Public Opinion Update: "The Government Should Do Something"
It used to be that people experienced economic conditions much like the weather. Like the weather, the assumption was that nothing much could be done to change job or market conditions. This laissez-faire assumption may be changing. At a July 2010 conference hosted by the Center for Community Change, long-time pollster and public opinion analyst/strategist Celinda Lake reported that many people now believe it is time for the government to take a major role in the country's current economic situation because government actions can have such a large impact on the economy.
- That's not the only public opinion poll making news this week. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education's new national poll on government and public education, people are worried about public schools and want federal action on public education, including passing Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization this year. More than half of those polled say failure to act this year will impact their vote decision for current elected officials in the upcoming 2010 Congressional elections.
I am concerned for the welfare of our children and youth. Education should be on the top of our list of priorities and their safety. They are truly our future. Right now we are in such a financial and economic crisis. Where is all our money going. If we run out of money in one area, we should not take it out of our programs of our children. Our children's mental health is necessary for their emotional growth. A lot of parents are struggling to keep their homes or they are not capable of taking care of their children. We should not have homelessness. We need more jobs to be able provide for our children. We need prayer back in the schools. We need to illiminate some to the teachers that are burnt out and replace them with fresh teachers. We need to cut wages and freeze wage increases for administrators and such. This would include our leaders of our country. When spend money on providing cars and gas or phones, computers, pay for business trips, etc. Where is all our tax money being spent. These people could have tax write offs. We need more quality education, more schools, more teachers. We need to decrease class size. We need to all each child to have the opportunity to learn at their own level. Have more parents involved in assisting teachers. We all learn differently. Putting children's learning ability placed in one or two different boxes is not fair. We need to get back to the basics and also use the advanced technology that we now have. Music, art, etc. should be included in our schools. This is just the tip of the ice berg of my concerns. I do believe in investing in Excellence. We need to reduce the dropout rate. We need to reduce the suicide rate, homelessness and hunger among our youth. By putting our children first in education we are sending a very powerful statement that they are very important to us. I have heard from people that are in jail that they wished that they would have had the opportunity for a better education. Please help in this fight to make this counrty a better place for children. First, we have to take care of the people in our own country. Then we take care of other countries.