II. Social Justice
E. Education

The failing report card of American education is troubling for almost every American. Who fails to see the connection between our investment in education and our success as a people? Who believes there is no relation between personal achievement and a quality education -- and education that teaches creative and critical thinking skills and a respect for lifelong learning?

Access to quality education for all Americans is the difference that will lead to a strong and diverse community. Fundamental changes in our priorities are needed at the national and local levels, within the public and private sectors, in the classroom, and at home to make education our first priority.

1. Education

   Greens support educational diversity. We hold no dogma absolute, continually striving for truth in the realm of ideas. We open ourselves, consciously and intuitively, to truth and beauty in the world of nature. We view learning as a lifelong process to which all people have an equal right.

   Education starts with choice, and within public education we believe in broad choices. Magnet schools, Site-based Management, Schools within Schools, alternative models, and parental involvement are ways in which elementary education can be changed to make a real difference in the lives of our children. Curricula should focus on skills - both basic skills that serve as a solid foundation for higher learning, and exploratory approaches that expand horizons, such as distance learning, interactive education, computer proficiency, perspectives that bring an enriched awareness of nature (biological literacy), intercultural experiences, and languages.

   Greens view learning as a lifelong and life-affirming process. In learning, and openness to learning, we create the foundation of our platform.

   1. We advocate creative and noncompetitive education at every age level, and the inclusion of cultural diversity in all curricula. We encourage hands-on approaches that promote a multitude of individual learning styles.

   2. Parental responsibility should be encouraged by supporting parenting, as more families confront economic conditions that demand more time be spent away from home. Parents should be as involved as possible in their children's education; values do start with parents. Teaching human sexuality is a parental and school responsibility.

   3. Student responsibility is a key to developing capabilities. Greens hold strongly to the empowerment of individuals. Students should recognize their own personal responsibilities and strive to achieve their fullest potential as individuals.

   4. Federal policy on education should act principally to ensure equal access to a quality education.

   5. Educational funding formulas at the state level need to be adjusted as needed to avoid gross inequalities between districts and schools. Educational grants should provide balance to ensure equal educational access for minority, deprived, special needs, and exceptional children. In higher education, federal college scholarship aid should be increased and offered to any qualified student.

   6. Our teachers are underpaid, overworked and rarely supplied with the resources necessary to do their work. It is time to stop disinvesting in education, and start placing it at the top of our social and economic agenda.

   7. We call for equitable state and national funding for education and the creation of schools controlled by parent-teacher governing bodies.

   8. We oppose vouchers, or any scheme that will transfer money out of the public school system. That course only leads to a separate and unequal educational system. We also oppose charter schools or the administration of public schools by private, for-profit entities.

   9. We support after-school programs for "latchkey" children.

   10. We advocate state funding for day care that includes school children under the age of ten when after-school programs are not available.

   11. Classroom teachers at the elementary and high school levels should be given professional status and salaries comparable to related professions requiring advanced education, training and responsibility.

   12. Principals are also essential components in effective educational institutions. We encourage state Departments of Education and school boards to deliver more programmatic support and decision-making to the true grassroots level- the classroom teacher and school principal.

   13. Use of computers in the early grades should not supplant the development of basic interpersonal, perceptual, and motor skills as a foundation for learning.

   14. Dispute resolution is an important part of resolving classroom or after-school disputes, and a life skill that all children should learn. We call for the teaching of non-violent conflict resolution at all levels of education.

   15. We recognize the viable alternative of home-based education.

   16. We support a host of innovative and critical educational efforts, such as bi-lingual education, continuing education, job retraining, mentoring and apprenticeship programs.

   17. We are deeply concerned about the intervention in our schools of corporations that promote a culture of consumption and waste. Schools should not be vehicles for commercial advertising. Schools must safeguard students' privacy rights and not make private student information available on corporate (or federal government) request.

   18. Within higher education, we oppose military and corporate control over the priorities and topics of academic research.

   19. We support tuition-free post secondary (collegiate and vocational) public education.

   20. In an economy that demands higher skills and a democracy that depends on an informed, educated electorate, opportunities for universal higher education and life-long learning must be vastly expanded.

   21. Until tuition-free schooling is available to all, student loans should be available to all students attending college, and should be repayable as a proportion of future earnings rather than at a fixed rate.

   22. Individualized training accounts should be made available to students who choose to pursue vocational and continuing education.

   23. The Leave No Child Behind Act must be repealed, especially the section that gives the military access to student records.

2. The Arts

   Freedom of artistic expression is a fundamental right and a key element in empowering communities, and in moving us toward sustainability and respect for diversity. Artists can create in ways that foster healthy, non-alienating relationships between people and their daily environments, communities, and the Earth. This can include both artists whose themes advocate compassion, nurturance, or cooperation; and artists whose creations unmask the often-obscure connections between various forms of violence, domination, and oppression, or effectively criticize aspects of the very community that supports their artistic activity. The arts can only perform their social function if they are completely free from outside control.

   The Green Party supports:

   1. Alternative, community-based systems treating neither the artwork nor the artist as a commodity.

   2. Eliminating all laws that seek to restrict or censor artistic expression, including the withholding of government funds for political or moral content.

   3. Increased funding for the arts appropriate to their essential social role at local, state and federal levels of government.

   4. Community-funded programs employing local artists to enrich their communities through public art programs, including public performances, exhibitions, murals on public buildings, design or re-design of parks and public areas, storytelling and poetry reading, and publication.

   5. The establishment of non-profit public forums for local artists to display their talents and creations. Research, public dialogue, and trial experiments to develop alternative systems for the valuation and exchange of artworks and for the financial support of artists. Some examples include community subscriber support groups, artwork rental busts, cooperative support systems among artists, legal or financial incentives to donate to the arts or to donate artworks to public museums.

   6. Responsible choices of non-toxic, renewable, or recyclable materials. Funding sources not connected with social injustice or environmental destruction.

   7. Education programs in the community that will energize the creativity of every community member from the youngest to the oldest, including neglected groups such as teenagers, senior citizens, prisoners, immigrants, and drug addicts. These programs would provide materials and access to interested, qualified arts educators for every member of the community who demonstrates an interest.

   8. Funding and staffing to incorporate arts education into every school curriculum. We encourage local artists and the community to contribute time, experience, and resources to these efforts.

   9. Diversity in arts education in the schools including age-specific hands-on activities and appreciative theoretical approaches, exposure to the arts of various cultures and stylistic traditions, and experiences with a variety of media, techniques and contents.

   10. The integration of the arts and artistic teaching methods into other areas of the curriculum to promote a holistic perspective.

       The United States must respect the measures other nations take to ensure public health, and must not use medication, medical equipment, and other medical necessities, or threats of withholding them, as leverage for political reasons or as extortion for the sake of commercial profit. We oppose any embargo or economic sanction that would cause the suffering or death of civilians.

II. Social Justice
E. Education [with A.8. Youth Rights merged into it]

A democratic government depends on educated citizens. An ignorant public cannot carry the responsibility of government of, by and for the people. Therefore Public education is the backbone of democracy and must be equally available to all Americans from Kindergarten through high school.

1. Education is the function of our schools and Teachers are the essential instrument of education. Teaching is a vocation and a profession and must receive the respect and salary equivalent to related service professions. To qualify to teach should require a B.A. or B.S. degree plus a year of teaching practice and theory course work from an accredited liberal arts college.

2. We recognize that there is no fixed, single mode of teaching in different social settings. At the same time all students have the right to a curricula that prepares them equally to enter society with the learning and information necessary to be productive citizens and to participate in a democratic state.

3. We support learning as lifelong engagement and we believe adult education should be available to all who seek it on a schedule that fits into the standard work week.

4. Public education is the responsibility of state governments. The federal role in education is to set standards that assures a level playing field for all citizens regardless of which state they live in. However, the Federal Act titled “No Child Left Behind” punishes where it should assist and hinders its own declared purpose. It should be repealed or greatly redesigned.

5. In keeping with equal access to equal education, funding formulas must distribute equally to assure the same standards for teacher-per-student ratio, supplies, equipment and resources, including visual arts, music, and athletic programs.

6. We oppose vouchers, or any scheme that will transfer money out of the public school system. We oppose the administration of public schools by private, for-profit entities.

7. We support:
   1. early learning (pre-kindergarten) programs in all schools.
   2. availability of after-school programs, including music, art and dance, in or near the school, for all children.
   3. state funding for day care that includes school children under the age of ten when after-school programs are not available.

8. Greens oppose:
   1. Corporeal punishment called “discipline” either at home or at school, used against youth. Violence begets violence and using violence condones it as part of our prevailing culture and passes it from one generation to the next..
   2. We support inclusion of a non-violent, conflict resolution class in all schools beginning in high school. this course is not an extra - it is basic to the curriculum and may be combined with a social studies class. When a student dispute, during or after class, occurs, a peer mediation should be set up as soon as possible so that students may practice the skill of mediation in conflict resolution. .

9. We encourage state Departments of Education and school boards to include teachers, instructors and teacher assistants when drawing up the curriculum of the schools.

10. In today’s high-tech world, all students from 9th grade on, must have exposure, training and practice on the computer. However, computer and other technical training must never supplant the academic learning and practice that goes on in the classroom guided by the teacher and shared with the other students. Learning at the K-12 level is a communal enterprise and students learn best when the experience is shared with others.

11. We recognize the viable alternative of home-based education.

12. We support bi-lingual education and advocate the teaching of 2 languages in all schools: teach grammar, syntax and writing of the native language and teach grammar, syntax and reading of another language.

13. Corporations have no place in our educational institutions. Schools and school teams must be free from the intrusiveness of commercial advertising. Schools must safeguard students' privacy rights and withhold private student information from corporate interests. In addition, Section 9528 (Armed Forces Recruiter Access to Students and Student Recruiting Information) must be repealed.

14. Equally true in higher education. Academic research must not be controlled by corporations or the US military.

15. We support tuition-free post secondary education in a community college, liberal arts college or vocational training academy. Until our society agrees that these levels of education are a public need and serve a public purpose, we advocate a greatly expanded government loan program, including Americorps for 2 years, to leverage the education of our youth and equip them to enter public life as citizens, not consumers. Government loans for education should be repayable as a proportion of future earnings rather than a fixed rate.