Student Congress Speeches 1
Speech against:
A BILL TO ESTABLISH NATIONAL EDUCATION STANDARDS
In recent decades, The United States has fallen behind other world powers in terms of the education of our youth. Countries like India and China, who just two decades ago were not even considered modernized nations, are now better educating their students than The United States is. This is surely a problem we must deal with, why are we falling behind, and how can we make up some lost ground?
At first, it might seem logical to set a national standard and say, “If you meet this, you will get rewarded, if you do not meet it, you will be punished”. But this way of thinking is actually major contributor to precisely why the U.S. is falling behind in education, and is certainly not a solution to our education problem. The reason; national education standards of any kind, hurt poor schools.
All across America, particularly in the urban areas, public schools are massively under-funded and unable to adequately educate their students. Especially to levels that are required in this proposed piece of legislation. The Inner-city schools lack of funding is a main reason why these schools fail, and why they would be unable to meet the national standards called for in this bill.
Under this bill, poor schools that do not meet national standards because of their lack of funding, will have their federal funding eliminated. So the schools who do not have enough money as it is will get receive less, and therefore, be less able to educate their students.
The contents of this bill would not help the education system in our country at all, and in fact they would hurt it. Take the current policy of NCLB, it established national education standards, and it is widely regarded as ineffective and hurtful. National standards would force us to cut the budget of schools that desperately need more funding, not less. We simply cannot take a one size fits all approach to the education of our young people.
We should look at solutions that give money to schools that need it, and not policies that would hurt the poor.
Speech supporting:
A RESOLUTION TO PROTECT THE HOMELESS
All over our country, there homeless men and women, even homeless families. Homelessness plagues our country like a terrible disease. Some are unable to afford their homes, especially in the current state of our economy, and so are simply kicked out. While others, could never afford a home in the first place. With no place to go, they are forced out on the streets, for better or worse. They have to survive with minimal resources, with whatever food, clothes and shelter they can find. Not knowing when their next meal is, or even if they will live to see tomorrow. So you find yourself wondering, how can this be? How can we let this happen? Here in America? In the richest country in the world, in the land of opportunity, how can we have so many people who cannot even afford the basic necessities for life?
These people are in poverty. And remain in poverty simply because they have not the means to escape it. As the great economist and author Jeffrey Sachs said in his 2004 book The End of Poverty : “A large number of the poor are caught in a poverty trap, unable on their own to escape from extreme material deprivation. They are trapped by poverty itself”. Sachs explains poverty like a ladder, in which, the hardest part is getting yourself on the first rung of this ladder. After you are on the first rung, it gets easier to climb further and further up. But those in poverty, like the homeless in this country, are unable to grasp even the first rung. We need to help them get a grasp on the ladder, help them climb out of poverty.
It is the responsibility of the U.S. government to provide for; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for it’s people. Therefore, we have a duty to help the impoverished of our nation so that they may experience life, liberty, and happiness.
This bill would do exactly that, it would help the those who cannot help themselves. This bill would help thousands get on the ladder and climb up out of poverty. By opening unused government buildings to the homeless, we would be providing them with a temporary home. A shelter from their storm. They would use this building as a temporary sanctuary while they do whatever they need to, to get their lives on track and solve their problems.
These empty buildings are a great resource that we have long been over-looking. This is simply an incredible opportunity that we need to take advantage of for the sake of those hungry in America.
By passing this bill, we would also be creating a sub-committee that’s purpose is to address the causes, effects, and solutions to homelessness. This is sub-committee is sure to be a great long-term weapon against domestic poverty. By passing this bill, we would not only be fighting homelessness in the short term by housing thousands of people, but also in the long term by coming up with effective solutions to homelessness.
America is the land of opportunity, so let’s give opportunity to all.
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