The Green Party For A Better Education In Ohio

[irishbobcat]

The Green Party For A Better Education In Ohio
Greens support equal access to high-quality education, and sharp increases in financial aid for college students.

Ohio will be a great state to the extent that our schools are excellent. Right now, we are abjectly failing this test. We must make major changes.

Every child deserves a superb public education that fosters critical and independent thought, and provides the breadth and depth of learning necessary to become an active citizen and a constructive member of our society.

In general, we expect too little from our students, teachers and schools. We must teach our children and teenagers to be leaders, and challenge them with difficult material in literature, philosophy, history, music, art and economics.

Greens believe in education, not indoctrination. We do not think schools should turn our children into servile students, employees, consumers or citizens. We think it is very important to teach children how to ask good questions.

Effective schools have sufficient resources. Too many of our teachers are overworked, underpaid, and starved of key materials. We must be more generous to our schools, so that our children will learn what generosity is, and know enough to be able to be generous to us in return.

Green Solutions

1. Eliminate gross inequalities in school funding by adjusting educational funding formulas at the state level.

2. Provide free college tuition to all qualified students at public universities and vocational schools.

3. Oppose the administration of public schools by private, for-profit entities.

4. Increase funding for after-school programs for "latchkey" children.

5. Provide state funding for day care that includes school children under the age of ten when after-school programs are not available.

6. Give classroom teachers at the elementary and high school levels professional status and salaries comparable to related professions requiring advanced education, training and responsibility.

7. Purchase and use computers only when they are instructive, and not merely to benefit computer hardware or software companies.

8. Teach non-violent conflict resolution and humane education at all levels of education.

9. Encourage a diverse set of educational opportunities, including bi-lingual education, continuing education, job retraining, mentoring and apprenticeship programs.

10. Prohibit advertising to children in schools. Corporations should not be allowed to use the schools as vehicles for commercial advertising. Schools must safeguard students' privacy rights and not make private student information available on corporate (or federal government) request.

11. Provide healthy school meals that are rich in vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber, and offer plant-based vegetarian options. Support Farm-to-School programs that provide food from local family farms and exchange of educational opportunities.

12. Ban the sale of soda pop and junk food in schools. Junk food is defined as food or beverages that are relatively high in saturated or trans fat, added sugars or salt, and relatively low in vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber.

13. Oppose military and corporate control over the priorities and topics of university academic research.

14. Expand opportunities for universal higher education and life-long learning.

15. Make student loans available to all college students, with forgiveness for graduates who choose public service occupations.

16. The "No Child Left Behind" Act must be revised, eliminating state-wide norm-referenced standardized testing in favor of criterion-referenced testing while allowing multiple ways for children to show what they have learned from a rich challenging curriculum. The section that gives the military access to student records should be eliminated.

17. Include a vigorous and engrossing civics curriculum in later elementary and secondary schools, to teach students to be active citizens.