"A committee could help set up a comprehensive health curriculum in school to educate children about...drug abuse and sex education. However, critics [claim this] uses valuable school time to teach issues that should be up to parents, clergy, doctors, or others to handle. Although kids would be taught by teachers instead of their own parents, it is better they are educated by someone than not at all..."
Shara Bowers, Salem High School, Salem, Missouri

Do you think education about drug abuse and sex education should be part of a school's curriculum?
Yes No

"Children are born with the knowledge of how to be bad; they don't have to be taught how to lie or steal. Until our government realizes that juvenile murderers need to be punished as if they were adults, our country will continue to be plagued by the horrific crimes of such murderers as the Menendez brothers, or the eight year old boy who swung an infant around a room, bashing his head repeatedly into the floor."
Tsiphuneah Grosso, Big Spring High School, Newville, Pennsylvania

Do you agree that children are born with the knowledge to be bad?
Yes No

"If the trouble was that the children were being abused at home, either sexually or physically, then I would be all for government intervention. If the trouble was something that the teens or children could control, then the government shouldn't get involved. Take the problem of teenage pregnancy for example: I believe this problem has a pretty simple solution that does not involve government intervention. The solution is don't have sex. Pretty simple. The other option is birth control. This is also pretty simple. Most forms of contraceptives are fairly safe today, although the best bet is not to have sex at all. I do not believe that this is the government's place to get involved."
Matt Mitchell, Iowa-Grant High School, Livingston, Wisconsin

Can the problem of teenage pregnancy be solved without government intervention?
Yes No

"Today's generation, or Generation X, as it has been commonly called, is not to blame for the current chaos in society. Children do not make ads in magazines or design clothes, make movies, create narcotics, and make alcoholic beverages, and children do not automatically break rules and laws. Children are taught by adults what rules they can break and what tolerances adults have. Children are responsible for their own basic decisions, but parents, grand-parents, educators, adults in general, have to take responsibility for the negligence in the upbringing of today's youth. Generation X did not simply create itself, it was created by the lack of parenting skills that diminished through time."
Shiela Conteras, Boys Town High School, Boys Town, Nebraska

Do you agree? Yes No

"Children and teens need help, and it is the government's moral obligation to intervene in these cases.... The government is the only organization that has the vast resources [required]. With careful money management and planning, the government can put beneficial programs into action."
Mary Bunker, Iowa-Grant High School, Livingston, Wisconsin

Is the government the only organization we can depend on to get help to those that need it?
Yes No

"The government isn't asking any mothers to stay at home, but maybe they should. . .It doesn't matter which of the two parents stay at home, but the point is the goals of one of them should be delayed for awhile."
Student, Connecticut

Do you feel the government should require that one parent stay home until a child is in school?
Yes No

"Opting out is another alternative to remedy inequity. Investing accumulates more retirement money, and it liberates the nation. Nevertheless, concern arises about the average person's ability to provide for his/her own retirement. No society will ever achieve 100 percent self-sufficiency from its own citizens. Admittedly social security helps, but that is not reason enough to deprive all citizens of the privilege of charting their own investment course."
Paige Robbins, Hereford High School, Hereford, Texas

Do you think a choice of 'opting out' would work? Yes No

"Of course, with the United States as it is today, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find adequate role models where responsibility is concerned. As the new trend of blaming everyone but yourself diffuses across our nation, the integrity that was behind the American spirit chips away with every person that refuses to take responsibility for themselves and their actions."
Ann Phillippe, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois

Is our nation running out of good role models? Yes No

Do we need them? Yes No

"A family friend of ours was eating at a fast food restaurant with his family. As he made his way to the bathroom, he slipped on a puddle of melted ice cream that lay on the floor and he severely injured his back. He was out of work for months and never sought any legal action against the restaurant, because he felt that it was his own fault for slipping. He never received anything but compensation for the work that he missed even though he still has back problems due to the accident. He would not take action because he was the one that fell on that floor. I'm not sure I would have done the same in his position."
Leif Raley, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

Do you think he should have sued the restaurant? Yes No

"In France, the government takes full responsibility for educating its citizens. Almost every student at the end of high school takes a test called the Baccalaureate, which is somewhat similar to the ACT. By passing this test, the government will pay for education at any school in the country. When government takes responsibility for its youth, the students have funding, and learn the responsibility needed to ensure success."
Micah Higgins, Joliet Central High School, Joliet, Illinois

Do you feel this would work in the United States? Yes No

Do you feel this should be done in the United States? Yes No

"Colin Powell said that he was going to 'try to restore a sense of shame in our society'. Shame is how you see yourself, it is how you feel about everything you have done wrong. Courts are starting to use shame as a punishment and even an alternative to jail. This is not only a punishment, but psychologists also hope it will help raise responsibility in these offenders."
Alex Hastie, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

Is this a realistic way to punish first time offenders?
Yes No

Is this a realistic way to punish habitual offenders?
Yes No

"Citizens who make over 35,000 dollars a year should have a reduced amount of Social Security, those making under 35,000 dollars a year should have top priority over Social Security and its major benefits. A downfall to this would be that the people who worked for their hard earned money will not receive as many benefits when they are retired. Reform would not seem fair to give less benefits to the people who paid most into Social security to begin with."
Brittney Billman, Harrisburg High School, Harrisburg, Illinois

Should Social Security restrict benefits to those who are independently wealthy?
Yes No

In Virginia the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has a new program. The INS notifies the state when they conduct a work-place raid, and provide to the state the business name, the name of the owner or manager, the number of workers removed and the kind of jobs they held. The state then tries to match the open positions to welfare recipients and the unemployed, and provides the business with a list of people to hire.

Should welfare recipients be required to take these jobs?
Yes No

Should businesses be required to participate is this program if they are caught employing illegal aliens?
Yes No

Should businesses be fined if they refuse to participate?
Yes No

"The idea to institute 'character curriculum' into school education is an intense topic of debate. Many argue that students need character education programs because many students are not taught basic values at home; others feel that educators should not force students to follow traditional family forms and values because they belong to a new and different generation. In fact, one out of five public schools already employs some kind of 'character curriculum'. Many critics feel that the instituting of 'character curriculum' is an invasion of religious rights."
Monica Hunger, Center Christian Academy, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania

Should teachers be required to teach morals and values in the classroom? Yes No

POLL: Is that too much to ask? Yes No

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Medicare is expected to go bankrupt in 2000; it is currently losing $22,000 million per day. Next year it is expected to lose $36 million per day and $60 million per day the following year. Even with the $270 billion of savings proposed for the system by the Republicans in the 104th Congress, Medicare costs would increase, only at a slower rate. One proposal coming out of the 104th Congress called for a seven percent increase instead of a ten percent increase. A proposal to raise funding for Medicaid from $89 bilion to $127 billion has been referred to as a cut. So was the proposed raise in Medicare from $178billion to $289 billion-$4,800 per senior to $7,100 per senior.

POLL: Should a slowing of the increase in spending be referred to as a cut?
Yes No

In the proposed 1997 national budget, allocations for the school lunch program were to go from $5.2 billion to $6.8 billion.

POLL: Is that a cut? Yes No

The proposal for the student loan program was a rise in funding from $24 billion to $36 billion.

POLL: Is that a cut? Yes No

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

The 1990 U.S. census may have missed five million people. More than $100 billion in annual federal aid is distributed to the states and passed along to local governments based on census figures. This aid is used in planning highways, health care and meeting education needs as well as a myriad of other services. This by itself is reason enough for reform. But in this age of budget cutting, the Census Bureau is facing a mandate to do a more accurate accounting in the year 2000 with fewer dollars. Much of the $2.6 billion spent on the 1990 Census went to temporary census-takers who called on some houses as many as six times. Conducting the 2000 Census in the same manner is estimated to cost taxpayers $4.8 billion-$4.8 billion for inaccurate results. It is the last ten percent of the population that is so uncooperative that an infinite amount of dollars spent tracking them down would not guarantee an accurate count. There is a solution:

The Inspector General of the Commerce Department estimates a savings of $1.7 billion if 70 percent of households are counted and estimates for the remaining 30 percent were made from information gathered by visits to a sample of this hard-to-reach group. The Bureau followed this procedure in a 1995 test and the Inspector General thinks such a plan would be more reliable than pursuing 90 percent of the population and estimating from a sampling of the last ten percent-another proposal. There are better uses for $1.7 billion in this era of social needs, than visiting dwellings up to six times each for inaccurate statistics.

POLL: Do you think the American public would be content with such a plan?
Yes No

POLL:Would you accept the proposal? Yes No

If politicians try and make programs cost effective they are not likely to be returned to Congress. We don't reward what White House Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta calls "hard choices." Republicans took a shelacking for trying to rein in Medicare. But the facts show to advert disaster the government has to slow the growth of spending. The fear on Capitol Hill is that the courageous may have to be content with one term. Nevertheless, being courageous is the only way to get something done in the political arena.

Poll: Do we need a third party or some kind of independent voice to encourage tough choices? Yes No