Polk County Democrats

Introduction

Education is everything, nobody seriously argues that. There is no greater mistake that a person can make than to quit school before they get the skills that our private-sector, information-age economy demands of them. You don't have to get those skills, but, if you don't, the world will take note, and begin making judgments. We feel so strongly that we owe education to our children that we force them to get it for as long as we can, and pay for it. We don't force them to go to higher education, but we do everything we can to make it possible for them to do that too, if they can. Everyone knows it's important.

What everyone doesn't know is that it's important for everybody, and important to pay for it for everybody. Those people are called Republicans, and they believe that education is a product like any other, and should be available to those who can afford it and not to those who can't. Above all, they believe that those who can afford it should not have to pay for those who can't. They call that socialism, and they say all kinds of terrible things about it.

Democrats call it an investment in the future, and support general education with very few reservations, especially none involving education for those who can least afford it.

polkdemocrats.com is thus inaugurating this "education" page in our issues section, and will keep it current as our program in support of education unfolds here in Polk County. The first thing we've done is the easy part: a unanimous resolution from the Executive Committee declaring our commitment to stopping the incessant Republican demand for cutting funds for education. Talk is cheap, and polkdemocrats.com doesn't put much value on resolutions with all kinds of high-sounding cliches and "whereases," but it's a start and let's make it a start that we follow up on:

Resolution in Support of Polk County Teachers

and

Our Public Education System

 
Whereas,  May 2-6, 2011 is National Teachers Appreciation Week, and

Whereas, teachers have played a crucial role in the advancement, prosperity and cohesion   of our community and have enhanced the quality of life for so many through the quest for knowledge and understanding, and

Whereas, education is the foundation of the American Dream and public education has been the source of opportunity and hope for people from all walks of life for generations, and

Whereas, North Carolina’s growth, prosperity and stature are directly related to our historical investment in public education, and

Whereas, a well-educated work force is essential to attract business investment to our county, and, as a major employer, our public school system contributes significantly to our local economy,       

Therefore, Be it Resolved, the Polk County Democratic Party Executive Committee wishes to express our heart-felt appreciation to our county’s outstanding teachers and school system employees and to renew our commitment to advocate for adequate support and funding for public education.

Polk County Democratic Party Executive Committee

 May 5, 2011

 Public/Charter/Private

On the subject of K-12 education, Democrats stongly support the public schools and advocate always for adequate funding. But public schools often fail, particularly those in poor communities, and American students do not as a rule do very well compared to students in other developed countries. We need to do better, and two other systems have emerged to challenge the public schools in an effort to do that.

The first is Charter Schools, which are private schools that run on taxpayer dollars. The theory of charter schools is that they get rid of the bureaucracy and unions that Republicans believe stifle the public schools, and in some cases they work pretty well. But they've been around for a long time now, and overall the charter schools don't do appreciably better in performance tests than the public schools do, and they provide less service: no special ed programs, and so forth.

Private schools are just that: all costs are borne by tuition, which gets pricey in a hurry. The Obamas elected to send their two daughters to a private school in Washington, and the tuition -- for each -- is $32,000 a year. The full 13-year K-12 regimen for the two Obama girls at that school would cost $832,000. You would be surprised how many people can afford that, but they are a tiny minority and such schools can never be the solution to our educational problems.

Private schools are very good, probably the best we have, but they're beyond the reach of all but the very wealthiest. Charter schools are basically public schools without any controls and without offering full services, and don't perform obviously better than public schools anyway. There are some things wrong with the public schools, but they're the best option we have and so Democrats support them completely.