Sunday, October 28, 2007

John Edwards prescribes sweeping changes


In a recent article in the Concord Monitor, Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards described a number of plans he has to improve the state of the nations' underprivileged and/or less fortunate.

Edwards briefly mentions his "College for Everyone" (within his College Opportunity Agenda) plan which provides funds for college freshman to use towards tuition and books, provided they agree to work a part-time job and enroll in specific coursework. The plan is currently being tested in a small, rural high school in Greene County, NC. The graduation rates cited by Edwards' website are impressive, and it appears as though the program is quite successful. Clearly, it is difficult to discern as to whether or not the system would work on a large scale, as it requires great amounts of funding-- which Edwards suggests will come from raising the capital gains tax and having Americans "sacrifice" in the interest of having taxes on those associated with "wealth income" should align with those of a "work income." Edwards' stance on education is rather impressive. Furthermore, it is equally as impressive that some of his contemporaries are recognizing the state of education in the country as a major issue. All of the top-tier candidates have a progressive view of education to some degree. Perhaps major changes will be coming around in 2009-- and No Child Left Behind will get a face lift, or get booted altogether.

The rest of the article is recycled news-- contributing nothing new, really. The former senator criticized Hillary Clinton for this or that. Both Barack Obama and Edwards have found a new position to stand on of late-- one can consider them the anti-Hillary camp. Interestingly enough, some of their conservative counterparts share a similar distaste for the former First Lady and senator representing New York.