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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	582
Proposal	Proposal to Amend GPUS Platform: Chapter 2
Presenter	Platform Committee
Floor Manager	David Strand
Phase	Closed
Discussion	01/10/2011 - 01/23/2011
Voting	01/24/2011 - 01/31/2011
Result	Adopted
Presens Quorum	31 0.6666
Consens Quorum	48 A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

This is one of three proposals approved of and submitted by the Platform
Committee to resolve the conflicts in the approved platform resulting from
the platform amendment process by which the platform was approved of in
discreet sections or specific amendments. Since the Platform Committee does
not have the authority to make substantive changes in the approved
amendments, we are submitting these changes to the Green National Committee
for approval.

Chapter II, Section D. 2. Education and the Arts was amended by three
proposals, #468, #480 and #481. Amendment 468 replaced the entire 2004
section on education and placed it in chapter 1. 480 and 481 placed it in
chapter 2. The 2004 section on the arts which was in Chapter II was
retained.

Proposal

Since the 2004 Education and the Arts section was in chapter 2 we recommend
that all three amendments be placed together in chapter 2.

Amendment 481, which added a paragraph to the introduction, will be
incorporated as the second to last paragraph in the introduction proposed by
468. The three subsections proposed by 480 will be placed at the end. The
subsections will be lettered a through w to keep them consistent with the
rest of the platform

The resulting text is:

D. Education and the Arts

1. Education:

The Green Party supports equal access to high-quality education, and sharp
increases in financial aid for college students.

A great challenge facing the people of the United States is to educate
ourselves to build a just, sustainable, humane and democratic future, and to
become responsible and effective citizens of the local and global
communities we share. Greens believe every child deserves a public education
that fosters critical and holistic thought, and provides the breadth and
depth of learning necessary to become an active citizen and a constructive
member of our society. We do not believe our public school system, as it
presently operates, helps us reach that goal.

The Green Party is strongly opposed to the dissolution of public schools and
the privatization of education. We believe that the best educational
experience is guaranteed by the democratic empowerment of organized
students, their parents and communities along with organized teachers.

We must stop disinvestment in education and instead put it at the top of our
social and economic agenda. Effective schools have sufficient resources. Too
many of our teachers are overworked, underpaid, and starved of key
materials. We also 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.

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

Unfortunately, we often expect too little from our students, teachers and
schools. We must teach our children and teenagers to be leaders, and
challenge them with great works of literature, economics, philosophy,
history, music, and the arts.

A quarter century of generous corporate funding from the likes of the
Bradley and Wal-Mart Family Foundations and a decade of No Child Left Behind
have given birth to a vast, well-endowed and lucrative sector which seeks to
dismantle, privatize, or militarize public education, and destroy teachers
unions. Regimes of high stakes testing and the wholesale diversion of
resources away from public schools are provoking crises for which the
bipartisan corporate consensus recommends Chicago-style school closings or
the Katrina-style dissolution of entire school districts and their
replacement by selective, unaccountable and often highly profitable charter
schools. The Green Party is unalterably opposed to the dissolution of public
schools and the privatization of education. We believe that the best
educational experience is guaranteed by the democratic empowerment of
organized students, their parents and communities along with organized
teachers.

The Green Party views learning as a lifelong and life-affirming process to
which all people should have access. We cannot state more forcefully our
belief that in learning, and openness to learning, we find the foundation of
our Platform.

We recommend the following actions:

a. Eliminate gross inequalities in school funding. Federal
policy on education should act principally to provide equal access to a
quality education.

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

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

d. Increase funding for after-school and daycare programs.

e. Promote a diverse set of educational opportunities, including
bi-lingual education, continuing education, job retraining, distance
learning, mentoring and apprenticeship programs.

f. Give K-12 classroom teachers professional status and salaries
commensurate with advanced education, training and responsibility.

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

h. Prohibit advertising to children in schools. Corporations
should not be allowed to use the schools as vehicles for commercial
advertising or corporate propaganda.

i. 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 educational opportunities.

j. 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.

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

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

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

n.

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

p. Encourage parental responsibility by supporting parenting and
increasing opportunities for parents to be as involved as possible in their
childrens' education. Values start with parents. Teaching human sexuality is
a parental and school responsibility.

q. Expand arts education and physical education opportunities at
school.

r. Recognize the viable alternative of home-based education.

s. Oppose efforts to restrict the teaching of scientific
information and the portrayal of religious belief as fact.

t. Provide adequate academic and vocational education and
training to prisoners.

u. We urge that our nation amend its 'binding declaration' with
respect to the "Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict" to join the rest of
the world in setting 18 as the absolute minimum age for military
recruitment.

v. No person should be permitted to sign away eight (8) years of
their life to the armed forces, without full written disclosure of what is
expected of them and what they can expect in return from the government. We
demand that the practice of deceiving prospective service recruits about the
truth of their service contract be recognized as a fraudulent practice and
sufficient grounds for revoking an enlistment contract. Current practices
holding individuals legally to all the terms of their military service
contract should also apply to the government.

w. We demand an end to the militarization of our schools. JROTC
programs are an expensive drain on our limited educational resources and a
diversion from their important mission to prepare our young to assume their
role in a peaceful tomorrow. ASVAB testing is being used to mine public
school student bodies for data to support military recruiting. Forbid
military access to student records. The Pentagon's Recruitment Command is
misdirecting public tax dollars on manipulative campaigns that prey on our
young. We insist that local education authorities stand up to these
destructive practices.

Resources

None

References

http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=468

http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=480

http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=481

http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/comments/?page_id=823

CONTACTS
Bruce Hinkforth bhinkforth@milwpc.com
Nan Garrett nan.garrett at yahoo.com

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