasing deductibility on federal and state income taxes.
• Other recent Congressional bills focus on removing restrictions on religious organizations' activities, so that churches can bid on government block grants for performing welfare services.
• The lessening of restrictions on separation of church and state for this purpose is known as Charitable Choice.

NCLB - No Child Left Behind

• NCLB is the 2001 bipartisan law intended to improve K-12 schools, under the theory of standards-based education reform.
• States are required to establish standardized testing, so that all high school graduates meet the test criteria.
• States are also required to give options (school choice) to students who attend schools that fail to meet NCLB's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
• The controversy over NCLB currently focuses on funding: Opponents of NCLB argue that states are provided inadequate federal funding for implementation of NCLB, and that therefore NCLB represents an "unfunded mandate" on states.
• Proponents of NCLB argue that the law provides accountability for schools; fights against incompetent teachers; and provides alternatives to failing schools.
• Progress is measured in the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly knows as the "Nation's Report Card."

Education Buzzwords

• Intelligent Design: refers to species development run by intelligent designer (implying God, without the explicitly religious terminology). In contrast, evolution teaches a random process for natural species development. Critics have called intelligent design a thinly disguised version of creationism, which takes a literal approach to the creation account in Genesis, that the earth was created in six days and is less than 10,000 years old.

• Social Promotion: Candidates debate whether students should advance a grade merely to keep up with their peer group. 90% of K-12 students are promoted (10% per year are retained).
• Teacher Pay: K-12 Teachers’ salaries average $34,200; college instructors average $63,000; compared to $50,700 for similarly educated non-teachers. Public school teachers earn 25% to 100% more than private school teachers. Generally, any reference to ‘increasing teacher pay’ implies opposition to vouchers while negative references to teacher’s unions implies support of vouchers.

• Teacher Testing: Current law is that states certify teachers and decide what their requirements are; there are currently no national standards nor testing. Liberals favor raising teacher pay and oppose teacher testing on the grounds of treating teachers more ‘professionally’.

• Student Testing: Many conservatives advocate for national testing standard or other forms of ‘standards-based education’. Generally, any reference to ‘standards,’ or especially to dealing with ‘failing schools’, implies support of school vouchers.

• Smaller Class Size: Many liberals advocate for smaller class sizes, and/or building more schools to achieve them. Generally, any reference to ‘smaller classrooms,’ or especially to ‘building public schools’, implies opposition to funding private schools.

• School Prayer: Current law is that schools allow religious groups to organize on school grounds as if they are any club. Schools are not allowed to conduct prayers at the beginning of school, but neither are they allowed to stop a student from praying.

• Bilingual Education: Schools may conduct classes in Spanish or other languages using federal ‘Title VII’ funds, which totaled $380 million last year (1% of total spending). 13% of K-12 students speak a language other than English at home. Generally, liberals favor bilingual education while conservatives favor ‘official English.’

• DOE: The Department of Education spent $38 billion last year (2% of the federal budget). But federal spending only accounts for 9% of education spending; most of the annual $600 billion comes from state & local sources. Hard-core conservatives favor abolishing the Department of Education, which was a Republican Party platform plank in the 1980s.

• Phonics: Phonics is a method of teaching children to read by sounding out phonemes (groups of letters that represent sounds). Generally, a favorable reference to ‘phonics’ implies a conservative viewpoint on all the other education issues listed here.

K-12 Education Statistics

• Total spending is $260 billion, (7% federal; the rest split state & local) rising by 5% per year.
• Student population is 50 million, rising slowly (1 million per year) since 1984.
• Public school spending is $5,200 per student, staying about even with inflation.
• Parochial school costs $4,200 per student, not discounting church-provided buildings & other subsidies.
• Private school costs $8,500 per student, not discounting scholarships or other financial aid.
• 90% attend public schools; about 6 million attend private & parochial schools.
• 78% of schools have Internet access; 97% plan to by the year 2000.
• 27% of classrooms have Internet access; lower in poor and minority schools.

College Education & Cost Statistics

• 61% of high school graduates continue on to some post-secondary education.
• 43% enroll at 4-year colleges; 33% graduate college.
• Race strongly determines the percentage enrolling at college
  (49% for Asians; 38% for Blacks; 28% for Hispanics).
• Socioeconomic status even more strongly determines percentage enrolling at college
  (19% from the poorest ¼ of families vs. 70% from the richest ¼ of families).
• Tuition plus room and board at public colleges averages $6,700, and at private college $18,500.
• Public college costs 15% of the average family’s income, and the percentage is holding steady (tuition rises are keeping pace with median income rises).
• Private college costs 42% of the average family’s income, and the percentage is also holding steady.