A few days ago, I realized that the US presidential election is fast approaching. You see, I was watching the news a few nights ago and I saw a political ad endorsing Sen. Hillary Clinton. I also saw the results of the results of the recent election 2008 polls on the news. It dawned upon me that the election will be held next year. This event is clearly very important because it will determine the direction of our country. It will also affect the whole world as the newly elected president will make decisions regarding foreign policies.
Of course, the next thing that entered my mind was the possible candidates who will be competing for the presidency. I also realized that I know very little about the election so I need to do some reading about the election and the candidates so that I can make a wise decision. I decided to hop o my PC and some online research about the 2008 presidential race and the candidates.
Thanks to modern technology and the World-Wide-Web, gathering information about a certain subject has become easy and convenient. You don’t have to go to a library to delve into a topic nowadays. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection and you can get your hands on all the information you need. The best thing is that you can do it all at the comforts of your own home.
Anyway, I found a lot of information about the 2008 presidential race on the Internet. For instance, I found out that the upcoming election will be the first election without incumbents in 80 years. The vice president is normally the leading candidate and nominee to succeed an American President that is about to leave his office. However, there is no incumbent president seeking re-election and no incumbent vice-president attempting to win office on the upcoming election. This is significant because the incumbent Vice President has immediately thereafter run for President in the three most recent presidential administrations featuring an outgoing, two-term president.
As you probably know, Dick Cheney, the current Vice President of the United States, announced that he would never run for president in 2001. This means that the 2008 presidential race, will apparently be a non-incumbent or "open seat" election in which neither the sitting President nor the sitting Vice President will be a candidate. The last non-incumbent or "open seat" election happened in 1928.
I also found out in the course of my research that, six candidates has achieved "front runner" status. These are John McCain of Arizona, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Rudy Giuliani of New York on the Republican side; and John Edwards of North Carolina, Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York on the Democratic party. These candidates are currently leading on the recent election 2008 polls but the figures may change as we move closer to the election.
Are you also interested in the upcoming election? If you are, then all you have to do is hop on your PC or Mac. You can easily check out the latest news, polls, and information on the candidates and the progress of the election on the web. You can even visit the campaign websites of the candidates to offer your support and give donations to the candidate of your choice.
The Upcoming 2008 Presidential Race
A few days ago, I realized that the US presidential election is fast approaching. You see, I was watching the news a few nights ago and I saw a political ad endorsing Sen. Hillary Clinton. I also saw the results of the results of the recent election 2008 polls on the news. It dawned upon me that the election will be held next year. This event is clearly very important because it will determine the direction of our country. It will also affect the whole world as the newly elected president will make decisions regarding foreign policies.
Of course, the next thing that entered my mind was the possible candidates who will be competing for the presidency. I also realized that I know very little about the election so I need to do some reading about the election and the candidates so that I can make a wise decision. I decided to hop o my PC and some online research about the 2008 presidential race and the candidates.
Thanks to modern technology and the World-Wide-Web, gathering information about a certain subject has become easy and convenient. You don’t have to go to a library to delve into a topic nowadays. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection and you can get your hands on all the information you need. The best thing is that you can do it all at the comforts of your own home.
Anyway, I found a lot of information about the 2008 presidential race on the Internet. For instance, I found out that the upcoming election will be the first election without incumbents in 80 years. The vice president is normally the leading candidate and nominee to succeed an American President that is about to leave his office. However, there is no incumbent president seeking re-election and no incumbent vice-president attempting to win office on the upcoming election. This is significant because the incumbent Vice President has immediately thereafter run for President in the three most recent presidential administrations featuring an outgoing, two-term president.
As you probably know, Dick Cheney, the current Vice President of the United States, announced that he would never run for president in 2001. This means that the 2008 presidential race, will apparently be a non-incumbent or "open seat" election in which neither the sitting President nor the sitting Vice President will be a candidate. The last non-incumbent or "open seat" election happened in 1928.
I also found out in the course of my research that, six candidates has achieved "front runner" status. These are John McCain of Arizona, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Rudy Giuliani of New York on the Republican side; and John Edwards of North Carolina, Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York on the Democratic party. These candidates are currently leading on the recent election 2008 polls but the figures may change as we move closer to the election.
Are you also interested in the upcoming election? If you are, then all you have to do is hop on your PC or Mac. You can easily check out the latest news, polls, and information on the candidates and the progress of the election on the web. You can even visit the campaign websites of the candidates to offer your support and give donations to the candidate of your choice.
Education Department Backs Down: Gates Speaks Up
We've seen over and over again that the current political atmosphere is one of accountability and transparency: this is just as apparent in Education as it is in the debate over the appropriation of earmarked funds. As a result of the push towards a measurable pedagogic system, the Department of Education increased the qualifying questions on its annual survey of colleges. However, by attempting to gather more comprehensive information on student performance at specific colleges, it seems that the Department of Education has ruffled a few feathers.
Because the pointed questions brought on such an enormous backlash, Grover Whitehurst, (director of the Ed. Dept's Institute of Education Sciences) said that the Department will likely edit the survey, and will probably remove a question that asks whether colleges used specific student-learning assessments and, if they did, to provide access to the results.
As performance-based education is still the exception rather than the rule, it is not surprising that a request for this type of "proprietary" information was received so critically.
In a separate story that places just as much, if not more emphasis on performance-based education, Bill Gates told congress that the education system of the united states still needs to address fundamental problems in k-12 education . In an effort to double the high school graduation rate, Gates is offering incentives for students to study math and science. In a much quoted sound bite, Gates stated: "We cannot sustain an economy based on innovation unless our citizens are educated in math, science, and engineering." Gates also noted two interesting things:
* About 30% of 9th graders do not graduate high school on time
* Microsoft has been unable to fill about 3,000 tech related jobs in the USA due to a shortage of Workers
The adjective "lackluster" that Gates applied to the countries public schools, sounds a great deal like Mike Bloomberg's Wall Street Journal editorial from December 14th, "Flabby, Inefficient, Outdated".
Increasingly, performance markers are being sought and implemented in public education; these top news stories testify to that.
-Sources
Associated Press; "Gates Voices Concerns about U.S. Education"; The New York Times, March 8, 2007
Field, Kelly; "Education Department Backs Away From Plan to Request Large Amount of New Data from Colleges;" The Chronicle of Higher Education; March 8th, 2007
