A few months ago a blogging friend of mine (girlfriday blog) threatened to begin a thread of blogs entitled: A Case Against Barack Obama.
Preface: I really like her writing, she is smart, witty, and well read… I will disagree with her in this arena (mainly politics) but it is not a reflection of what I think of her personally… which makes this endeavor even more fun. Her goal is to convince you not to vote for him, and mine will be the opposite, to convince you to vote for him. “You,” being the moderate Republican who is sitting on the fence between John McCain and not voting at all….
This will be a discussion of issues and not a judgment of character. In this light I will do my best to be polite, tactful, and I will to stick to the issues and not make anything personal.
So expect a post on this later today/tonite.
3 comments ↓
ohhhh… fun.
Well, you may or may not know what you’re getting into with GF…but best of luck all the same
I will make like Switzerland in this one.
Sam, some thoughts I had on the subject you might want to consider in your argument for.
Well, doesn’t Obama at least get points for spelling out some specifics for his plan to tackle education? McCain still has a general statement about how important education is and how it should be the parents choice how their child gets educated (more on that in a later). But no detailed points. Not even an expansion on what helping parents in choosing good schools would entail. Obama a change for the better? Absolutely, if he’s at least willing to lay out some specifics on how he’d tackle improving education in this country. And there are even more expansive details in the pdf files if you’d care read more into them. At least he’s given serious consideration to dealing with education and the fact that he’s a former professor, well that’s got to be a bonus if one is a fan of improving education at the federal level.
Yes, she’s absolutely right. Education is not trivial. You want an answer to how to fight global climate change, jihad and “high” gas prices? Education. I’ve long advocated that education is as close to a silver bullet we’re going to get when dealing with all the trials and tribulations facing this nation. But it’s a large, complex and time-intensive bullet that will require an audacious approach, but that will require, yes, more money. She mentioned that she thought her loved ones in educational positions were probably underpaid. Well how else would you expect them to be paid appropriately? It would require more money, no? Unless there’s some kick-ass barter system I’m unaware of.
The lone metric of spending per pupil basis is a bit skewed and not entirely reflective of the argument, “see we spend more money on them, but they’re doing worse”. Many factors play into federal education spending including sizeable grants and loans for higher education. If you’re looking at the abysmal performance of our elementary, middle and high schools you can’t just add those pupils up and divide that by federal spending amount. But all that’s another subject.
I’ll readily admit the Education Department has failed in its mandate and has, much like much of government, become laden with bureaucracies, inefficiencies and has become misguided. But that doesn’t mean targeted increases in spending, program expansion and more grants are not without merit. Then again, like the crisis in Africa, simply throwing more money into a situation that is not efficient in distributing resources effectively is indeed a wasteful endeavor and a losing prospect. But you wouldn’t entirely cast out the cause and be done with it and say see it doesn’t work let’s just stop. The Department of Education’s goals or worthy and in the nation’s best interest because nothing is more important to the solidarity, security and longevity of a nation than an educated populace.
Yes, given the government’s finite resources “increasing funding” would take money from something else. Now is the fear more that the tax payer’s money would be “wasted”? Or how about instead the proposed increases in funding come from the military industrial complex? Pork barrel projects intended for high-spending special interests? Government waste? Interest going to the national debt?
Now, it seems to me your friend’s reason for not voting for Obama on the point of federal Education spending is in the vein of he’s just another tax and spend democrat which is a well worn drum beat by conservatives. While her examples she highlights are increases in spending one should look beyond those and to the other points highlighted in Obama’s education plan (again at least he has points to look at and debate as opposed to his opponent). Look at what he does propose to expand, are those not worth-while efforts to invest in to improve our nation’s education? People have got to become more substantial in their arguments for and against.
I’m of the opinion there should be a national minimum standard for education (that should rival the world’s best institutions in my opinion starting with math and science but that would be too audacious because that would require even more money). Quality comes at a price. Nothing of high quality or high value comes on the cheap and with education why in the world would one think less money would help? Every public school (read free and accessible to every child who wants to learn) should be on par with the best private school today. And that goes to the matter I raised at the beginning of this essay, McCain’s discussion on education.
There seems to be this logic if we let parents choose the schools their kids attend and the government just gives them vouchers or tax credits to help offset the cost of trying to get their kid into a fancy private school that our education problems would be solved and every child would have access to quality education. Well… part of the problem with the free market system is scarcity. What parent wouldn’t want to put their kid in the best school they could afford (or even couldn’t afford)? Problem is there wouldn’t be enough schools to handle them. Oh of course I’m sure some free enterprising capitalists would start offering schools, but even they would be limited and plus they’d be a for-profit institution and only chase the money. So what of those that don’t have the money, even with the vouchers and tax credits? What of those that could afford to send their kids to prime school but there’s just no room? What of those that just live too far? What of equality in education, not every school may follow the same curriculum, accept all students or grade on the same scale? What then?
While government has been inefficient and clumsy thus far, it is no less a worth while effort for it to fund public education and bring a standard of education accessible to all children and students who wish to learn. As I’ve said before, I believe no greater investment could be made in America. And at the Federal level, In my opinion it has vastly under spent and underestimated the worthiness of public education.
It is important to note the vast majority of public education comes in the form of state and local government spending. So while we like to berate the Federal government of taking our money and mismanaging it (which I readily admit it does and angers me to no end) what the Federal government injects into public education isn’t all that much especially at the primary and secondary level. But again that highlights the necessity of a Department of Education. Not every state or municipality has the same access to resources for education, which goes again to the problem of scarcity and inequality reflected in the “free market” system. Another important role of federal government spending is the equalizing distribution of education.
And there you have it, some thoughts. Some where in there might reside a reason to vote for Obama.
Leave a Comment