Poverty

As I have said before, our schools fail to provide a sufficiently broad education, so many leave high school unprepared for college..... and not prepared for anything else. Poverty is often the result of a lack of skills, not only job skills, but financial and organizational skills as well. All of these things need to be learned. Unfortunately education does none of this. Students who are oppositional and don't want to finish high school should be permitted that option, certainly by age 15. They should be free to enter the job world, then always have the option to return, at any age, to obtain the remainder of the education they were entitled to..... that is, the number of years which remained between when they left and age 21. When returning, they would likely be more focused and directed. There would be fewer fights and less garbage. Forced education is just an anger factory.

People need skills. People want skills that will help them. Just watch the crowd attending the free seminars at home depot. The students are attentive because they want the skills the teacher is providing, and they will likely rush to put them to use. Private industry should be encouraged to take over here. Manufacturers of green technology such as solar panels and biodiesel generators should be given the opportunity to rent space in empty schools to teach and sell. These skills would empower people by giving them skills and enabling them to get control over their finances. And the taxpayer would not be sent a bill.

Public housing is a useful leg up for many people. However if people never leave public housing or reach the point where they can pay fair market value, there gets to be a long waiting list and people in housing emergencies have nowhere to go. Financial and job counseling should accompany leases in public housing, which will help residents prepare for either privatization or purchasing their own home.

I would support:
1. Adult education run by private for profit businesses looking for employees
2. Providing financial case workers for every household in public system to help them strategize for impending privatization
3. Ending the current policy of sweeping homelessness under the rug
4. Work fare to empower those on public assistance in such a way that employment doesn’t result in diminished income.
5. Decriminalization of all forms of honest work that could provide opportunity for those who are poor, or disadvantaged in some other way.