Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Education is a fundamental necessity for our nation. The way our federal government has operated, however, has caused more harm than good for students. It must be recongized that top down solutions rarely work, and for real education solutions, we need to have more options.

It is time that the Department of Education be moved into an advisory only role. Mandating that schools perform a certain way has not been effective for our children. Currently, teachers are forced to teach to tests instead of teaching children how to think. This has caused the United States to slip in the world rankings for education. These policies are coming from Washington, D.C. and are setting the children up for failure.

We must have parents, business leaders, and communities come together in their specific areas and determine the course of action for their schools. I also believe that children deserve to have more choices. We can't sit there and expect every student to follow the STEM education that is forced. Some kids want to be car mechanics, some want to become welders, etc.

We cannot expect every student to be taught the same way and expect that it will work. Every demographic varies from city to city and children are unique in the ways they best learn. It's time that we adapt to that and adjust teaching to reflect this.

Higher Education

There are some solutions to the rising cost in education I have, and I hope that you will join in advocating for some of these issues to make colleges and universities better for students wishing to obtain a high degree of learning.

Student Loans: Student loans from the federal government cause students to immediately be in debt when beginning the early stages of their adult lives. One small measure that would help in curtailing this is by only offering student loans to programs that have a high rate of probability for jobs. Degrees in law enforcement, engineering, psychology, and medicine as a few examples. The GI Bill program already has these sorts of distinctions for veterans, and I believe they should be universally applied towards student loans as well. I have experienced that people who get into some degree programs cannot get a job outside of academia, and it becomes detrimental to their lives. If we are going to be loaning the money out, then we need to ensure that it is done in a manner that helps the student.
CLEP: Some people know of CLEP tests (where you can take a test to get out of having to take some classes). I think that all colleges should allow for students to test out of subjects at a far reduced rate than the credit hours of taking a class require. This would help students finish far earlier, and lower the overall cost of their tuition in the long run. Any school that doesn't at least meet this for the genreal curriculum classes (English, math, etc.) should not be eligible to receive grant or student loan money.

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