Vision for America–Part II

Following-up on my last Blog, it is important to continue to advocate for communal nurturing of children and youth.  Most important to that end is undoubtedly our educational system.  In order to discuss a Vision of education for the future, we need to see where we currently stand in this crucial area.  To that end, I turn to Tom Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum whose latest book,  “That used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back”, provides us with some statistics about our current system.

--today, in 8 other nations, young adults are more likely to have college degrees than in the U.S.  Only 42% of young adults in the U.S. have earned at least an associate’s degree; in South Korea that percentage is 58

--about 1 in 4 -- 25% -- high school students in the U.S. drops out or fails to graduate on time; that’s almost one million students leaving schools, and high school dropouts today are pretty much condemned to poverty and social failure

--75% of young Americans, between the ages of 17 to 24, are unable to enlist in the military today because they failed to graduate from high school or don‘t score high enough on the enlistment test, have a criminal record, or are physically unfit; this failure of our under-performing education system creates a national security burden, according to General Wesley Clark and Major General James Kelly

--College entrance exams suggest that just one quarter of graduating high school seniors are ready for college; 40% of incoming freshmen at community colleges have to take at least one remedial class during their first semester

--young Americans today have almost identical college completion rates as their parents; in other words, there has been no improvement in a generation

--by 2018, the U.S. economy will need about 27 million more college-educated workers, but at current graduation rates, the Center on Education and the Workforce predicts we will come up about 3 million short

--figures that emerge from challenged areas are bleak:  a study in Detroit found that 47% of adult Detroit residents - about 200,000 people -- are functionally illiterate; about half that number have their high school diplomas or a GED

--a 2004 study of 120 American corporations concluded that a third of the employees in blue chip companies wrote poorly and that businesses were spending as much as $3.1 billion annually on remedial training

In earlier blogs (see 9/26/10 and 10/6/10), I indicated some other shortcomings of our American education system which I won’t repeat here, except to say that many countries posted higher scores on the PISA (international tests) than did American students.  Friedman comments:

“We don’t think of education as an investment in national growth and national security because throughout our history it has been a localized, decentralized issue, not a national one.  Today, however, what matters is not how your local school ranks in its county or state but how America’s schools rank in the world.”

“To prosper, America has to educate its young people up to and beyond the new levels of technology.  Not only does everyone today need more education to build the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are now necessary for any good job; students also need better education.  We define ‘better education’ as an education that nurtures young people to be creative creators and creative servers.  That is, we need our education system not only to strengthen everyone’s basics -- reading, writing and arithmetic-- but to teach and inspire all Americans to start something new, to add something extra, or to adapt something old in whatever job they are doing.  With the world getting more hyper-connected all the time, maintaining the American dream will require learning, working, producing, relearning, and innovating twice as hard, twice as fast, twice as often, and twice as much.”

In a past blog (10/22/10), I spoke about the “purpose of national public education” and concluded with a preliminary statement of purpose for public education that reflects what Friedman advocates.  With some slight revision, it went like this:

“To involve an entire community of teacher-learners (administrators, teachers, students, parents, volunteers and other interested citizens) in the teaching of traditional and foundational curricula (history, English, mathematics, science, language, technology); additionally, drawing out experiential learnings (through the arts, simulated games, and problem-solving) and discovering talents, concepts, beliefs, values and verities, in order to produce accomplished individuals, informed citizens, critical and independent thinkers, lifetime learners, cultural literates, world-class workers and competitors, and compassionate human beings willing to advocate for the welfare of the human family.”

My Vision for American education, then, starts with the necessity of a national purpose feeding into local strategies for public education.  National government, and the States, must act on this or we shall continue to fall behind.  My Vision includes a national dialogue and debate on this subject, to be led by the White House, culminating in a national White House Conference on Education that defines both the purpose and the strategy for public education in the 21st century.  I see a year-long period leading up to this Conference that would engage students, teachers, administrators, educators of teachers and ordinary citizens as delegates to state-wide and regional conferences leading up to the national conference.  This way, problems could be identified, broken down into issues and then fed into the national conference.  This is a massive undertaking similar to the White House Conference on Aging in 1981.  It would take much organization and targeting of the aspects that would go into the definition of purpose and strategy.  It would hopefully galvanize the country to focus on education as our “sputnik moment” in this century.

Secondly, since my Vision includes a national purpose for public education, it is important to look carefully and critically at the role of local school boards.

Out of the many tasks that have been delegated to school boards by the states, or which have accrued to them over time, three overlapping and somewhat contradictory responsibilities can be identified. First, the board is a policymaking entity and an elected body with a legislative and representative function.  Second, the board is an administrative agency that provides for the operation of the local school system and is ultimately accountable for the system's operation; an executive function. Third,  it has been granted some quasi-judicial powers, allowing it to investigate, render appeal decisions, and even hold hearings.

I do not for a second believe that we will ever see the national government replacing local school boards or state departments of education, but I do believe we need to see certain changes locally:

Policy-making should remain an important area in which school boards function; however, certain areas should become advisory only, such as in relation to the district's budget; performance indicators, and pupil assessment systems; curricular frameworks and standards for student achievement.  All of these require expert construction and execution, but they also require advisory input from the elected representatives of the people.

Policy-making should begin with the articulation of a shared vision and mission for the school district, taking into consideration state mandates and federal mandates, followed by the establishment of  goals and strategic objectives. Evaluating operations and analyzing gaps between current outcomes and desired outcomes should then lead to the development and implementation of strategic plans for the accomplishment of key objectives.  This must be an on-going process, and it must include the evaluation of each particular district in relation to schools in other countries.  School boards should be able to develop a Vision statement of what a competitive, world-class education consists, and should not shy away from making that the basis of policy for their district!

All hiring and firing of teachers should be placed in the hands of principals and superintendents, with school boards acting as appeal mechanisms.  All school boards must include representation from students and parents.  All school boards must come up with ways to engender broader monetary support than simply by property owner taxation and federal and state support:  all citizens need to pay perhaps through a small value-added tax dedicated to education support; corporations and businesses and foundations must also donate substantially.

Finally, what we mean by quality education must include the following, in my opinion:

-- an emphasis on science and math beginning in Kindergarten
-- art & music as part of curriculum beginning in Kindergarten and continuing through all levels
-- reading skills begin in Kindergarten, but there must be a pre-K emphasis on reading, especially in the home
-- one-on-one mentoring beginning in Kindergarten; some mentors should follow child through other grades
-- K-6 must put emphasis on training and skill development, but must especially concentrate on training in creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, use of technology, resilience, team functioning, innovation, collaboration and cooperation

And, we cannot ignore: 

--school buildings must be rehabilitated especially in poorer districts, so that learning environments are clean and inviting
--schools that are dangerous, badly staffed, educationally indifferent, and under-funded should either be reformed, closed, or made into a new configuration under new management, such as a charter school or specialized academy
--we have to raise the standards for all students, and emphasize that “average” is no longer acceptable. 
--we need more routes to good jobs, not just through college; we need high-quality vocational training
-- drop-outs must be reduced; one possibility: require community or national service for anyone dropping out of high school and include a required educational component
--everyone needs post-secondary education; high school education today needs to prepare graduates to attend a university, two-year college, or vocational college without remedial courses being necessary
--everyone in college must be prepared for the next step, which is to become a life-time learner with future personal educational goals defined before graduation

We can no longer tolerate average achievement, or getting-by, or dropping-out.  According to Tom Friedman, there are six things necessary to produce what the country needs: better teachers and better principals; parents who are more involved and more demanding of their children’s education; politicians who push to raise educational standards, not dumb them down; neighbors who are ready to invest in schools even though their children do not attend; business leaders committed to raising standards in their communities; students who come to school prepared to learn.  More on this next time.

MY VISION FOR AMERICA–Part I

In my last Blog, I asked: what is your Vision for America?  In line with that inquiry, I am submitting a start to  my own Vision.  I hope it will be a catalyst for others to consider what they also envision.  At any rate,  I have found it to be a worthwhile endeavor, forcing me to think beyond the day-to-day political debates that have become increasingly negative, partisan and arrogant; debates often lacking in, or stretching, the truth in an attempt to bamboozle the listening audience. 

To be fair, I would have to say that my Vision for America is rooted in my personal experiences, modified by many things, such as age, geography, other people and cultures as well as study, and some ability to understand what it might be like to walk in others’ shoes.  I cannot make claim, therefore, to great prescience or revelatory Vision, but only to my own unique, and yet somewhat communal, sense of what makes America great.  I suppose there are those whose experience is richer and more vast than mine, who could rightly claim that I am somewhat naïve or biased or idealistic.  I accept such criticism, but object only to the extent that we are all suspect in certain aspects of our opinions, simply because no one can claim a perfect vision or a perfect set of experiences upon which to draw, to reflect, and to opine.

So let us begin at the beginning.  I was born into a family that wanted me and who were supported in their desires and ambitions by rather large extended families and relatives on both paternal and maternal sides.  That familial support was enhanced by their many friends and acquaintances who cared about them and me.  It is perhaps not too quaint to say that I was very fortunate to be born to parents who had experiences and backgrounds that prepared them in some mysterious and primal way for parenthood, and for understanding how very important is the concept of family and familial relationships we develop with friends and neighbors and co-workers.  Hillary Clinton was right after all: it does take a community to raise a child.

I believe we are a nation that puts great store in those concepts.  We care about families; we care about each other; we care about strangers in need.  We care about our communities, and people volunteer to aid their communities, and others, to make our communities more caring and more cohesive.  We organize, we belong, we advocate in ways that some other countries envy.  Although we claim a “rugged individualism” from our forefathers and mothers, we also take pride in our ability to “come together” to care for one another, especially in times of trouble and catastrophe.

My Vision for America in this 21st century would, therefore, have to include right off the importance of the way we begin life, the importance of family, as well as the importance of communal relationships.  Where do we begin in order to enhance these concepts?

There are some who believe that life begins at conception, and they want an America in which abortion is outlawed.  While my own view is that life is precious and must be protected, and that abortion is most often repugnant, I know from personal experience that abortion must remain a viable choice in order to protect other lives.  In my opinion,  the right-to-life principle applied only to a fetus is a limiting and limited concept of life, because it leaves out all the others involved in that one life.  We have in our backgrounds a concept of the rightness of the sacrifice of one life to save many lives, and a principle of seeking the greatest good for the greatest number.  In some cases, I believe that the difficult choice to abort a fetus must be made in order to protect the lives of those already living: the mother, existing children.  It is too easy to suggest that mothers and fathers and children must sacrifice their lives for an unborn child with horrendous defects.  It is perhaps not just easy, but insensitive and glib to suggest that everyone should be able to live with whatever is visited upon them (such as rape or incest or certain death of a mother in childbirth), in order to maintain the life of a fetus above all. 

On the other hand, one cannot say with any conviction that abortion is desirable as an easy solution for someone’s selfish reasons.  The idea of abortion on demand should be abhorrent to everyone.  Therefore, it must be clear that America as a nation should not advocate abortion, but must allow it as a choice in certain circumstances.   

So what is my vision for America in terms of this very controversial question?  My vision is that America will first of all, reach back beyond abortion to care for the children and youth of our nation in a way that will help them learn reverence for all life along with how to make difficult life-affecting decisions.  It would help for us to have the kind of sex education that would assist children not just in understanding their bodies, but  understanding all sides of issues such as contraception, abortion, and choice. At the same time, we must provide training in understanding how to make good decisions and solve problems that we face in this area.

Preliminarily, my Vision for America includes the idea of pre-natal care for all: i.e. every mother-to-be must have access to pre-natal care either freely delivered or at a reasonable cost for those who can pay.  Yes, that means more neighborhood clinics.  Yes, that means more doctors trained as ob-gyns.  Yes, that may mean either a government option for healthcare, or a mandate to private health insurance providers to include this benefit in all plans. 

Secondly, we need a (healthcare) plan that backs up our need for community involvement in raising children.  Not every mother, couple, or family has all it takes to nurture babies, raise children, or prepare teenagers for adult life.  My Vision for America sees a much greater role for mentors, for personal advocates, for independent living trainers, for foster grandparents, for tutors, for personal counselors and companions.  This mentoring needs to be made available to parents facing the birth of a first child and also to the children who are born.  We need more aides who will go into the homes of pregnant women to assist in pre-natal preparation and care, and more aides on birthing floors of hospitals, and aides who will follow the young family into their homes to make sure they start off positively and well with that new baby.  We need trainers to train in baby care and nurturing.  It would then be the parent’s choice to utilize or not utilize this service.

We need mentors and tutors and counselors available to children in every class room in this country.   We especially need classroom aides, and mentors, and foster grandparents, and volunteers who will give much needed individual attention and help to students who need such involvement.  But we also need parent tutors who will go into homes and teach parents how to teach their children.  Yes, we need this kind of interaction, of teaching life lessons, of advocating for children, of developing relationships upon which one can depend for positive feedback and encouragement.  We must have a Vision that emphasizes the real importance of children, not a false rhetoric about how important we think they are.

In the end, all kinds of health and educational services must be free to single mothers and mothers in poverty or with special needs; as well as to children for their needs.  We are not talking welfare here -- getting something for nothing -- we are as a society making investments in the lives of children and parents for future rewards for us all.  This is the short-sightedness of people who advocate the cutting of programs that help people: they see such aid only in terms of spending and providing welfare to people who they believe should take personal responsibility for themselves.  They do not understand the positive outcomes for society as a whole; for the health of the entire commonweal.   We are not talking welfare here; we are talking about protection, safety, training, growth and happiness for our parents and our children.  To do less is to continue along a path of neglect and half-measures for our families and their children.  The Vision here is of responsibility for one another; an active interdependence that enhances society and our cherished values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

What is Your Vision for America?

This piece is inspired by a writer that I much admire.  In my humble opinion, he is one of our best, if not the very best, analytical  writers of our times.  He brings together past history and present events along with the thoughts and actions of individuals in a way that gives astounding insight into the world as it is, and as it is going to be.  I speak of none other than Thomas L. Friedman, author of “The World is Flat 3.0”, and more recently, of “That Used To Be Us.”  Tom has gotten me thinking about what politicians are doing to destroy our chances of being “all that we can be” in terms of scientific discovery, innovation and economic development.  In my estimation, our current crop of politicos not only has little idea of what “American exceptionalism” means in this new “flat” world -- a world in which more people and nations can plug-in, connect and collaborate with more equal power than ever before—but too often do exactly the opposite of what we need to live up to that  claim. 

Friedman says: “I insist that wealth in the age of flatness will increasingly gravitate to those countries who get three basic things right: the infrastructure to connect efficiently and speedily as possible with the flat world platform, the right education programs and knowledge skills to empower more…people to innovate and do value-added work on that platform, and…the right governance -- that is, the right tax policies, the right investment and trade laws, the right support for research, the right intellectual property laws, and, most of all, the right inspirational leadership -- to enhance and manage the flow with the flat world.” (emphasis added).

One basic -- the right governance -- is about all that politicians can talk about these days.  Republicans -- Tea partiers and  libertarians alike -- believe that the right governance is to have as little government intervention as possible, to go back to a time when government was smaller and less intrusive, to cut programs of government that they say are out-of-control, and to reduce spending.  Unfortunately, what they are talking about has little to do with the crisis that is brewing in this country:  the failure to deal decisively with the gaps that exist in science, education and governance.

As Friedman indicates, America was lucky to be the only economy standing after World War II, and we were also fortunate to have little or no competition for forty years afterward.  That gave us “a huge head of steam but also bred a culture of complacency” that really took hold in the 1990s when there was a profound tendency to extol consumption over hard work and investment, immediate gratification over long-term thinking and sacrifice.  “When we got hit with 9/11, it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to summon the nation to sacrifice, to address some of its pressing fiscal, energy, science, and education shortfalls -- all the things that we had let slide.  But our president [Bush] did not summon us to sacrifice.  He summoned us to go shopping.”

And today, what do many of the politicians in Washington, and elsewhere, want us to focus on?  Certainly not on science, education, infrastructure and informed management of government, but on the following:

-- The government-hating crowd is leading us astray at a time when we need a strong central government that can call us to sacrifice, to innovate, to build and re-build, and to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in this new world.  The manufactured problems of government intrusiveness and failures is exactly what we don’t need right now.  What we do need is increased collaboration of government with business, labor, educational institutions, and programs of national significance that will re-build our crumbling infrastructure once again into the best in the world. 

-- The deficit-hawks are losing sight of where our tax dollars need to go in order to re-build our competitiveness.  Yes, of course, we need to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, but where have you seen any meaningful criteria assigned to those categories?  Is it wasteful to spend money to repair and renovate our public school buildings so that children have an inspiring atmosphere in which to work?  In some cases yes; in some cases no.  The problem is, we fail to define parameters for knowing what is wasteful.  More to the point, politicians have failed to define for us the areas in which we need to invest, and why such investment is important to our future.  Take for instance, cuts to the NASA space programs; we have defined where we can cut, but not where we need to invest.  What NASA programs should be strengthened or begun because they can increase our scientific skills and innovation as a country?  Has anyone even asked that question?

-- And what about education: how have the politicians and leaders of this country dealt with that?  Well, first there was “No Child Left Behind” which touched just one aspect of our educational spectrum, that of accountability, testing, grading.  What a colossal misappropriation of time and energy and dollars!  At a time when we should be setting challenging goals for training students in math, science and engineering, we are instead focusing on test scores!  In a time when we should be training students in critical problem-solving, in flexibility, in creative thinking, in human interactions that are critically needed in this flat world, we are worried about schools that fail to test well!

--Lately, we have the Obama administration’s attempt to “race to the top.”  But the definition of that race, the elements of it, the goals and purposes, remain murky at best and are unknown to the average American without whose commitment no progress will be made toward a lasting and meaningful reform of public education.

-- At this time, when the skills and commitments needed in order to compete in this new world of technological innovation are critical to our future as a country, we cannot be eliminating programs and supports that are needed in advancing those competencies.  We cannot afford to cut back on Pell grants; we cannot afford to shorten the school week or school days; we cannot afford the laying off of thousands of teachers as though they are expendable and as though it will not weaken our public school system; we cannot talk about the elimination of the Department of Education; we cannot afford a curriculum that eliminates subjects like art & music that add to the creativity which is essential to living in a world of global competition; nor can we ignore or question scientific method and conclusions and substitute someone’s mythical ideas about creation or how humans got here in the first place.

-- And where are we on energy?  Republicans think tax breaks for oil companies, drilling in Alaska and off-shore, hydro-fracking for natural gas in the Marcellus shale, and using clean coal and atomic power will solve our energy problems.  They are, once again, leading us in the wrong direction, and spending money on 20th century concepts that will not solve one of our major 21st century problems.  We need innovation, and cut-backs on research and development to help solve a budget deficit will not bring innovation and new industry like energy-efficient homes and factories, electric cars and alternative fuel sources. 

-- We are probably no better off when it comes to infrastructure building and re-building.  Will President Obama’s new jobs plan bring some real activity in this area; will we invest in better school buildings, faster trains, safer bridges, roads, and airports?  It’s anybody’s guess, but the deadlock in Congress does not bode well for addressing the overwhelming needs we have in these last two areas.

Friedman made the point about 9/11 being an opportunity to call the nation to sacrifice and to address some of the gaps in education, science, energy, and governance that are becoming critical in this new age.  But, we have dithered, and governance has turned into rhetoric without depth, into talking points made without walking points enacted, into opposing without reasoning, into ideologies about principles with minimal ethical content, into government-hating when we desperately need governance reform.

I would only add, that we have lost Vision.  We know that we are spending too much, both individually and as a government, but still, we have great resources.  We know that we have a tremendous capacity to assess and address whatever problems we may face.  We are an exceptional nation, but saying we are exceptional is entirely different from actually demonstrating our talents, our resolve, our innovative spirit, our ability to recover from set-backs, our tremendous capacity to succeed. 

What we need right now is a Vision of where we need to be as a nation in the future.  Obama has tried to define it in certain areas like education and energy and healthcare, but has failed to present a vision like John F. Kennedy did when he called for us to place a man on the moon in ten years.  No one else has come forward to offer a real vision of the future.  Conservative politicians have, in fact, a vision of moving backward -- they want to return to the past as a way to confront the future, which is absolutely sophomoric and oxymoronic.

The ancient questions-- Who are we?  Why are we here at this time? Where are we going? -- are questions we must address once again in our never-ending mission to be a nation that leads and that heals the world.  We need someone to come forward who will tell us who we are as a people; to show us what purpose we have as individuals and a people at this time in history, and finally, we desperately need someone to tell us where we need to be as a nation in the rest of the 21st century.  If the world is as flattened as Friedman claims, perhaps the answers will come, not from political leaders, but from individuals who are plugged-in and collaborating with each other by electronic means.  What is your Vision for America?

RE-BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM

The time has come to use this BLOG to present something that is not of my making.  It is something I had a small part in.  I was one of the 25,000 people who came together in small groups throughout this country in early July to rank ten top priorities for action that could hopefully help to rebuild the American Dream.  My group met in a small city near my home.  It was a group of 15 persons dedicated to an endeavor that began under the aegis of about 80 progressive organizations.  We met for several hours to share our concerns and issues and then to rate the issues as we thought best.  I am happy to report that our group reflected most of the top ten choices that ended up as part of the Contract.

What follows is the Contract for the American Dream as it is found on the internet address included at the bottom of this entry.

“I HAVE A DREAM. IT IS A DREAM DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE AMERICAN DREAM.”
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963 March on Washington
 
“We, the American people, promise to defend and advance a simple ideal: liberty and justice... for all. Americans who are willing to work hard and play by the rules should be able to find a decent job, get a good home in a strong community, retire with dignity and give their kids a better life. Every one of us – rich, poor or in-between, regardless of skin color or birthplace, no matter their sexual orientation or gender – has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That is our covenant, our compact, our contract with one another. It is a promise we can fulfill – but only by working together.

Today, the American Dream is under threat. Our veterans are coming home to few jobs and little hope on the home front.  Our young people are graduating off a cliff, burdened by heavy debt, into the worst job market in half a century. The big banks that American taxpayers bailed out won’t cut homeowners a break. Our firefighters, nurses, cops and teachers – America’s everyday heroes – are being thrown out onto the street.

We believe: AMERICA IS NOT BROKE. America is rich – still the wealthiest nation ever. But too many at the top are grabbing the gains. No person or corporation should be allowed to take from America while giving little or nothing back. The superrich who got tax breaks and bailouts should now pay full taxes – and help create jobs here, not overseas. Those who do well in America should do well by America.

AMERICANS NEED JOBS, NOT CUTS. Many of our best workers are sitting idle, while the work of rebuilding America goes undone. Together, we must rebuild our country, reinvest in our people and jump-start the industries of the future. Millions of jobless Americans would love the opportunity to become working, tax-paying members of their communities again. We have a jobs crisis, not a deficit crisis.

To produce this Contract for the American Dream, 131,203 Americans came together online and in their communities. We wrote and rated 25,904 ideas. Together, we identified the 10 most critical steps to get our economy back on track and restore the American Dream:

1. INVEST IN AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE.
Rebuild our crumbling bridges, dams, levees, ports, water and sewer lines, railways, roads and public transit. We must invest in high-speed Internet and a modern, energy-saving electric grid.  These investments will create good jobs and rebuild America. To help finance these projects, we need national and state infrastructure banks.

2. CREATE 21ST-CENTURY ENERGY JOBS.
We should invest in American businesses that can power our country with innovative technologies like wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal systems, hybrid and electric cars, and next-generation batteries. And we should put Americans to work making our homes and buildings energy efficient. We can create good, green jobs in America, address the climate crisis, and build
the clean energy economy.

3. INVEST IN PUBLIC EDUCATION. We should
provide universal access to early childhood education, make school funding equitable, invest in high-quality teachers, and build safe, well-equipped school buildings for our students. A high-quality education system, from universal preschool to vocational training and affordable higher education, is critical for our future and can create badly needed jobs now.

4. OFFER MEDICARE FOR ALL. We should expand
Medicare so it’s available to all Americans, and reform it to
provide even more cost-effective, quality care. The Affordable Care Act is a good start and we must implement it – but it’s not enough. We can save trillions of dollars by joining every other industrialized country – paying much less for health care while getting the same or better results.

5. MAKE WORK PAY. Americans have a right to fair
minimum and living wages, to organize and collectively bargain, to enjoy equal opportunity and to earn equal pay for equal work.  Corporate assaults on these rights bring down wages and benefits for all of us. They must be outlawed.

6. SECURE SOCIAL SECURITY. Keep Social Security
sound, and strengthen the retirement, disability, and survivors’ protections Americans earn through their hard work. Pay for it by removing the cap on the Social Security tax, so that upper income people pay into Social Security on all they make, just like the rest of us.

7. RETURN TO FAIRER TAX RATES. End, once and
for all, the Bush-era tax giveaways for the rich, which the rest of us – or our kids – must pay eventually. Also, we must outlaw corporate tax havens and tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas.  Lastly, with millionaires and billionaires taking a growing share of our country’s wealth, we should add new tax brackets for those
making more than $1 million each year.

8. END THE WARS AND INVEST AT HOME.
Our troops have done everything that’s been asked of them, and it’s time to bring them home to good jobs here. We’re sending $3 billion each week overseas that we should be investing to rebuild America.

9. TAX WALL STREET SPECULATION. A tiny fee of
1/20th of 1% on each Wall Street trade would raise tens of billions of dollars annually with little impact on actual
investment. This would reduce speculation, “flash trading,” and outrageous bankers’ bonuses – and we’d have a lot more money to spend on Main Street job creation.

10. STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY. We need clean,
fair elections – where no one’s right to vote can be taken away, and where money doesn’t buy you your own member of Congress. We must ban anonymous political influence, slam shut the lobbyists’ revolving door in D.C. and publicly finance elections. Immigrants who want to join in our democracy deserve a clear path to citizenship. We must stop giving corporations the rights of people when it comes to our elections. And we must ensure our judiciary’s respect for the Constitution. Together, we
will reclaim our democracy to get our country back on track.”

Having read this Contract, it is my hope that you will go to the site address below and either sign your name, or commit yourself to work for its principles and actions.  Almost 296,000 have already signed.

HTTP://CONTRACT.REBUILDTHEDREAM.COM