Originally posted by Edlyn:
Hmm, because a dumb and irrational populace wouldn’t be able to uphold proper libertarian values? So we’ve all got to chip in to promote individualism. 
Besides, we’re all Dopers and our commission is fighting ignorance. Since we can’t buy every kid a copy of TSD, second best thing is funding the schools.
Hunsecker:
Wrong! A five year old child could grasp the basic concept. It’s after years of schooling (particularily public schooling) and acceptance of the status quo, that it could be a bit challenging for some.
A lot of us do think education is important. If I didn’t have the taxes and the cost of government absorbed into everything I purchase, I would gladly “gift” the scholarship program of the school of my choice.
You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. -Harriet Woods-
Doesn’t it have to be improved education? Is head start still being funded? It - at one time - pulled out children from lower income families and helped deliver the “advantages” they didn’t get from home. Wasn’t it last used or maybe it began in the SW of the USA where the child was likely to be ESL?
I used to read a great deal about what other countries were doing to educate thier children. Maybe we have come to realize that we aren’t other countries, things that work “there” may very well not work here.
We are committed to teach every child and we all share in paying for that effort. We shoot ourselves in the foot IMO when we try to educate them all democratically. All be in the first grade at 6 and second grade at 7 and all be reading the same book on the same page. (I truly am familiar with the way children are grouped for reading and math, but it is not enough.)
In day to day schooling we do make adjustments for reading and sometimes for math but IMO we have never gotten good at taking care of the child who comes in on either side of the middle - maybe the mode is the right word.
I would like repeal of the Capital gains tax.
Vote in people that are people, not republicans or democrats…presumably Libertarians to tear down this huge government (obviously not over night) but get rid of the fat immediately, repeal laws that only serve a few and strangle the IRS to a point that they can’t destroy the lives of those falsely accused of tax evasion.
< but what else did you expect me to say? >
There are 2 areas in which I’d like to see radical changes in terms of government funding in order to bring about positive change in the standard of living of people in the United States. I think that we need to reprioritize our governmental spending in order to accomplish these new commitments so that they can be achieved with no increase in taxation.
The first area for radical changes in funding is education. I realize that mere dollars don’t magically fix all problems, but if public school budgets were dramatically increased with federal and state tax dollars, we could get to where we could easily afford to pay for our buildings, our learning materials, and our staff and administration. I believe that if salaries were to be doubled for teachers and administration, over time, recruiting for education professionals would be on more equal footing and we’d be drawing a bigger share of the best and brightest into the ranks of teachers and school administrators.
The second area is health care. Again, a radical increase in governmental spending maybe along the lines of the government paying for medical equipment needs of doctors and hospitals and also paying for some medical supplies as to lower the cost of medical care to all Americans. Increases in government-sponsored medical research should occur as well.
Krispy Original – voted SDMB’s 19th most popular poster (1999)
For starters, I am completely against any sort of voucher system, but I don’t feel like debating it. Sorry. People have already said what I think.
I would start the school day a couple hous later than it does now. 8 am is very early for kids. It would probably be a really positive change if they could go to school from 10 to 5. At least they would be awake during their first class or two. Of course, the problem with that idea is that a lot of kids get rides to school from their parents, who are already at work by 10 am. I don’t really have a solution to that, but I still like my idea.
~Kyla
“Anger is what makes America great.”
My suggestion<s>?
Cut off aid and/or roll tanks into every country that owes us money until they can come up with a feasible plan to pay off their debt in full. Natural resources, discounted product, and/or land grants could be taken in trade. Ensure that future foreign aid goes towards making the recipient country better, not just lining some politician’s/warlord’s pocket or becoming ‘international welfare’.
Use all that money to create a fund for education, make teaches among the highest paid and pampered employees-ensuring there is competition for the best and brightest to go teach.
Crush the current pay structure for professional sports. I don’t think that paying someone $10 million dollars to play baseball is a good role model for kids. If we reduce salaries of athletes and raise the salaries of teachers, maybe kids will study harder to get a lucrative teaching gig, rather than working on their jump shot.
Ensure that after the pay plan is smashed, ticket prices go down to the point where Mom, Dad, and the 2.3 can go to a game without getting a second mortgage. Also, make sports teams pay for their own arenas (including road improvements and secondary structures), just like Canada does. I’m against corporate welfare, too.
Scrap ‘stealth’ bombers. For the price of training, manufacture, and maintenance, we could buy a ridiculous number of cruise missiles. Which would you rather defend against? An added bonus; no pilot=no POW’s/casualties.
Whew, sorry…got a little worked up.
-sb
They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
ARRGGHH! Dumb USB codes!!! LOL!!!
Let’s try this again…lol.
They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
My suggestion(s)? Maybe not ‘simple’ but…
Cut off aid and/or roll tanks into every country that owes us money until they can come up with a feasible plan to pay off their debt in full. Natural resources, discounted product, and/or land grants could be taken in trade. Ensure that future foreign aid goes towards making the recipient country better, not just lining some politician’s/warlord’s pocket or becoming ‘international welfare’.
Use all that money to create a fund for education, make teaches among the highest paid and pampered employees-ensuring there is competition for the best and brightest to go teach.
Crush the current pay structure for professional sports. I don’t think that paying someone $10 million dollars to play baseball is a good role model for kids. If we reduce salaries of athletes and raise the salaries of teachers, maybe kids will study harder to get a lucrative teaching gig, rather than working on their jump shot.
Ensure that after the pay plan is smashed, ticket prices go down to the point where Mom, Dad, and the 2.3 can go to a game without getting a second mortgage. Also, make sports teams pay for their own arenas (including road improvements and secondary structures), just like Canada does. I’m against corporate welfare, too.
Scrap ‘stealth’ bombers. For the price of training, manufacture, and maintenance, we could buy a ridiculous number of cruise missiles. Which would you rather defend against? An added bonus; no pilot=no POW’s/casualties.
Whew, sorry…got a little worked up.
They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
Sigh-pls substitute ‘teachers’ for ‘teaches’. Guess I needed a better one, eh?
They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
Constitutional amendment–no political contributions to be given to any candidate by any person or group outside the district in which the candidate is running. Great for reducing coroporate corruption of political candidates.
O.K. , sounds good to me. But we gotta enslave the women as harem girls. An absolute must.
With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince. With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D, and you still have the frog you started with.
I have long thought that one of our biggest problems was the deluge of laws that are added each and every year.
I think EVERY law should expire. EVERY ONE.
Then, instead of our elected officials regulating our lives out of existence, they can justify their salaries by renewing all the good laws. We would get to “try out” laws, and if they made no sense, they would automatically expire instead of us being saddled with them forever.
The more support a law has, the longer it would be before it had to be renewed. For example, MURDER easily a ten year law.
But a more controversial law, say taxing the net, may only make it for 3 years.
Let’s make our representatives responsible for the laws we live under.
Every decade, in years ending in -1, Congress should have a special session in which repealing laws & emergency legislation (such as war) would be permitted. One session every 10 years, lasting 3 months ought to be sufficient.
With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince. With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D, and you still have the frog you started with.
I know I am not here in this forum alot, but this is a good question. Here’s my two bits:
Teach a trade in all high schools.
Every talk show has a three year limit and after that, it’s cancelled.
Baby changing stations in every public restroom. ( This is a personal beef for me.)
Health Care: Every person who has a job should have basic health care.
Maternity leave valid for not six weeks, but at least twelve.
Front porches on every house.
Every politician should be required to have his mother in law or ex wife be next to him on a day to day basis to keep him in line.
8)Oral contraceptive pills ARE COVERED by insurance. ( After all, most insurance companies cover Viagra.)
Schools: Fire the existing school boards and replace with parents or some one not afraid to think or color outside the lines.
Unions :Do something about the lazy ineffective bums that we call our union workers.
Legalize prostitution.
12)Life imprisonment for all infomercial hosts.
Shoot all lawyers.
Pay pro sports players what medical researchers earn and vice versa.
Ok, I’m being silly (except on 1,3,8 &14), but I’m too tired to think of the points that I really feel our country needs.
As far as I know, only one year ended in negative one. 
Hunsecker: <font size=5>You are well named, you verdammt Hun! Und ve haff vays uf dealink mit schweinhund like you!</font>
You knew perfectly well that I meant years ending in 1.
Note to moderator: the above is a “joke”. Unnerstand? Good!
With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince. With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D, and you still have the frog you started with.
Spiritus, I will aplly your standards to my sentence structure when you learn to create paragraphs.
BTW, I like the idea of teaching trade in schools. I grew up in NY and we had a great trade school program called BOCES. Not every student is well served by a liberal arts education.
I like the idea of an expiration date on all legislation. A Senate committee could decide what laws should be presented in a special session of Congress, whose purpose would be to renew those necessary laws. Debate would generally be minimal, I expect. That way, old legislation that has outlived its usefulness could expire in a quiet and dignified fashion. If the committee didn’t bring up a law for renewal that some representative felt was important, he or she could reintroduce it as a bill for debate on the floor.
Furthermore, this would give congressmen something to do so they don’t feel obliged to make up new laws just for the feeling they’re doing their jobs.
I thought of another one:
Bosca–I agree on campaign finance reform (e.g. if you can’t vote for me, you can’t give me money). If ever I run for office, that will be part of my platform.
APB–what if people have moral/religious/etc. objections to military service? Can they still opt to do community service? If so, I agree with the plan, especially if every member of Congress who votes for it (assuming it as a law) also is bound to follow the rule. And no, serving in Congress won’t count as community service.
Bucky
Oh, well. We can always make more killbots.