KENNETH STREMSKY DISCUSSES EDUCATION AND OTHER TOPICS COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION You may find info on college scholarships at fastweb.com usnews.com scholarships.com scholarships.brokescholar.com TEACHERS, CHOICE, AND SOCIETY Teachers should be better paid than they are now. Teachers should not have to pay for school supplies. Schools should make sure that teachers have adequate supplies in the classroom. Teachers should be better able to maintain discipline in the classroom. Parents should usually support teachers when they discipline children. Parents and students should have the Liberty to choose schools to attend. If you needed to see a brain surgeon, would you want to be forced to see a foot doctor? Would you like it if government said the only car you could drive is a Ford Pinto? In warfare, it is seldom a good idea to give up the high ground. Teachers give up the high moral ground when they complain about competition from private schools. Teachers will start gaining more respect from society when they stop complaining about competition. Our country spends more money on a per student basis on education than most countries in the world and a great deal of the money is wasted on unnecessary administrative personnel. NURSES, TEACHERS, POLICE OFFICERS, FIRE FIGHTERS, AND FEDERAL TAXES A nurse, teacher, police officer, and/or fire fighter should not have to pay a federal tax rate greater than seven percent on the first $100,000 he/she makes in a year. The social security tax and medicare tax should not be included in this seven percent. Congress should pass a law that says that a nurse, teacher, police officer, and/or fire fighter who works at least 10 years as a nurse, teacher, police officer, and/or fire fighter should not have to pay a federal tax rate greater than seven percent on the first $100,000 he/she makes in a year. The social security tax and medicare tax should not be included in the seven percent. I want tenure in public k-12 schools to be decreased significantly. Only a state legislature should be able to grant tenure in public k-12 schools. I believe tenure in public k-12 schools increases the probability that teachers who do not want to teach any more will keep their jobs. EDUCATION IS A NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE Education is a national security issue and should be treated as such by the Federal Government, state governments, and local governments. Congress should place a one percent education tax on yearly incomes of individuals greater than $100,000.01. Congress should place a two percent education tax on the yearly profits of businesses greater than $10,000,000.01. The education tax should not be placed on interest from savings accounts, dividends, capital gains, and estates. At least 15 percent of the money raised from the education tax should be distributed as block grants to localities to use for public k-12 education any way they want. At least 25 percent of the money raised from the education tax should be distributed as block grants to states which they may use for public k-12 education any way they want. At least 30 percent of the money raised from the education tax should be distributed to state governments to be used for college scholarships at public colleges and public universities. This proposal would benefit the University System of New Hampshire which does not receive enough funding from the state government of New Hampshire. New Hampshire will loose high tech jobs in the future and many other good paying jobs if the state government of New Hampshire does not increase funding for the University System of New Hampshire. The August 29, 2002 Union Leader on page one says LACK OF DEGREE COSTS TEACHER JOB A Portsmouth High School teacher was fired because he did not meet a deadline to enroll in a master's degree program. "Venezia was let go July 29 after not meeting a 1999 contract stipulation requiring teachers with less than 20 years experiences to have a master's degree or be enrolled in a master's degree program by July 1, 2002. The policy is part of the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the Association of Portsmouth Teachers and the school administration." The state legislature should remedy this situation by passing a law that says a school system may not require a teacher to have a master's degree to teach. I think the current policy is insane. The quality of the teaching is more important than the degrees a person has. The state legislature should allow people who do not have a Bachelor of Arts and/or a Bachelor of Science to teach any course they know how to teach as well. The quality of teaching is most important. Pay should be based on quality of teaching and not number of degrees and seniority. The state legislature should require teachers to take competency tests in subjects they teach. A master's degree does not mean a person knows how to teach the subject well. One of the main reasons public k-12 education in this country is inferior to public education in other countries are insane policies that require a person to have a master's degree to teach. The most important requirement is the ability to teach a subject well. MORE ON EDUCATION If the Federal Government tells a local government and/or a state government to do something, the Federal Government should pay for it. I do not support unfunded federal mandates. The Federal Government should fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The Federal Government should fully fund special education. I want the Federal Government to create and pay for competency tests for teachers. The Federal Government should give money to state governments and local governments to adminster the tests. The Federal Government should pay for the creation and administration of national exams for public and private k-12 students. There should be a 6th grade exam, a 9th grade exam, and a grade 12 exam. The Federal Government may want to test other grades as well. The Federal Government should create the exams with the involvement of state governments, local governments, and colleges. State governments should have the power to take control of poorly performing public k-12 local school districts. Congress should allow the Department of Education to run a local school district when Congress votes to give the Department of Education the power to run a local school district. The Federal Government should create federal education websites that will be free to use to teach k-12 subjects, college subjects, and graduate school subjects using text, audio, and video. The Federal Government should ask colleges, high schools, and businesses to help create the websites. The websites should teach music, art, history, mathematics, science, economics, geography, foreign languages, writing, public speaking, and many other subjects. This information should be free to access from any where in the world. The Federal Government should provide funding to public k-12 school districts and private k-12 school districts that will help them post on the internet transcripts of notes from teachers, video of the teachers discussing subjects, and audio of the teachers discussing subjects. This information should be free to access by anyone in the world. The notes of teachers should include diagrams and graphs that are done in a step by step fashion. I would have learned better how to do the graphs in economics if graphs had been show step by step in textbooks. The Federal Government should contribute at least two billion dollars a year to public libraries for the purchase of computers and internet access. The Federal Government should contribute at least ten billion dollars a year to music and art programs run by public k-12 school districts and private k-12 school districts. I believe that music and art especially instruction with instruments, drawing, and painting will increase the creativity of our children, lower drop out rates, boost self-esteem, lower suicide rates, may decrease unwanted teenage pregnancies and boost grades in other subjects. I usually did well in my k-12 subjects because I took music and art courses. I wish I had listened to classical music on a regular basis when I was in college. I want individuals/families to be able to deduct from their yearly federal taxes the full cost of yearly k-12 educations, college educations, and graduate educations. I discuss taxation in great detail on part two of my political resume and part eight of my political resume. The national security tax, education tax, health care tax, and superfund tax that I want people to pay who make over $100,000.01 should not be considered as federal taxes when I mention the ability of people to deduct different things from their federal taxes. The social security tax and the medicare tax should not be considered federal taxes. I do not support flat taxation. HISTORY EDUCATION AND GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION Congress may want to work with The History Channel, National Geographic Society, the University of Chicago and other colleges to improve the teaching of history and geography in our country's public k-12 schools. Congress should tell the Department of Education to spend a portion of its budget on creating history texts and geography texts with The History Channel, National Geographic Society, the University of Chicago, and possibly other colleges, and then distribute the texts to the nation's k-12 public schools. Congress should also tell the Department of Education that the Department of Education should work with The History Channel, the National Geographic Society, the University of Chicago, and possibly other colleges on tests for teachers who want to teach or continue teaching history and geography. A person should only be allowed to teach history and/or geography in public k-12 school(s) if the person has obtained at least an 80 out of 100 on this test. Congress may want to pass a law which says that students need to obtain at least a 70 out of 100 on a history and geography test the Department of Education creates with The History Channel, National Geographic Society, University of Chicago, and possibly other colleges to graduate from a public k-12 school(s). MATH EDUCATION AND SCIENCE EDUCATION Congress should tell the Department of Education to spend a portion of its budget creating texts and videos for math education and science education with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, and possibly other colleges which the Department of Education will distribute to our nation's k-12 public schools. Congress should tell the Department of Education to work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, and possibly other colleges to create tests for teachers. A teacher should only be allowed to teach a math and/or science subject in a public k-12 school(s) when the person has obtained at least an 80 out of 100 on the test. TESTING OF STUDENTS Congress should pass a law which says that in public k-12 schools, public colleges, and public graduate schools that students have to take at least four tests each semester. Each test should not be worth more than 25 percent of the semester's grade. Each paper in a semester course should not be worth more than 25 percent of a semester's grade. A student should be allowed to retake any test and/or paper as many times as the student wants during a semester when the student receives a grade lower than a C on the test. Schools may want to say that the highest grade on a retake of a test or paper may not be greater than a C.