State of Education: Understanding the election process
With President Obama's re-election this week, we are taking a look at the subject, and how it relevant it is in today’s classroom. YNN’s Vince Gallagher started at the Catksill High School.
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"The government and politics are intertwined in our curriculum, so we get a little bit of everything in our U.S. history classes,” said Patrick Fenaughty, a student.
That includes discussing the candidates, what they stand for, and better yet, holding their own debates.
"We were pretty split, we were pretty half and half and the debate actually lasted for about three days, so different points were brought up," said Fenaughty.
Then comes the vote, or more specifically, where it comes from.
"It made us realize how much each state has control over the actual outcome...it's not just us voting, it depends on your population," said Susanne Prendergast, also a student.
One of the recurring topics students mentioned is regardless who the president is, he or she can't really act alone. For one student it also proved something to her.
"That not everyone knows everything about the debate, no matter how many debates you watch, no matter how many things you do, there are a lot of split ideas and not everyone is informed to what's going on,” said another student, Elizabeth Barden.
Hudson High School held their own debates as well, which, as one student points out, really isn’t much different from what's out there in the so-called "real world."
"They had to defend certain things, so in the classroom it's interesting to see how people felt about Obama and Romney and what their thoughts were on changing the world," said Megan Pinkowski, a student.
And finally. politics in general. The president was re-elected, and once again the Democrats have the Senate majority and the Republicans have the House. So will anything change for the presidency?
"I think a lot of kids will be discussing what can happen, what will happen, and a lot of it is expectations, also a lot of it is ideas of what should be done," said Barden.
"He couldn't get people to back him so he could pass them, so I think it's going to be another struggle for four years to try to get laws through," said Pinkowski.
Despite the possible struggle, President Obama has promised to expand his policies on education. For example, continuing forward with the Race to the Top grant, initiating job training programs in community colleges, and recruiting nearly 100,000 new math and science teachers.