A: Well, keep in mind this is not just a crisis for the Hispanic community; this is a crisis for the entire country because increasingly the workforce is going to be black and brown, and if those young people are not trained, then this country will not be competitive. Closing the achievement gap involves making sure that children are prepared the day they come to school, and so working with at-risk parents & poor children to make sure that they’re getting their childhood education they need is absolutely critical. I’ve seen crumbling school buildings & children learning in trailers because of overcrowding. We’ve got to have a program of school construction all across the nation. After-school programs and summer school programs can make an enormous difference in preventing dropout rates because a lot of times young people after they get out of school have no place to do their homework. And that can make an enormous difference.
A: Some of the work that we've done over the last four years to make sure that the student loan interest rate stays low, expanding Pell grants for millions of students, including millions of Latino students, so that we are seeing the highest college enrollment rate among Latino students in history--all that is going to help to contribute to us being able to deal with the problem of secondary and high school educations by inspiring a whole lot of students to say, I can do that, too; I can achieve that dream. One of the things we know is going to make a big difference is early childhood education. So we've put enormous effort not only in providing additional funding for early childhood education, but also to improve the quality. 46 states have initiated reforms.
A: What happened in Chicago was of concern, and we're glad that it finally got resolved. But you're going to see school districts dealing with this issue because part of what has happened is a lot of teacher layoffs. Part of what the Recovery Act was all about--was to help states and local communities not lay off teachers. Unfortunately, though, we've still seen a lot of school districts lay off teachers. That has an impact on the students themselves because when you have larger classes, it's harder to provide the individualized attention on those kids, especially at the younger grades. And what we say to school districts all across the country is, we will provide you more help as long as you're being held accountable.
A: Of course it would. I’m a strong supporter of bilingual education. This is what I would do as president.
A: There is a serious link between diminishing opportunities for education and poverty later on in life. I would do this. First of all, to institute a universal pre-kindergarten program so that every children aged 3, 4 and 5 would have access to full day-care and prepare them for the primary schools. Secondly, I would fund that with a 15% cut in the bloated Pentagon budget. The minute that you start talking about funding education people say, “How are you going to pay for it, ” but the fact of the matter is, the money’s there, we have to put the emphasis on where we get it. It begins with funding elementary and secondary education by reorganizing the No Child Left Behind Act, and it also means having free college for all American young people because we have the resources to do it. What do we stand for if we don’t stand for the education of our children? What do you think? Should we have free college?
A: What we have to do in this country is to take away all this old credentialing. We’ve got to bring in aerospace engineers & pilots & mathematicians & scientists & business-people, and we have to bring in people who can inspire kids at a young age to reach for the stars, and then convince them to work hard enough to get there. Inspiration, that’s how we increase our capability in education.
A: First of all, I think we need to recognize where the responsibility lies. It would be easy enough for someone running for president to say: I have a several-point plan to fix our education problem. It's not going to happen. And it shouldn't happen from the Oval Office. We spend about 9% of education dollars now at the federal level. The responsibility historically and properly is at the state and local level. I think, however, we can do things that would support choice, do things that would support vouchers, do things that would support homeschooling, and recognize that we need to speak the truth. One of the advantages of being in the Oval Office is having a bully pulpit. And the fact of the matter is, if families would stay together, if fathers would raise their children, especially young men when they get into troublesome ages, we would solve a good part of the education problem in this country.
A: Choice and competition is the key to success in education in America. That means charter schools, that means home schooling, it means vouchers, it means rewarding good teachers and finding bad teachers another line of work. It means rewarding good performing schools, and it really means in some cases putting bad performing schools out of business. I want every American parent to have a choice, a choice as to how they want their child educated, and I guarantee you the competition will dramatically increase the level of education in America. And I applaud our former Governor [Jeb] Bush for the great job he's done on education in Florida and America.
A: I think Hispanics want the same thing everybody wants. They want jobs. They want education. They want to know that they're going to be able to live with freedom. As we look at issues like education we'll understand that while the dropout rate from high school is 30% among all populations, it's 50% among Hispanics. We've got to change that by creating personalized education that focuses on perpetuating what's good for students, not just making what's good for the school . There's also issues and disparities between diabetes and other issues of health. So I think, if our policies reflect lifting people up, we'll get the vote.
A: An education is empowerment. The lack of it leads us to incredible, just all kinds of obstacles in our path. And we always talk about we need more math and science. But one of the reasons we have kids failing is not because they're dumb, it's they're bored. They're bored with a curriculum that doesn't touch them. We have schools that are about perpetuating the schools, not helping the students. I propose launching Weapons of Mass Instruction, making sure that we are launching not only the math and science, but music and art programs that touch the right side of the brain, and not only educate the left side of the student's brain. Because without a creative economy and a creative student, you have a bored student, and that's one of the reasons we see so many of them dropping out.
A: Well, we've got a pretty good model. If you look at my state, even before I got there, other governors and legislatures worked real hard to improve education. And they did a number of things that made a big difference. One is, they started testing our kids to see who was succeeding, making sure that failing schools were identified and then turning them around. They fought for school choice. When I became governor, I had to protect school choice because the legislature tried to stop it. And then we also fought for English immersion. We wanted our kids coming to school to learn English from the very beginning. We care about the quality of education. I want to pay better teachers more money. Teachers are underpaid, but I want to evaluate our teachers and see which ones are the best and which ones are not.
And let me tell how our kids are doing. Every two years, we test the kids across the country, the NAPE exam. Massachusetts kids came out number one in English in fourth and eighth grade, number one in math. In all four tests, our kids came out number one in the nation. These principles of choice, parental involvement, encouraging high standards, scholarships for our best kids -- these turn our schools into the kind of magnets that they can be for the entire nation.
Under that program, those who graduated from high school and passed our graduation exam, those who passed it in the top quarter of their high school got a four-year tuition free ride to the Massachusetts institutions of higher learning that are public. So I care. I care about your education and helping people of modest means get a good education and we'll continue a Pell Grant program.
A: We're going to continue a Pell Grant program. [Paul Ryan's] Republican budget called for a Pell Grants being capped out at their current high level. My inclination would be to have them go with the rate of inflation. I think it's important in higher education that we get serious about the fact that the inflation of tuition has been much faster than inflation generally. And my view is we have to hold down the rate of tuition increases and fee increases in higher education. We've got to find a way to keep those costs down and we'll be able to keep up with costs by having Pell Grants grow at the rate of inflation.
A: The best thing I can do for young people graduating is make sure that when you get out, you have a job. That's a key thing. Because right now, half the kids in this country that are graduating from college, half couldn't find a job or a job consistent with their college degree. We've always, as a nation, snapped up young people coming out of college. But that's changed in these last few years. And so the best thing I can do is not to [say], "Hey, I'll loan you more money." I don't want to overwhelm you with debts. I want you to make sure you can pay back the debts you've already got and that will happen with good jobs.
A: I don't see any risk at all. Hispanic Americans are Americans, just as much as all other Americans. They have the same values, the same interests. I learned that being mayor of the largest Hispanic city in the US. I learned we have very common values. Hispanics have a tremendous interest in giving more freedom back to people, giving people more of a chance to decide on the education of their child. That's why I think school choice would be a very good thing to do for Hispanics, for Hispanic parents, for all parents. The decision on where the child goes to school should primarily be made by the parent, and the parent should decide what school the child goes to, not the government bureaucrat. That's one of many things that really unites what Hispanics want and need and what all parents want and need, which is more control over their child's education. And that's something that I would fight very hard to bring about.
A: I'm the product of a Catholic education from the day I started in kindergarten until the day I got out of college. And it was my parents' choice. It was hard for them to afford it. I was fortunate enough to get scholarships along the way to help. But the reality is, that's really the answer. We can revolutionize public education in this country by allowing for choice. Why do we have the best higher education in the world and K-12 that's under great stress? Because higher education is based on choice. The government doesn't force you to go there. We should empower parents by giving them the money, giving them scholarships, giving them vouchers, let them choose a public school, a private school, a parochial school, a charter school, homeschooling. Let's give the power to the parents, rather than to the government bureaucrats. And we will turn around education within three years.
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| 2024 Presidential contenders on Education: | |||
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Candidates for President & Vice-President:
V.P.Kamala Harris (D-CA) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.(I-CA) Chase Oliver(L-GA) Dr.Jill Stein(D-MA) Former Pres.Donald Trump(R-FL) Sen.J.D.Vance(R-OH) Gov.Tim Walz(D-MN) Dr.Cornel West(I-NJ) |
2024 presidential primary contenders:
Pres.Joe_Biden(D-DE) N.D.Gov.Doug Burgum(R) N.J.Gov.Chris_Christie(R) Fla.Gov.Ron_DeSantis(R) S.C.Gov.Nikki_Haley(R) Ark.Gov.Asa_Hutchinson(R) Former V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN) U.S.Rep.Dean_Phillips(D-MN) Vivek_Ramaswamy(R-OH) S.C.Sen.Tim_Scott(R) | ||
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