This description of two candidates for a Washington state Senate race sums up in a nutshell why I'll never vote Democrat:
The high-profile contest to represent the 49th District in the state Senate continues Tuesday with the second of three debates between Republican incumbent Don Carlson and Democratic challenger Craig Pridemore...
Carlson and Pridemore will debate educational issues 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Foster Auditorium at Clark College. Washington State University Chancellor Hal Dengerink will be the moderator...
On education, Carlson and Pridemore have taken different positions on some issues.
Pridemore has called for eliminating the Washington Assessment of Student Learning as a graduation requirement. Carlson, a retired teacher and chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, favors keeping the test as a graduation requirement.
Pridemore has said the standardized test enforces conformity on children, instead of letting their own strengths flourish. Carlson said the test sets a standard that makes a high school diploma signify more than simply attending school for 12 years.
Oh, my, isn't it terrible how we force kids to conform to the English language and learn all those rules of mathematics? Why, we should just allow their own illiterate and innumerate "strengths" to flourish, because we all know if a skill is measurable by a test, it must be bad.
The candidates also differ on charter-school legislation passed this year. Pridemore supports a referendum that would repeal the bill, which would authorize a limited number of publicly funded schools operated by nonprofit organizations. The charter schools will fragment society, Pridemore argues. Carlson voted for the legislation, calling it a worthwhile experiment.
Wait, I thought Pridemore wanted our kids to be boldly nonconformist, to go their own way on their own strengths. But now that Washington state has the option to create new schools for every kind of kid, he's worried about "fragmentation" of society.
"Nonfragmentation without conformity!" - is that his battle cry? You tell me.
Posted by kswygert at August 23, 2004 09:10 PM