APPROACHES TO STUDENT LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Even though our children are citizens of the United States, because many of them do not vote, they lack any representation in our government. And because they do not work, they lack any financial leverage as well. And even today, our children are treated more like the property of adults than as fully empowered United States citizens.
With our children not being recognized as equal human beings, we’ve become a nation where our children aren’t being provided the proper education they should have; where our children aren’t attending properly funded schools with functioning toilets, working facilities and adequate school supplies; where our children aren’t receiving the best education and care because their teachers are busy worrying about how to make ends meet or they’re tired and less focused because they’re required to work other jobs on top of being a full-time teacher. All of this must stop.
Love isn’t just a word. Love looks like something, and requires some action.
If we love our children, then our actions must show it.
Thus, universal quality education for our children must start in pre-school and extend through all colleges, universities, and technical/trade schools. It should be available to all of our people, in every neighborhood in America. That means free pre-school. That means free public school higher education. That means making big reforms to the student loan programs, payment plans and rates that we currently have while also putting in place legislation that protects our students from predatory, unconscionable and impractical student loan practices, plans and rates.
Roughly every 100 years, the United States expands its public education system to match its increasingly advanced economy. And now, it’s time to expand our national education system to include tuition-free public college and trade school. In fact, we’ve had this system before: The University of California system offered free tuition at its schools until the 1980s.
We need to honor our children and ensure a bright future for the generations after us.
The high cost of higher education is putting college out of the reach for many students unless their parents are wealthy. With a graduate leaving school anywhere from $10,000 - $250,000 in debt, our student loans now total over $1.5 trillion. And then on top of this, we let our government officials, like our current congressman, Jimmy Gomez, pocket money from these student loan debt collectors? Isn’t this crazy? Why do we keep on electing officials who have no interest in investing in our children and future generations? It’s no wonder, then, that student loans are the only loans and form of debt that you cannot discharge when filing for bankruptcy in America – because politicians like our current Congressman, Jimmy Gomez, take money from these corporate interests and are tainted. Our own politicians seem to support raising a generation of indentured servants who will spend decades - if not a lifetime – paying off banks, who then pay politicians like our current Congressman, Jimmy Gomez. I’m not lying. Go research and see who his campaign donors and financial supporters are (banks, pharmaceuticals, student loan debt collectors, big corporations).
The way to create a successful economy is by unleashing the creativity, power, potential and spirit of the American people, starting with those fresh out of school.
At the end of WW2, the GI Bill helped build America’s great middle class – the same middle class that has been decimated by corporate-driven economics over the last forty years. A GI Bill level of investment in educating America’s youth would help bring the middle class back.