New Democrat Update - December 1999
PUTTING CHARACTER BACK INTO EDUCATION
As children are increasingly inundated with violence and moral relativism, parents feel like they are fighting a losing battle. One study found that by the end of elementary school, the average American child has watched 100,000 acts of murder, assault, and rape on television!
Despite overwhelming evidence that a “values vacuum” fuels our most intractable social problems, many on the left shy away from public institutions promoting sound values. The right cynically politicizes the debate by advocating arming teachers with concealed weapons and posting the Ten Commandants in public schools.
To meet the challenges of today's realities, the New Democrat Caucus is fighting to make character education - teaching basic civic virtues like honesty, courage, bravery, respect, responsibility, compassion and integrity - to become part of every Colorado student's public education. Children learn to be good the same way they learn anything - hearing, seeing, and doing. They grow by being told what qualities are good, by witnessing examples of moral behavior, and by practicing these virtues themselves.
With these values as part of their everyday lives, students will be more prepared to participate full in our democracy and engage in less disruptive behavior, delinquency, drug abuse and teen pregnancy. A survey of nearly 200 schools around the country that had instituted these programs found that 77 percent reported fewer disciplinary problems; 68 percent saw attendance increase; and 64 percent experienced less vandalism. In the first three years of a character education program at one New Haven, Conn. high school, teen pregnancies per year dropped from 16 to zero.
With the involvement of local communities, the state should support parents and provide the resources to school districts to integrate character education into their curriculums and, more importantly, their cultures. Colorado's children deserve nothing less.
BATTLE IN SEATTLE
Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, Congressmen Cal Dooley (D-CA), Jim Moran (D-Virginia) and Adam Smith (D-WA) sent a very pro-trade “third way” message to global leaders at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle this week. Webb focused on the real, tangible benefits of free trade - including China’s admission into the WTO - to Denver and the rest of Colorado.
As one of three mayors invited by President Clinton, Webb said in the Denver Post that free trade and ensuring American jobs “aren't mutually exclusive.” In addition, WTO admission will move China toward more open principles that are the prerequisites for foreign investment and economic growth in today's global economy. If workers' rights and environmental conditions become part of the multilateral consensus among trading countries, China's membership in the WTO will create pressure on Beijing to make the needed reforms - far more effectively than shutting it out of the rules-based trading system.
Free trade critics should take note that much of America's recent prosperity has been fueled by expanded markets overseas, resulting in the lowest level of unemployment in 30 years, lower inflation, higher wages and stock prices and reduced welfare rolls. Developing nations also benefit - those with open trade policies grew three times faster between the mid-1970's and mid-1990's than countries with closed markets, narrowing the gap between rich and poor. Finally, increased prosperity allows all nations to invest more in greater environmental protection.