Today’s presidential candidates mainly focus on issues such as health care and immigration. If I were a U.S. presidential candidate my main focus would be education. Education is the key to life. Our countries foundation relies upon the education of our citizens. So as a presidential candidate, I aspire to change education in the United States of America. Updating our educational system, decreasing the rising cost of college, and satisfying a teacher’s financial need will increase our countries educational system.
Education in our country has been confined to the same old-fashioned book-to-book learning although our economy has progressed into a more technological state. A law known as No Child Left Behind doesn’t exactly help the educational system. Said by National Center for Policy Analysis states that, “Some states are lowering the passing scores, they're redefining schools in need of improvement and they're deferring the hard task of achievement-boosting into the distant future” The question to ask now is how do we change or challenge the school system? What can I do to help every state meet all requirements for students?
The number of students within every schools system determines each schools budget. Extra money is also given for gifted students and others operate on grants. Although thousands of dollars for a school budget may sound like a lot of money to educate children, it simply isn’t enough. I propose a better school budget with trained teachers who care about their jobs and students.
College cost has greatly increased over the last ten years. Studies show that, “..State institutions raised their tuition and fees by 107 percent, to $3,512” Due to the rising cost of college, minority and middle class families are getting deeper and deeper in dept. With the high price of college, students are restricted to certain colleges, which limit their educational opportunities. Some students are forced to stay in state due to out of state fees.
As a presidential candidate, abolishing out of state fees would be a major factor in helping middle class parents. Although we cant completely diminish out of state fees, I plan to decrease out of state fees by 35% in order to increase educational opportunities for students in our nation. Declining fees enables every student to choose the college or University of their choice.
Teachers are major assets to our country. By facilitating they’re learning and encouraging students to strive for excellence, teachers mold our lawyers, doctors, real-estate agents, and many more. Unfortunately, an educators salary does not measure up to the amount of work teachers perform on the daily basis. This discourages a large amount of teachers who do not completely fulfill a teacher’s duty.
A solution for teacher’s salary would be a yearly increase between 15% and 20% based upon the amount of work they complete and hours worked, rather than the level of education they have received. National Center for Policy Analysis says, “all teachers in a school can achieve increased financial compensation if their school, as a whole, meets a set of predetermined performance objectives. That should satisfy and motivate every educator to teach and love his or her profession. Money should not be the only factor when determining a profession; the passion and dedication should matter as well.
Being aware that education is the key component to life is similar to the body and brain. The brain stimulates every movement and thought of the body. The body will not function without the brain just as our country will not grow without educators. Education is more important now than ever. Providing our country with the proper and adequate support for an education became my first priority as a presidential candidate.