Editor's note: Today's edition concludes our issue-based editorials regarding key platforms of the presidential campaign. The State News will formally endorse a presidential candidate on Oct. 25.
The job market, as every college student near graduation knows, is a wash. A high-priced college degree might only score you a job at Starbucks. Truly, this is a horrible, terrifying realm to enter. Like most problems with this country, though, you can do something about it on Nov. 2.
President Bush wants to improve the job market by giving elementary school students the tools needed for success and creating a skilled workforce. He's got No Child Left Behind and damn it, he's sticking to it.
Vast portions of the Bush economic plan deal with education. To be sure, a skilled workforce is dependent on education, but when the basis for this education - No Child Left Behind - is an ill-funded mandate, the red flags fly up. Bush is not the first U.S. president to associate education with growth in the economy. In fact, Bush isn't even the only candidate to do so, either - John Kerry also highlights education as an economic fix.
Education, in terms of economic progress, has become a buzzword. Fortunately, there's more to the economy than just education. America, however, needs a two-fold solution to the economy - short and long-term.
Kerry's plan focuses on keeping jobs in the United States. He wants to lure businesses back into America by cutting taxes to stop the outsourcing that has become familiar critical rhetoric of the president. Kerry is promising tax cuts for the middle class and a rollback of the budget deficit, its highest projection at $521 billion. Even when adjusted for inflation, the deficit is still in the top-five highest deficits in U.S. history. The rest of Kerry's plan hinges on spending caps for the federal legislature, and a system of accountable expenditure. Essentially, fiscal responsibility.
Other than education, Bush's plan calls for "lowering costs and regulatory burdens" to make "America the best place in the world to do business." A more specific plan could help constituents better understand Bush's platform. Bush continues to tout the No Child Left Behind act, yet refuses to fund the program federally, instead passing it off to financially burdened states. If Bush wants to use this plan to trumpet a pattern of economic growth, he needs to make good on the funding, or education will go nowhere.
With Bush, past performance and economic track record of the previous four years has to be accounted for. No matter how blurry or disputed the numbers, Bush is seeking to reduce overtime pay for potentially millions of people. Corporate incentives for outsourcing, a long-term solution to a short-term job loss crisis and a figurehead education act do not seem to be in the recipe for a college-age worker entering the workforce. Furthermore, the Bush administration needs to distance itself from any ties, however thin, to white-collar scandal. All this might be too hard to do in four years.
If the motivating force behind your vote is an improved job market, go with the short and long-term plan. Kerry's economic plan has Bush beat for the job-seeking graduate.
