Mike's Op-Ed on Education in the New York Sun
Today, The New York Sun published an Op-Ed by Mike on education. You can find it here.
Brief excerpt: "Children are different than they were 30 years ago. They reach puberty much earlier and they're exposed to a lot early on that it doesn't make sense to maintain the traditional 12-year academic track. We need to start schooling children earlier and getting them into the workforce sooner. Parents should have the option of entering two-year-olds into school programs that offer reading instruction. Starting at 10 years old, students should remain in school until 5 o'clock with mandatory extracurricular activities and supervised individual study.
"High school should start at 13 years and end at 16. All college-bound poor students should be given tuition assistance. Those who don't want to attend college should receive publicly funded technical training. Tax breaks should be given to companies that hire and train teenagers to perform technology-based jobs. The right way to fight outsourcing is not by erecting trade barriers but by preparing our youth to compete."
Please don't forget to digg it.
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2008 Presidential Election Weekly Poll
Submitted on October 4th, 2007 by votenichttp://www.votenic.com
Results posted Tuesday evening
To all who responded to my comment...
Submitted on September 5th, 2007 by xawesomexelixAwesome discussion guys. It's great to see a critical view of things. There is a biasness, but it is rational and supported by great reading and research from many of you. You guys helped out a clueless student out a lot. Thanks!
Clueless student meaning me.
Submitted on September 5th, 2007 by xawesomexelixClueless student meaning me. D'oh!
Childen are different?
Submitted on September 4th, 2007 by SheaI don't believe the nature of children has changed at all in the past 30+ years (or hundreds of thousands of years for that matter), the only thing that is changing is the child's nurture and environment. There are numerous changes in both environment and nurture.
One change in environment is our source of food, fast food; one change in fast food are the animals pre-processed is how they are raised; one change in how they are raised is the use of growth hormones; growth hormones cause children to reach puberty at an earlier age. One change in nurture, in and beyond 30 years, is the mother joining the work force. I do believe the detachment of child to father figure is definitely an impact not discussed enough; losing the mother too, even if shorter then a 3rd of one's day, is beyond impact. (any parent, future parent, child or future child should take the time to read Inventing the Child by J. Zornado).
I don't believe that furthering the detachment between adult and child by entering the child into an earlier pre-preschool unless it's a class the adult can attend with the child on the weekends or something. I can see this working as a temp assignment to get a sub-ideology fixated into the adult-child relationship for the next generation until hopefully the class can be annulled without the fundamental dissipation.
Kids will learn on their own. I guarantee it. I promise you kids love to learn. If they didn't love to learn why else would they try so hard and get so excited at themselves imitating the adult. Walking, talking, reading, even giving little pouty faces. There is no need to rush education. All you will do is make learning a chore instead of an instinct. Not to mention, I believe, that kids need time to be kids; they need time to find out who they are when they are at the most important developing ages of their lives. We don't give children enough credit, but what the heck do I know, I'm only an uneducated 23 year old college dropout.
Like someone mentioned before I may not believe in Mike Gravel's programs 100% but I believe in Mike Gravel 100%. Like my favorite Author Daniel Quinn (known for his work of art, Ishmael--I'd recommend the entire series to anybody not satisfied with the way things are) always says, "If the world is saved, it will be saved by people with changed minds, people with a new vision. It will not be saved by people with old minds and new programs. It will not be saved by people with the old vision but a new program." Mike Gravel has such a vision.
Knew it
Submitted on September 4th, 2007 by RydaxI knew as soon as soon as I started reading your post that there had to be some Daniel Quinn influence in there. Really good stuff. Quinn also has something to say about Rep. Republic versus Democracy(not intentionally though). Rep. Repbulic is based on the idea that people are better than they are, that they are more human that human, which of course they aren't.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. -- Benjamin Franklin
Vote for Mike Gravel, anything else would be insanity!
Children and earlier education
Submitted on September 5th, 2007 by xawesomexelixFair Tax Criticism Found
Submitted on August 31st, 2007 by xawesomexelixSo I just read his interview and I thought it was clever and honest. I then read the comments attached to the article and there was one that caught my attention.
When you hear about the "Fair Tax", You should ask yourself, "Fair to WHO?"
When I first heard of fairtax.org, I thought, "Cool, sounds like a good thing"
Dude, I read the posts on the site, and contemplated their proposal of swapping a 20% sales tax on goods and services for the current income tax. It's nothing but a freaking scam! I calculated my current tax rate,, compared to my tax expenditures under the "Fair" system. guess what, it's costing me more under fair tax in terms of how much it costs me.
Don't forget, the sales tax you currently pay is charged by your STATE, not the federal system. you would still have to pay that as well, meaning a item that once cost you 7 percent more or so now cost you 27 percent more. Imagine the cost of a $25,000 car with an extra 27 percent tacked on, plus all the usual associated fees that go along with a new car! 32K plus! that's one hell of a price jump.
But it's not just cars, any good or service subject to "Fair" tax will experience such added expenses. SO now, that extra $350 bucks you get in each paycheck don't go as far.
All this tax will do is reduce the value of your dollars and effectively eliminate the middle class. If you, like many, live from paycheck to paycheck, and have little money to stash in savings,CD's or the like, You will be hit hardest by this fair tax! THe wealthy will not be affected, as money in savings or investments (idle funds) will NOT be subject to taxing, only when it is spent does it get taxed!
They are TAXING the VERY USE of MONEY!
This violates law! Our government cannot tax essentials, unless they're apportioned! It's just as bogus as the current system, only under the "Fair Tax" system, your money loses a quarter of it's current buying power, And those with stockpiles of earnings will not be taxed (but it will gain interest!)
Under fair tax, you are either a peon or a tycoon, there is no middle class.
Many of you may not believe me, but I tell you this: If you don't trust me, go over to fairtax.org, read it for yourself. Pull out your paystubs and tax return stubs, grabg a calculator, and check it out on your own. I earn over 30K a year, and I am better off now.
Federal income tax should be abolished or rewritten so it's truly legal. As for the fair tax, it's a bunch of B.S.
Posted by: Big E | August 31, 2007 at 02:46 AM
We need to find a way to inform people how the fair tax will work. This guy thinks we'll be paying two different taxes, a state tax and the fair tax. I wonder, is this true? Will we be paying a fair tax and a state tax? I would think not, but this would be a great thing to discuss. Any ideas or comments? I'm still researching the fair tax program and I personally like it but I want to make sure I'm not misinterpreting it. Does this guy have a good reason to be pissed?
I hope I found the Answer!!
Submitted on September 1st, 2007 by blueyes20I went to fairtax.org to see if I could find the answer to your question. This is what I found on the Q&A.
How are state tax systems affected, and can states adequately collect a federal sales tax?
No state is required to repeal its income tax or piggyback its sales tax on the federal tax. All states have the opportunity to collect the FairTax; states will find it beneficial to conform their sales tax to the federal tax. Most states will probably choose to conform. It makes the administrative costs of businesses in that state much lower. The state is paid a one-quarter of one percent fee by the federal government to collect the tax. For states that already collect a sales tax, this fee proves generous. A state can choose not to collect the federal sales tax, and either outsource the collection to another state, or opt to have the federal government collect it directly. If a state chooses to conform to the federal tax base, they will raise the same amount of state sales tax with a lower tax rate in some cases more than 50 percent lower since the FairTax base is broader than their current tax base. States may also consider the reduction or elimination of property taxes by keeping their sales tax rate at or near where it is currently. Finally, conforming states that are part of the FairTax system will find collection of sales tax on Internet and mail-order retail sales greatly simplified.
From what I understand from this there is still a State tax, but if the State conforms to the fair tax system for taxing in will drop the percent of tax the state needs. So you will pay around 25% if your state conforms where a state that choices not to will be paying 27% to 30% tax total. I took out my pay stubs and found out that when I worked at a place that offers medical, dental, ect... I paid 27% tax compared to a job with no benifits I pay 25%. So basically it is like the fairtax book says this is a revenue nuetral tax system your taxes will not go up or down they will be same. For the states that choose not to conform the people in those states will pay MORE tax. It is up to the people of those states to make sure their state conforms. Anyway you slice it, it is going to help people rich and poor the thing the guy isn't getting is poor people now have an incentive to buy USED goods. In his example he is buying a NEW car, how may people really buy NEW cars. Lets not forget the "PREBATE" which he has not added into his income, not knowing how many people are in his family I can not confirm the amount he would recieve but he clearly need to reread the fair tax and figure in all forms of income and tax. I hope this answers your question =)
Appreciate your response.
Submitted on September 5th, 2007 by xawesomexelixI really want to thank you for first responding to clear up any holes in info about the fairtax. I was trying to understand it more. I never assumed it was a lower or higher tax at all. It is just fair and more helpful, which I like. Thanks for the additional info.
Anytime =)
Submitted on September 5th, 2007 by blueyes20In his example he is buying a NEW car, how may people really buy
Submitted on September 1st, 2007 by jflIn his example he is buying a NEW car, how may people really buy NEW cars.
I imagine that no one would ever buy a NEW anything if this tax were to become the law. This is a loophole through which cars, trucks, and busses will be driven through.
Creating an entirely new system of loopholes and cheats because you are incapable of dealing with the loopholes and cheats in the present system sounds like Rydax' definition of insanity to me.
Eliminate ALL "classes " of income. Eliminate ALL deductions. Drastically lower the rates. Keep the income tax.
I support the NI4d and most of all I support Mike because he has the character, the moral stature to wade into the mess in Washington DC beholden to none of the prevalent special interests.
I don't imagine I will ever support anyone's program 100%. Nor will any of us. That's why the top-tier don't have ANY program.
Mike is running for president, not "decider", in any case. So I do not feel threatened by any one of his proposals. In a democracy such as Mike proposes to re-institute here in the United States, it is up to we the people to propose and dispose.
I may not support Mike Gravel's program 100%, but I support Mike Gravel 100%.
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Times have changed. We are going to empower the American people. Let’s work together. I am tough. I’m not afraid. None of this politics as usual. Mike GravelI want to share an example!!!
Submitted on September 2nd, 2007 by blueyes20If I wasn't such a proud person I would be on welfare
Submitted on September 2nd, 2007 by jflI seriously doubt that you would trade places with the hypothetical young woman in your story. Your story reminds me of Ronald Reagan's "welfare Cadillacs". I never did like Ronald Raygun.
The National Sales Tax will be gamed just as the Income Tax is. Count on it. It'll just start from ground zero with new and unfamiliar scams.
We know how the income tax is gamed :
1. Different rates of tax for different classes of income. Capital gains, for instance. Otherwise known as a discount for speculators.
2. Income that is not counted due to "tax breaks".
The obscenely wealthy, from Harry Helmsley's widow, "Only the little people pay taxes", to Arianna Huffington, who was shocked to discover that the fact that she paid NO federal or state income taxes on a fat income from her divorced Republican husband (she lives in a seven million dollar house) was considered prima facie evidence of her insincerity when running for governor of California, do not pay taxes. While the IRS beats up on waitresses and busboys for not claiming all their tip income.
Eliminating ALL deductions and declaring income to be income regardless of its source would level the playing field.
One tax rate for all of us within a standard deviation of the median income, then a lower and higher rate to the respective left and right of the curve would fix what's broke with the present system.
Substituting a sales tax for an income tax sounds good, until you come back to planet earth and the USA in particular, where "greed is good", for a reality check.
This thread used to be about education. All Americans really care about is their oil fix and tax breaks.
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Times have changed. We are going to empower the American people. Let’s work together. I am tough. I’m not afraid. None of this politics as usual. Mike GravelI wonder, is this true?
Submitted on September 1st, 2007 by jflThis guy thinks we'll be paying two different taxes, a state tax and the fair tax.
Duh! Yeah. Of course it's true.
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Times have changed. We are going to empower the American people. Let’s work together. I am tough. I’m not afraid. None of this politics as usual. Mike Gravel' Well, playing video games
Submitted on September 1st, 2007 by jfl' Well, playing video games is just an extension of what our education system values: Acquire a set of skills that allow you to perform a rote task so you can get the highest score. '
Now there is a startling epiphany! I think its the other way around though : our educational system is modeling the video game!
' Why should teachers with energy, excitement, and talent be paid the same as the ones who don't make an effort? What other profession in America protects the mediocre at the expense of the excellent? '
The legal profession? The medical profession certainly.
' ...we should help out low-income parents who want to send their children to private schools. '
I disagree strongly with this. Funding a privatised federal "funny money" track in competition with a fully funded local track spells disaster for a public education system. Fix the public education system, don't fund the cronies in the privatized system via vouchers. Look no further than New Orleans for a look at what's in store for the folks who'll get shunted into the crony educational system.
And don't tell me that everything will be all right when privatization is done by Demoblicans. Mike is still the only Democrat on the ticket.
' Japanese students spend 240 days in the classroom. Most European countries mandate 220 days. But our students spend 180 days on average.
Children are different than they were 30 years ago. They reach puberty much earlier and they're exposed to a lot early on that it doesn't make sense to maintain the traditional 12-year academic track. We need to start schooling children earlier and getting them into the workforce sooner. Parents should have the option of entering two-year-olds into school programs that offer reading instruction. Starting at 10 years old, students should remain in school until 5 o'clock with mandatory extracurricular activities and supervised individual study.
High school should start at 13 years and end at 16... Tax breaks should be given to companies that hire and train teenagers to perform technology-based jobs. '
I don't buy any of the above. And it's micro-management in any case. Leave it alone. (tax breaks??!! I thought we were going to follow the bread crumbs OUT of the forest?)
' Thirty percent of our students drop out before they get their high school diploma. Half of all African-American dropouts wind up in prison. We not only waste money failing to educate millions of young people, we spend even more money locking many of them up. Let's redirect our funds to empower our young people to become productive, wage-earning, tax-paying members of society.
' Money can solve some problems but only if it's spent on smart solutions. We waste millions of dollars feeding educational bureaucracies that churn out curriculum plans that never get implemented. We fund teacher education schools that push abstract theories which flop when they hit the reality of the classroom.
' People who want to be teachers should skip education school and become teaching assistants. While working under the supervision of a teacher, they will learn what does and does not work. Teaching, like most professions, has to be learned on the job. '
We're getting at the truth with the above, in my opinion, Mike. And you're my man now.
I wrote to Bill Bradley when he was running for the nomination that he ought to implement a federal scholarship program modelled on the sports scholarship program and professional "draft".
Give a national test, an achievement test not an aptitude test, to graduating high school seniors every year to include math and at least two languages, and then award a sports-style "free ride" to a budgeted number of students, requiring them to spend a year teaching after graduation for each year's schooling. Allow them to major in anything BUT education. Require them to teach each summer they're in school under mentoring teachers at proven schools.
Have a teacher draft every spring with the worst schools getting first pick of the best and brightest coming out of school under the program.
From the Death+Taxes Interview :
' There’s no reason why the government can’t pay for education. In countries like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland education is paid for. They pay for education from [primary school] to Ph. D. Why should a kid come out of school $30,000 in debt when they’re just trying to start their lives?
' I worked my way through four years of college. I’ll tell you, I thought it was terrible. I didn’t want to go onto higher level because I was burnt out. And I thought it was unfair. I’m paying taxes and I’m working my way through college. It’s unfair even more so now, because they sucker you in by giving you a loan. '
I agree with that 100%. Allowing every citizen absolutely as much opportunity as possible to educate her/himself will truly transform our society in two or three generations. And the rewards doled out to a strong back are shrinking everyday in proportion to those awarded a strong mind. We ought to be showing the world the way to do it!
It is our best hope of escaping the wheel of ignorance, fear and exploitation that has brought us to our present straits.
(from that same interview, I would welcome an honest man like Mike Bloomberg to be my vice president... Mike, tell me it ain't so! Please ask Alex to talk to Rocky Anderson :)
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Times have changed. We are going to empower the American people. Let’s work together. I am tough. I’m not afraid. None of this politics as usual. Mike Gravel