Public Policy and Bullying

For those of you who haven’t yet heard about it, UVM is having a one day display this week called “1,100 Backpacks,” which is an exhibit traveling the nation to commemorate college suicides.  While students obviously commit suicide for a variety of issues, I would like to focus this entry on the recent awareness of suicides for young gay students, many of who are the subject of bullying or harassment.  After the large number of gay teen suicides this fall, numerous individuals and organizations, from Apple employees to Lady Gaga, have been working to spread awareness about this issue. 

While I think that it is great that so many organizations are working to increase awareness about this issue, I believe that more needs to be done to institute effective policies to protect individuals from harassment.  I believe that much of the changes need to start in schools, from elementary on up.  If schools are mandated to implement policies that require students to be educated about homosexuality from an early age, and institute harsher sanctions for bullying, I believe that more gay teens will feel safe and accepted by their communities.  It is also important for teachers to be trained to accept, or at least tolerate, gay students, so that they do not contribute to the problem themselves and are better equipped to stop bullying.  Also, there needs to be increased penalties for adults who harass individuals for their sexual orientation, and more laws that prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation.  While I realize that these changes could be extremely controversial, especially for the religious right, I believe that it is necessary for our country to do more to protect all citizens from bullying and harassment.

For those of you interested in the exhibit, you can learn more here:

http://www.uvm.edu/bored/calendar/-send-silence-packing-1100-backpacks

Foreign Aid Policy: Is is Fair?

The recent uprisings in Africa made me think a little more about the policy behind American foreign aid.  Foreign aid makes up a large part of the federal budget, and is both something that is frequently opposed and minimally understood.  I find it very interesting that many people strongly oppose any foreign aid spending, yet gloss over the world news and have no idea what truly is going on in other nations. 

The United States donates more foreign aid than any other nation in the world, yet it is not always for the most humanitarian reasons.  It is clear that foreign aid often goes to corrupt regimes as a method of “buying” their cooperation with the United States, and aid is more likely to go to oil rich nations than poor nations with few natural resources.  This quote by Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense, shows this sense of cynicism, “Governments deal with the United States because it's in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets (taken from David Rieff’s article in the New Republic, Wikileaks and the Cyberwars to Come, "December 14, 2010).

While I certainly do not dismiss this point of view, I also believe that it is important to remember that, regardless of its intention, foreign aid does save lives.  Foreign aid may not be implemented in the most efficient or fair manner, but it does help some of the people that it serves.  I also believe that if the American people were more aware of the issues in the developing world they would be better able to lobby their representatives to make foreign aid policy more fairly implemented.

I though that this link was a particularly sad account about the consequences of one of the recent wars: in Libya

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/31/libya.rape.case/index.html

I also though that this article about the failure of foreign aid certainly gives the reader something to think about:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa065.html

Is a "Bare Roads" Policy Right for Vermont?

Today's snowy weather made me think about the "bare roads" policy proposed by several Vermont Republican lawmakers.  This policy would ensure that Vermont’s state roads be as free of snow as much as possible, however it would also come with the price tag of $35 million a year, and an additional $20 million just to implement it.  The current Vermont transportation policy on this issue is a “safe roads at safe speeds” standard, which asserts that drivers need to use caution when driving on snow-covered roads.  You can read more about this policy in this article in the Burlington Free Press: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110203/NEWS03/102030304/Republican-lawmakers-urge-bare-roads-policy-on-Vermont-roads.  While I certainly don’t like being stuck in my house all day because my road isn’t plowed out (after all, there is only so much “Price is Right” and “Days of our Lives” that one can watch) however I don’t believe that it is worth the price.  With the current budget being as tight as it is, I just can’t see taking money away from struggling social service agencies and educational programs just so I can drive ten miles faster during a storm.  I sincerely hope that lawmakers keep in mind what is truly important when assessing which policies to cut funding for.  I have also found that Republicans have few ideas about what agencies money should be cut from for this program, and continue to assert that this policy will not raise taxes, which I find difficult to believe.

Also, if anyone is lucky enough to be vacationing in warmer climates this week, check out these pictures of today’s storm to see what you missed: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=BT&Date=20110307&Category=NEWS02&ArtNo=307001&Ref=PH

Sex Offenders and Public Policy

It seems as if I see a new article about sex offenders or pedophiles in the newspaper almost every day, as well as lawmakers’ efforts to create new policies protect individuals from them.  While I certainly understand that value of protecting people, especially children, from sexual exploitation, it also seems to me like our society has gone a bit overboard its policy crusade against sex offenders.  My thoughts were sparked by a recent Burlington Free Press Article regarding Vermont lawmakers’ intentions to bring forth a bill prohibiting convicted sex offenders from making social media web pages (such as facebook or MySpace) under fake names.  A link to this article can be found here: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110212/NEWS03/102120301/Vermont-mulls-ban-on-social-media-aliases-for-sex-offenders.  This law was prompted after a teacher at a school for male sex offenders noticed that a former student had made a Facebook page under an alias, and had befriended teenagers using it. 

Reading this news article made me thinking back to a book that I read by Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors.  Ms. Levine believed that the idea of the pedophile is just another example of society’s need to create a “monster” to blame its problems on, and provided statistics to show that an average child is far less likely to be targeted by a random sex offender than they are to be hit by lightning.  She compared our society’s obsession with sex offenders to other “sex panics” in history, such as the idea of the black male rapist during reconstruction and the unpatriotic homosexual of the Cold War era.  She further states that it is so unpopular to be opposed to increased legislation against these “monsters,” which therefore causes many lawmakers may feel pressured to vote for policies that they do not necessarily support.

I also am hesitant to support increased laws against sex offenders because, many of the people listed on the sex offender registry were convicted of relatively minor crimes, such as statutory rape or indecent exposure.  I find the fact that these people continue to be haunted by their crimes years after their jail time has been served to be very contradictory to the rest of the American justice system.  If a murder can leave jail unbenounced to the general public, the same should be true for all other criminals.  Personally, I would rather live next door to a person convicted of statutory rape with his high school girlfriend than a person just released from jail for murder.

Therefore, I believe that public policies need to be fair to all criminal felons, and not target those who commit specific crimes.  I could understand the need to create policies to make the public aware of the living situations of dangerous criminals, however I believe that it must not discriminate based on what type of crime was committed.

            Continuing to focus on the protection of children from random sex offenders also detracts attention from a much more serious problem-the sexual abuse of children by close family members.  While a child has a very low chance of being molested by a stranger, many children face continued sexual abuse at the hands of their family members.  According to statistics I obtained from Child Help, a non-profit dedicated to eradicating child abuse, 68% of child sexual abuse is committed by family members.  Therefore, media coverage that excessively highlights the dangers of random sex offenders can take attention away from creating policies to prevent child abuse where it happens the most.

            I would also like to note that I do not want to in any way minimize the pain that the victims of these crime feel, I just wanted to make other people think about the overall fairness of our justice system and American society in general.  Thanks for reading!

Public Education Funding Policies

Public education policy is an interesting issue to study because it is something that deeply affects virtually all voters, taxpayers, and citizens.  While the implications of a spending cut in other government programs, such as food stamps or fuel assistance, are felt only by a specific segment of the population, cuts in public education spending is felt by most middle class families. 

However, there is also a great diversity in opinions on the best way to spend education funds in order to best benefit the greatest amount of students.  After reading this Sunday’s Burlington Free Press, I began to think a little bit more about the issue.  On the front page of the paper was the story, “Are Burlington Schools on the Right Track?” This article detailed reader reactions to last week’s criticism of the Burlington school system by Burlington school board candidate, and former BHS guidance counselor, Ed Scott (link provided below).  One of Scott’s main criticisms is that BHS does too much to separate students into different academic tracks starting in middle school, and that student’s would benefit to being in classes with others of varying abilities.  He also believes that some of the AP classes with low enrolment should be eliminated in order to save money. 

While I can certainly see the benefits of learning with student’s of varying abilities, I believe that this sounds much better in theory than in practice.  At the high school level, there is a great degree of diversity between the abilities of students.   I believe that it would be unfair to students on both ends of the spectrum for them to either be struggling in classes that are far too difficult for them, or to be bored in classes that are much too easy.  Also, as an AP student in high school, I credit the program with helping me ease the transition into college level work.  It makes me very uncomfortable to think that high achieving students will have opportunities taken away from them because there are so few of them in a specific area.  However, with the current state of the economy, and the fact that budget cuts are hitting virtually every area of government, these types of ideas should hardly come as a surprise.  My only hope is that school officials take into consideration the needs of all students, and that high performing students are not excessively affected by budget cuts.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110123/NEWS02/110122015/Are-Burlington-schools-on-the-right-track