Education-Democrats vs. Republicans

With the upcoming election it is important that our peer group be knowledgeable on where they stand on political issues. We all know the two major political parties Republicans and Democrats, but many of us do not know the parties opinions on specific issues. Since we are college students, I wanted to start off this blog by highlighting the variance in opinions that these two political parties hold on the topic of education.

Generally Republicans hold a conservative political ideology when it comes to policy.Since Republicans believe in limited government when it comes to education, they want to extremely limit the role of government in education policy.They believe the local government should be in charge of the schools and policy.The local school boards should be in charge of curriculum and academic standards.Republicans also advocate for more parents choice when it comes to elementary and secondary education.They are big supporters in homeschooling and school vouchers.School vouchers are a cash/tax credit that parents can use to select private secondary or elementary schools for their children in favor of public education.They are in favor of the free market instead of the government when it comes to higher education, which means that they believe the federal government should get out of the student loan business, because of the belief that subsidized loans are too easy to get and therefore allow higher institutions to increase tuition and fees.Another opinion they hold is the opposition of Affirmative Action, which is the policy that seeks to provide equal opportunity in education and employment to people that are in historically discriminated classes such as minorities and women.Instead they believe students should be admitted based on the individual efforts they put towards their own education.Again Conservatives emphasize personal choice/responsibility with limited government action.

Democrats hold a liberal or progressive political ideology when it comes to policy. Progressives believe that a significant amount of inequality today is a result of socioeconomic conditions out of the controls of the individuals.Democrats want to ensure education equality therefore they advocate for increase federal governments role in education.They advocate federal funding education especially those targeted towards at-risk students.One program they advocate for is Head Start. Head Start provides early childhood education or children from low income families that cannot afford preschool education that middle to upper class families might be able to afford more easily.They are also supporters of uniformed academic standards to ensure that all students are able to be educated to a minimum level of competency in the core areas such as math,science, and english i.e common core.Democrats also believe that the federal government should help support and fund higher education such as funding subsidized loans and grants for students who need assistance in paying for higher education. Their idea is that all people, regardless of socioeconomic status, have access to a higher education.Progressives also believe the Affirmative Action is higher education.Their belief is that it is necessary to counterbalance the fact that minorities and women have been at a historical disadvantage in attaining a higher education and therefore action has to be taken. The idea behind Democratic education policy is to provide equal opportunity for all people by leveling the playing field by eliminating disadvantages due to privilege/discrimination.






http://ww2.kqed.org/
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