Bubbly Blog: Election Week

Big week this week. Yes it is election week in Massachusetts and everyones a steaming with anticipation. Now I've set out to make it a goal to figure out what this elections all about. With all the work I have and do, I never get a chance to watch the news and simple know what's going on around me. Apparently Saddam's going to be hanged. Who knew? Just found that out this morning.

Anyway so I thought to myself, its probably important that I pay attention to this stuff because once I am able to vote, I'll need to know the way to go about deciding who to vote for. so with a little help from Ms. Breen and some Googling of my own, I think I've finally got it.

Now I went to the WBUR website where they have a clever test where you say whether you disagree with a point, or agree, then at the end it tell you who you agreed with the most, and who I disagreed with the most. So I did that.

Now here was the tough part. I went in thinking I was either a Deval Patrick or a Grace Ross kind of person. Well low and behold my outcome was I agreed with Deval 10 times (thats every point) and Grace Ross 9 times (thats every point, except for one, that being MCAS). She says

The test is a big part of the dropout problem. Eliminate it as a graduation requirement.

Now I don't totally agree with that. I mean having taken the MCAS, and as frustrating and pointless as I've thought them, I think it's a pretty basic requirement to pass that test. The test isn't extremely hard and just makes sure you know the basics of the subject. So this is where Deval comes and says exactly what I think.

The test, including the addition of a science component, should remain a graduation requirement, but it should not be the sole assessment of academic progress.

I think the test is good because, to agree partly with Healey, the MCAS provides a benchmark for schools and checks to make sure schools are teaching what they are supposed to. This way every school can be monitored and made sure one isn't teaching poorly. But like Deval says, It shouldn't be the main assessment of academic progress. I mean one test shouldn't decide whether you pass or not. So a combination of both the grades of a student and the score on he MCAS should be the ultimate deciding factor to graduation.

So I'm going to have to say that I pretty much completely disagree with Ross on that one. So in my final decision I believe Deval Patrick is my man. He seems like he's got some good ideas and well he seems to support my position so it only makes sense that I vote for him.

So everyone when going to the ballots, (now to make a cheap, and sly ad) make sure you vote Deval because together we can!