Tag: Education

Your Money is Your Money

The Republicans in the Senate are pushing for a tax reform to lower federal income taxes, and most of them ran their election on this promise to lower taxes. Both Democrats and Republicans have their argument for why they should stay the same, be higher, or be lower. I am for lowering of the federal income taxes. Democrats complain about how the rich do not pay enough in taxes even though they 45% in taxes, but they pay less through tax write offs and loopholes. More people in the United States would pay taxes if we lowered taxes andchanged the tax bracket since right now 45 percent of Americans don’t pay their taxes.

Lowering taxes to get more people to pay them could allow the US to receive more tax money to help public education, the poor, and many other things that we rely on the government to provide for us. The way we could lower taxes without actually getting rid of the percentages we have now would be to add more brackets into the existing tax bracket. This would allow someone to only have to pay 15% instead of 25% in taxes when they barely make more than the 15% bracket maximum. The max for the 15% bracket is 37,950 for a single person. By doing this, more of the lower income people would be lowertaxes11more inclined to pay taxes which means more money for the government. Also, by taking less of the people’s money, they could spend that money on other things like tutoring, private school, and other things to boost our economy, but if everybody in America paid taxes, then we wouldn’t need the crazy amount of private schools we have. We could fix multiple problems by doing something pretty simple.

The lower and middle class would really benefit from lower taxes since less of their income would go to taxes and more towards basic necessities. The lower income class would be able to improve their living conditions and health if they could keep more of their money. Also, the tax forms are so complicated and confusing that most people have to pay someone to do their taxes which means less money for those people. People from these two classes also refuse to pay taxes which is around 45% of Americans because they are displeased and that the government needs to provide more for them. That is ironic since the government needs money to provide for us. The people chose have control of their own money since they earned not the government, and they should not tell me how I should spend my money.

Changes to the tax bracket need to be made. Right now there are 7 brackets with 10% being the lowest and 39.60% being the highest. The other ones are 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35 percent.They need to add more brackets between 15 and 25 to make the gap between the two not as big and one between 10 and 15 at many around 12%. Adding more brackets could be mean the difference between living pay check to pay check for some families and more money for other things that they might need. Making the tax system more simplified could get more people to pay taxes since 59% of Americans think Congress needs to fix the tax system. Theses changes could help get America to the next level in countries that pay the majority of their taxes. This could also take away people relying the wealthy to make for everyone else lack of participation and that the wealthy don’t pay enough in taxes.

The lowering of taxes and adding more brackets to the tax could help America and Americans in general. There are many benefits to doing this, but it is only going to help America if everybody pays their taxes. More tax brackets are needed in order more Americans to pay taxes and allow the government to have more money to spend on education and everywhere they feel its necessary. Lower taxes and more brackets could help this country move to closer to a more well rounded country that takes care of the basic things that we rely on a government to provide for us.

http://www.ri.gop/lowering_taxes

 

Young or Old we can all make a Difference

Election, lobbying, court, grassroots mobilization, and cultural change pathways are what make America a democracy. All five pathways allow citizens, of any age, to participate in America’s political system. While learning each pathway, the cultural change pathway seemed to stay with me. Cultural change pathway is when a person tries to change citizen’s mind about a certain topic. This approach is an indirect way in influencing the government.

gty_malala_yousufzai_jef_121010_wgWhen we were learning about the five pathways, I wanted to find an example that exemplified the cultural change pathway. On October 9, 2012, I didn’t expect to find my example, but I did. I also found a hero that day. A fifteen-year-old activist named Malala Yousufzai changed my life. Malala was an activist who lived in Swat Valley, Pakistan. She fought the Taliban for the right for girls to earn an education. Malala had a blog where she described the hardships of not going to school. She wanted to be something in life and she needed an education do it. Through out the world, people started to read her blog. Her blog caught the attention of so many girls. Most importantly, she caught the attention of the people in her hometown. Once people started listening to what Malala had to say about girls and education, many families in Swat Valley decided that it was worth it to fight the Taliban in order to give their girls a better life. Ton of girls started to protest for the right to go to school and that’s when the Taliban decided they had enough. The Taliban went to Malala’s school and shot her in front of her friends.This young girl changed the view of education for girls throughout the world. Her goal was to just change the minds of the citizens in her hometown, yet she it went much farther than that. This story is an amazing example of the cultural change pathway. Before Malala started to voice out her opinions, the people of Swat Valley were just content to let the Taliban control everything. Now the people are ready to fight for education. Cultural change is when a person changes people’s opinions to try to indirectly influence the government. Malala succeeded in the political pathway.

These pathways give citizens a voice in politics. The citizens of the United States should be lucky that these pathways are given to them. In other countries, people don’t have a voice. Learning about these pathways made me want to make a difference in the political world. I never thought, as a young person, that we could make a difference. I mean, what can a teenager do in the political system? Malala really changed my opinion about these pathways. If a fifteen year old can change the lives of many, who’s to say young people can’t change lives?

All of the pathways are important, but I believe that the cultural change pathway is the best pathway. Instead of going straight to the government, this pathway allows individuals to convince other people to listen to their side. This pathway is a great way to get the governments attention. If a person were able to change the opinions of a lot of people, then maybe the government would take notice. So, I learned that we have to take advantage of these pathways. Even though we are young, these pathways allow are voices to be heard.

Publik Education is Working… Well isn’t that ironic…

Fact: The majority of kids today attending school can hardly read, let alone write. To these children, simple math without a calculator would be harder than running without legs. Children don’t know many presidents, have no idea who our founding fathers were, and many probably can’t give the name of our current president. This being said, I think it is safe to say most children today don’t finish school with any kind of education. Sure there is a minority of the private school kids with parents who pay very large amounts of money so their kids can emerge with a good education, and even those less privileged kids with amazing stories of how they came out on top. But this is the 10%, leaving the 90% in the unfortunate category. You might be thinking, wow, how do so many kids then make it through college? And the answer is that many don’t. According to the College Academic Board, “approximately 35 percent of students who enter college will drop out during the first year,” and “only 63 percent of students who enroll in a four-year university will earn a degree, and it will take them an average of six years to do so.” Each year, this sad statistic seems to get worse, with no foreseeable end near. Many politicians make clear their concern for the education system, and constantly throw taxpayer money at the situation, but it only seems to get worse. In my opinion, the education is not the main problem, but instead the kids lack motivation to seek out a good well rounded education. For example, public schools across the U.S. use the same types of scheduling, classes, and hold strict rules, which largely affects child participation and cooperation in classrooms.

One way of revamping public education in the U.S. has been reforms. Debates occur votes take place and teachers come together to try and find solutions to questions pertaining to how they can make school days provide more learning with less collateral; Collateral being those who decide school doesn’t make sense, so why try. The head of education at a top university stated that, “public education reforms fail because they are compromised or sabotaged by the education lobbies—teacher associations, administrators, and the legislators in their pockets. There is certainly some truth to this explanation, as we shall see. But in many cases, attributing the failure of reform to subversion merely exonerates that reform. Most reform ideas are either irrelevant or destructive of education. They would fail whether organized political interests opposed them or not.” Her suggestion is that instead of building on the education system that isn’t working, support the current one with minimal change, which will lead to a more successful system each year.

With all of this money and time being spent to better our public education system, and no clear evidence that it is working, it only makes sense that it is the students who are at fault, right? maybe. Many false incentives are provided to children at an early age, influencing their views on their education and its real purpose. Myself along with many students were always told that good grades will lead to a life of success and money, makes sense right? wrong. As a junior in high school, I am mature enough to know that I hold the key to my own future, and it is our view on life that triumphs over grades and measures our success. This realization can be scary to most students, it was for me. Stress gathers, cheating occurs, and then you find yourself in situations that make you question the kind of person you’ve turned into, almost like a mid-teen crisis. Another sad statistic pertaining to our education system is that it can leave average students far behind academically. Many of what could be the most brilliant kids, full of potential, are left in the dust, a wasted mind. In the end, the education system and the pressure around it is what is causing the student to damage the system, with too many worries about getting the A, and less worries about pursuing the potential present in each one of our bodies and minds.