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THE PHILADELPHIA PLAN: Common
Sense + New Ideas
EDUCATION -
GET SMART!
We need to educate
the general public, not just students. Widespread public
ignorance of what should be basic knowledge is staggering. We
can run, but we can't hide from catastrophic results of a bad
education. That's why Republicans need to work on
improving public education, and not simply promoting "school
choice". Let's support both public and private education!
(Note: When we say "parents" below, we are also referring to
"guardians")
We support:
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FREE GOVERNMENT K-COLLEGE ONLINE PROGRAMS: We
need publicly
available "free" basic education via online K-College curriculums,
lessons, & testing via
U.S. Dept of Education website (and/or local and state
websites), so that both the general
public and students can learn more.
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FREE PUBLIC ACCESS TO CURRENT CURRICULUMS: The
public should have easy online access to all current school curriculums,
including: text books, work books, plus any and all class
room materials & tests, in order
to see what's going right, and to fix what's gone wrong.
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SKILLS & JOBS TRAINING: We learn by doing things,
not just reading about it, from basic skills to
high technology. Unions can help with training, and work/study
programs by local businesses can help with the students' finances.
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STUDENT HEALTH: Schools should provide nutritional
meals, physical fitness programs, and
military
preparedness. However, there are wide-spread and
well-founded concerns that efforts to insert certain medical
professionals and programs into schools will result in
pressure being put on students to accept medications,
vaccinations, or other health treatments without the
knowledge or consent of their parents.
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STUDENT WELLBEING:
Students need to engage in
singing, dancing (line), sports, & band... every day. Plays
are also good fun. School has become a boring stagnant
prison for too many students. We need students up and moving
around. We need schools to be fun, exciting, and
inspiring... as well as diligent work.
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TEACHERS: Ensure that every teacher passes a test to
get the job, has a
good starting salary ($75,000?), and an aid to assist them.
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PARENTS & VOLUNTEERS:
Let the parents and
volunteers back into the classrooms, so that they can help
out and see for themselves how well both students and teachers are doing.
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SECURITY: Professionally trained "armed security" and qualified
school personnel should help protect all schools.
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CELL PHONES: No cell
phones during the school day.
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NEW! "Bring Capitalism
Into the Classroom"! The brain-child of
Philadelphian, William Small, this is a proposal to reward
students & parents "attendance and performance" in
school, although we are putting our own special spin on it. Simply
put, students and their parents will get graduated payments
for school attendance, behavior, and how well a student performs
on a series of tests
on knowledge and skills; the better the test result, the
higher the payment.
Plus, every school could also have a school store where
items made by students can be sold to the public, both in
person, online, and also at participating stores, museums,
and other entities. There could be auctions, as well.
Proceeds from the "school stores"
could be split between the students, their parents, and the
school. And the funds could come out of the current school
budget. It's an idea whose time has come!
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