Youth Radio - Topic: Obama

In Iowa, Young Voters Unenthusiastic About Obama

rgee — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:09:12 -0600

This story originally aired on NPR's All Things Considered, 1/3/12.

Young voters came out in huge numbers to elect Obama in 2008, but how many young people remain inspired and involved four years later? Democrats this year will be using their caucus to test how much support they have in the state, especially from the young voters. But those young caucus-goers may not show up this year -- at least not for Obama.

The Obama For America campaign’s communication director in Iowa, John Kraus says the caucuses are a chance to show that Obama’s network from 2008 hasn’t disappeared. Despite the state’s focus on Republican candidates, Kraus says young Iowans are still connected to the campaign and still devoted to Obama. “Whether it's the Iraq War or ending "don't ask don't tell," making college more affordable… Many of the things that he talked about in 2008 that inspired a lot of young people to get involved are issues that he delivered on,” said Kraus.

23 year-old Nick Cavanaugh is one of the more than 26,000 young Democrats who caucused for Obama in 2008. Back then, he was tan easy choice for Cavanaugh and his friends. “I'm pretty sure everybody was excited about Obama in 2008,” said Cavanugh.

But this year, Cavanaugh says he doesn’t know which candidate his peers support. Apart from a few Facebook posts here and there, no one talks about the caucuses. “It's the arguing in Washington, man, has really turned me off to it. So I’ve started ignoring it all. I used to be a lot more politically informed, but not anymore. I just kind of let it go,” he said.

Cavanaugh says he’ll still probably vote for Obama in November. But caucusing for him? Definitely not. And that’s the prevailing attitude John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, has seen this year when he surveyed 18 to 29 year-olds. “There is a deep pessimism among young people across the country, only 12 percent of young Americans believe the country is running in the right direction,” said Volpe.

In December, Della Volpe held a focus group in Des Moines with young Democrats and Independents who supported Obama’s election in 2008. He says they were frustrated that the President, their candidate, hasn’t had more success getting his agenda past Congress. That he didn’t change enough in Washington.

“I do think young people are sending up a signal - letting both Obama, Republicans know that they’re just frustrated, that they don’t see as much change, as much of an effort at engaging this generation as they did last election cycle,” said Volpe.

Just how young Iowans send that signal on Caucus Night could be as routine and undramatic as a low turnout. Or some of them may switch parties, like 25-year-old Matt Heflin of Coralville. “Never in a million years imagined myself registering Republican – stay away from all Republicans, you know, they’re the Dark Side,” said Heflin.

And yet the former Obama supporter is now running a grassroots campaign office for Ron Paul in this suburb of Iowa City. Heflin says he’s just one of many young liberal voters who are receptive to the Texas Congressman’s stance on issues – like cutting the military budget and ending the War on Drugs. Heflin says he’s doing all he can to turn their open-mindedness into caucus votes. “We definitely go to areas that are traditionally much younger… have a higher student population. When we call people, I try to avoid a certain age demographic calling because I'm just not very successful... I’d say anybody over 60 is just not on board with Ron Paul, I’ve found,” said Heflin.

“Don’t trust anyone over 60”--a strange slogan for supporting a candidate who is 76 years old. But polls show that young Republicans and Independents are responsible for making Paul a top contender in Iowa. And in hopes of adding young Democrats to that support base, the Paul campaign has been handing out pamphlets with instructions on how to register Republican, just for Caucus Night.

This story was produced by Charlie Foster.

Why Young Liberals, Like Me, Will Vote Ron Paul

rgee — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:38:20 -0600

By Jacqueline Cuddeback, Turnstyle News

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- I’ve lived in Iowa my whole life, and as a senior political science major at Coe College, I understand the importance of being politically active. But the moves made recently by President Obama and Congress, coupled with some of the outrageous statements made by mainstream Republican candidates, have me nervous as the Iowa caucus fast approaches; whom can I vote for? Not a president who believes it is OK to assassinate American citizens overseas, or a president who would repeal all of the progress made to protect the environment and the rights of gays. Third party? Or just don’t vote – a show of no confidence, like the Occupy Movement was doing? Then I realized there was a third option.

I worried about breaking the news to my friend Reid, a hard core liberal. “Don’t be mad at me,” I told him, “but I’m afraid I have to vote Republican this coming election.” “Me too,” said Reid. “I’m sure not voting for Obama -- I’m voting Ron Paul.” My jaw dropped.

Reid said that although he supported Obama in 2008, he has followed the Texas Congressman for years. He was the only candidate he felt hadn’t lied to us and has the voting record to prove it. “And I’m sorry, I don’t want to be declared a terrorist and ‘disappear’ in the middle of the night,” Reid said. Reid and I had been involved in the Occupy Cedar Rapids movement together, me silently documenting, him actively participating. I knew he was angry about Obama’s new budget plan. I just never expected him to lean Republican.

Reid demonstrates what John Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard’s Institute for Politics, told Turnstyle about our generation. This election season, the so-called 18 - 29 year-old Millennials are up for grabs, and Ron Paul has all the right moves. We might align with liberal ideas on paper, but in Iowa, the earliest state in the nation to caucus for presidential candidates, it’s Ron Paul who will get young voters out of the house to caucus in sub-freezing weather. “There is a chord clearly that Ron Paul is striking with young people,” said Volpe. “It’s just his incredible authenticity, and a focus on this libertarian, independent streak that young people have always had. And he’s also putting an effort behind it.”

Professor Dianne Bystrom at Iowa State University witnessed the energy for Ron Paul first-hand. She teaches a Campaign Rhetoric class every four years to coincide with the presidential elections. On December 8, she attended a Ron Paul event on campus with over 1,000 attendees. “It started at 7 o’clock, but people were standing in line at 6, almost like a rock concert,” Bystrom said. “It was a pretty raucous crowd because they were packed in. Afterwards students were waiting in line to take pictures with him.”

Sarah Banowetz, 29, is astonished by the way Ron Paul has captured the attention of her 20-year-old brother. “He doesn’t care about anything, but he’s totally all for Ron Paul,” said Banowetz. “Whether Ron Paul wins or not, it’s been really cool to watch my brother learn about stuff and really take an interest.”

So why do Millennials go for Ron Paul? Bystrom said it could be the 76-year-old’s grandfatherly age and appearance. But it’s also his politics.

My father and I have never agreed when it comes to politics. According to him, I’ve been brainwashed by my liberal arts education; and I think he’s stuck in the politics of a time long passed. I mean, I’m the political science student, right? Shouldn’t I know what’s going on in the world today? I remember being thrilled in 2008 when I attended the Democratic caucus despite the fact that my parents were attending the Republican one; I found I had a lot of friends in the same situation. Now, in 2012, we may be voting in the same place. I can’t help but groan – times are changing.

And change is exactly what people my age are looking for.

Turnstyle spoke with Angel Williams, 25, who went looking for change at a Ron Paul rally. After the event, she no longer had any reservations about voting for him. Meanwhile, she had nothing but reservations for Obama, her 2008 choice. His presidency, “just wasn’t what I expected.” Paul represents dramatic change for young people, according to both Volpe and Bystrom. The first thing many young people see is an anti-war candidate. “For many young voters, the war in Iraq has been going on for most of their lifetime,” Bystrom said. “While older Republicans are wary of Ron Paul’s isolationist policies, they appeal to young voters.”

“At first the foreign policy caught me like everyone else,” said 18-year-old Ian Hollinger, “But to be honest, when you hear him speak, I don’t have any more reservations.” Hollinger, a student at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City, said he also talks a lot about Paul’s economic policy when he volunteers for the campaign. “The whole idea that you don’t need to spend trillions of dollars to run a government really appeals to me,” he said.

But the students at Iowa’s 64 colleges and universities are still on winter vacation. Will they show up to caucus for Paul?

Volpe says yes -- there may even be more support for Paul than is showing up in the polls. “I feel that Ron Paul is potentially flying under the radar in a way frankly, that Barack Obama was flying under the radar four years ago,” he said.

Paul might also be underestimated due to the fact that the Iowa Poll by the Des Moines Register, surveyed a pool that was 69 percent men and 31 percent women. According to Bystrom, women attend caucuses in larger proportions than men do--and are big Ron Paul supporters. “He’s the only candidate with a big gender gap,” said Bystrom.

The question is: do young people and women give Ron Paul the edge he needs to win in Iowa? And if he does win, could the momentum carry over to the rest of the country?

Here in Iowa, we are proud to hold the first caucus -- proud to help decide which candidate has a chance at winning the presidency. I mean, what else do we have to be proud of except cornfields as far as the eye can see? Yet even here, my experiences show that this year a lot of young people are indifferent; otherwise, they’re supporting Paul. GOP members have said that if Ron Paul wins the Iowa caucus, and loses the party nomination, the Iowa caucuses may lose their legitimacy -- especially if many who caucused for Ron Paul end up voting Democratic in the general election.

And according to Della Volpe’s Harvard poll, Millennials nationwide would still vote for Obama over a Republican candidate. But at least among my friends, change from the status quo is essential, and it’s no longer under Obama’s banner.

If Paul doesn’t get the Republican nomination, many of us will either take our vote to another party or not vote at all. Della Volpe told Turnstyle, “I think it’s a tremendous mistake for members of the Democratic party to take young people for granted. There’s nothing to believe that young people won’t continue to show this independent streak and continue to think and evaluate and question the role of party and the effect that they have on selecting candidates.”

After all, we’re still up for grabs. I’m realizing Ron Paul is the only candidate I could accept; none of the others represent me. So what do I do if he doesn’t win the nomination? I feel like many of my friends, and people in my generation, are asking the same question. Party politics don’t matter to us; we want a candidate that will represent us and will act in our interest. If not Ron Paul, then who?

Robyn Gee contributed reporting and editing to this story.

Decision To Keep Plan B Behind The Counter WIll Impact Students

rgee — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:20:06 -0600

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decided to overrule the Food and Drug Administration’s report that Plan B emergency contraception was safe to sell over the counter. The Washington Post reports that this decision by the Obama administration symbolized a broken promise to honor scientific and medical evidence in the realm of public health.

At Youth Radio, we’ve been paying close attention to the school-based health centers popping up all over California and elsewhere. The main service they provide is access to reproductive health care. So how will this decision trickle down and impact school-based health centers and ultimately, America’s young people?

Sang Leng Trieu, Senior Program Manager for the California School Health Centers Association, said that emergency contraception is more effective the sooner one takes it. “We stress to students, anyone trying to avoid pregnancy, obtain it asap,” said Trieu. Therefore, the decision to make Plan B harder to obtain, will impact its efficacy. “Youth already have a more difficult time accessing reproductive health. They already have more barriers, like transportation,” she said.

According to Trieu, the most popular times for students to access health centers for reproductive care are Friday afternoons and Monday mornings. “If you have unprotected sex Friday night, and your provider is closed over the weekend, you have to wait until Monday morning,” she said.

Overall, Trieu said the decision is very sad for those in the public health field who have been working on this issue for a long time. “The fight is about increasing access in anyway we can,” said Trieu.

Waivers for "No Child Left Behind" Won't Fix Atlanta Or Country, Says Educator

rgee — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:10:45 -0500

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced today that states will be able to apply for waivers if they wish to be exempt from the requirements laid out in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, put in place during the Bush administration to raise academic standards, according to NPR.

The Washington Post quotes Duncan saying that states and local administrations are “clamoring” for change and that the law is dysfunctional, and calls for 100 percent of students to be proficient in math and reading by the year 2014, without providing support structures to reach that goal.

The Obama administration called for a major revision of the law, but Congress has yet to produce a draft. Since the law was up for re-authorization and revision, some in the House and Senate, as well as educators, are worried that the waivers will confuse the debate, and take the focus off of the major changes they believe need to be addressed in the re-writing of NCLB.

Others don’t think the waivers will matter at all.

One of these voices is Edward Williams, 2009 Teach for America corps member in Atlanta, Georgia, and current student at Georgetown University Law Center. “Arne Duncan and the Obama administrations' ‘waivers’ from the penalties of not meeting NCLB standards will not likely have any tangible results... It simply doesn’t force states that receive the waivers to implement the burdensome takeover models prescribed in the federal legislation,” he said.

Williams taught at one of the schools in Atlanta that was implicated in the Atlanta cheating scandal. In some sense, the waivers seem like a direct response to the issues teachers raised when responding to accusations of cheating. Many teachers said that the pressure to move kids towards proficiency had gotten out of hand. However, Williams thinks the top down pressure will remain the same, even if they receive a federal waiver. “Especially in schools like the one in which I taught. As Georgia moves toward pay-for-performance in the coming years, the pressure to produce high test scores ‘by any means necessary’ will increase as people’s livelihoods are more directly connected to test scores,” said Williams.

When Williams was a teacher, he encountered pressure related to NCLB and test scores at the beginning of each school year and a couple months before statewide testing. Just a few weeks after school had started, he said he was forced to rank his students by their likelihood to pass the end of year assessment. His administrator would ask how many students he expected to score proficient. If Williams said, “I have 15,” the administrator might say, “We need 17 to meet our AYP” (Adequate Yearly Progress). It would be on Williams to make the numbers work.

Williams said his students were usually separated into classes based on their expected proficiency level as testing season approached. According to Williams, this did not mean more resources were dedicated to the students who were behind. “This usually meant a diminished focus on the students that [needed] attention the most and increased focus on bumping students who were on the cusps into the proficiency and above proficiency levels. As a teacher, this was disheartening,” he said. Williams also noticed that if the number of students not expected to meet statewide proficiency levels was “acceptable” according to NCLB, then these students were often ignored or deprioritized.

With this kind of pressure, it’s no wonder that teachers changed their students’ test scores. “Every teacher knew that something was wrong. When a child walks into a fifth grade classroom reading on a first grade level, but has somehow passed the third and fourth grade reading exams with proficiency, you immediately recognize that something is wrong,” he said.

Even though Williams saw the problems in his own school district, he knows the problem is not unique to Atlanta. “In my view, the system in which American children are educated is a result of the laws and policies which create its structure. Because I believe that the achievement gap is a systemic, structural problem, I want to work to fix the problem from its core," he said.

Obama Seeks To Cut Vocational Programs--What Does That Mean?

squevedo — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:03:12 -0500

Career and technical education may be facing deep financial cuts. A proposed federal budget could mean as much as a 20 percent reduction to funding for vocational programs in 2012, according to the New York Times. Obama instead seeks to increase funding for overall education by 11 percent.

The Times reports that these proposed cuts are a step toward the president’s goal of raising academic standards and ultimately have the highest share of college graduates of any other nation by 2020. But Dr. David Dabaco, a teacher at Lincoln High school Engineering and Construction Academy in Stockton, CA, disagrees with the president’s college-bound campaign. “As a society we have to provide educational opportunities for all students, not just those college-bound,” he says. “If we can show these kids we can provide you with these skills and you’ll get your foot in the door, and you’ll make x numbers of dollars. That can break the cycle of poverty, and that’s an accomplishment.”

The Academy where Dabaco teaches is not a typical vocational program. It provides students with opportunities to choose from four unique career paths such as Architecture, Mechanical Construction, Construction Technology, and Cabinetry and Woodwork but at the same time exists within a traditional high school.

Programs like these seem particularly relevant considering the recent census data that projects that the construction industry has the largest growth. “The bottom line is that you can’t hammer on a nail over the internet, you need someone to hold the nail, you need someone to hammer it and do the work,” said Dabaco. The United States, he said, needs to work on creating a workforce.

Vocational programs like the Academy's can also make a difference for students who are in danger of falling through the cracks. Dabaco remembers a particular student, Cody, who struggled his freshman year, receiving C’s, D’s, and F’s in all his classes. Then Cody took a class called Introduction to Construction and blossomed. One particular project was to create a boat made of just cardboard and duct-tape and eventually sail the boat across the school’s pool. They had to learn mathematics in conjunction with the law of density to ensure the boat would float. Cody dived right in. “We have plenty of kids like Cody, who don’t like mathematics but now they really want to understand the mathematic principals… [With] some students you can come in to class and throw up a problem and they'll solve it. Other students need to see what the point is. 'How is this going to help me?' We tell them--concretely--where it can be applied to what they’re interested in.”

Ignorance Scarier Than Bin Laden Ever Was

denise — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:29:09 -0500

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Tajah Jones

When I first think of a villain I think of the joker, not Osama bin Laden.Bin Laden and the war seemed distant from my everyday life. What affected me was the racial prejudice against Muslims and people of color following September 11th.

During the last presidential election, there was a poster circulating of Barack Obama with a long beard and a turban. Beneath the image it read, “Obama bin Laden.” The image shocked me as extreme propaganda.

This really struck me when I visited my Muslim cousin in D.C. -- 6 years after 9/11. We went through airport security and my cousin was unnecessarily questioned because of her hijab. As if simply being Muslim made her dangerous – or a terrorist. Until then, I never associated being an American Muslim with Bin Laden. They seemed like two totally different things.

I know he’s supposed to be the scariest man of our time, or the face of evil, but Osama Bin Laden didn’t scare me. The people who don’t question what they hear -- they scare me.

President Obama Challenges Public Schools

denise — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:50:04 -0600

President Obama has made it clear over and over again that education is extremely important to him, so it is not a surprise that he’s challenging public schools in his 2011 Commencement Challenge to demonstrate how their school best prepares their students for college and a career.

This friendly challenge consists of submitting essay questions and statistical information that shows, “how schools are promoting college and career readiness for all students while establishing a culture of student success and academic excellence.”

Schools need to submitt their applications by March 11 at 11:59 pm EST.

President Obama To Hold Online Town Hall Meeting

denise — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:15:37 -0600

By Denise Tejada

President Obama held an online town hall meeting last year in which users submitted thousands and thousands of questions that he pledged to answer. Ranked high among them was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation. President Obama was quick to express his opposition. He said he didn’t, “think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”

Now, the president is set to hold another online town hall meeting on Thursday January 27. People can submit their questions to youtube.com/askobama or via Twitter using #askobama hashtag.

Dominating the polls is the same topic, marijuana. Here are some of the popular questions so far:

“Why are you not pursuing the legalization/decriminalization¬ of marjuana on a federal level when it is proven Mr. President that it would be a positive source of revenue for our dying economy and a positive source of safe treatment for the ill?”

“Dear Mr. President, Why are you against the legalisation of Marijuana? You yourself have admitted to smoking it, it can generate huge profits from taxation and people can enjoy themselves legally, as they're going to consume the drug anyway.”

“Mr. President, why is marijuana illegal considering that alcohol and tobacco kill millions of people a year, yet marijuana has nevery directly killed anyone?”

If you don’t like the questions being submitted then submit yours by midnight (ET) on Wednesday January 26.

New York Teachers Publicly Ranked

rgee — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:12:12 -0600

In a controversial ruling, a New York judge decided on Monday that the New York City school system can publicly release the value-added rankings of school teachers. Many teachers are highly opposed to this decision because they say the rating system is flawed, while the judge declared that the job performance of public employees is fair game for public release, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Value-added analysis measures how much a student’s test scores improved over the time span that they had a specific teacher. One central argument against using this measure for teacher evaluation is that it does not take into account the pre-existing factors that might lower a student’s test performance. In addition, some teachers disagree with using standardized test scores as a way of measuring intelligence arguing that it does not require students to think critically.

However, school districts around the country have turned towards value-added analysis as a way to maintain teacher accountability and bring up student achievement. The Los Angeles Times first stirred up this controversy by publishing of the value-added rankings of LAUSD teachers in the paper.

In addition to making the rankings public, by 2013, New York State will require value-added analysis scores to count for 25 percent of a teacher’s performance evaluation. For more of Youth Radio’s coverage on the debate surrounding value-added analysis scores, click here.

CJNY Pushes For Juvenile Justice Reform

rgee — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:28:33 -0600

This weekend, advocates from all over the country traveled to Washington D.C. to show their support for reauthorizing the Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention Act (JJDPA) and passing the Youth PROMISE (Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support, and Education) Act. The Community Justice Network for Youth held a two-day conference on Saturday and Sunday, and a press conference this morning to urge the Obama administration to change the disciplinary system for young people.

Youth, parents, and advocates will visit their individual legislators after the press conference and show their support for these issues. The overall message of the weekend is that youth are being mistreated while incarcerated, when incarceration is not the most productive solution. In addition, money is being spent in the wrong places.

The speakers at the conference consisted of people with personal testimonials, policy advocates, and directors of youth support services. Youth Radio spoke with two of them to get their personal perspective on the issue.

Rev. Ruben Austria founded the first and only community-based alternative to incarceration program in the Bronx, called BronxConnect. “We took kids with open cases in court, and we convinced the judges to keep them in their own communities in our 12-month program. We got 84 percent of these kids to complete the program, and five years later, these kids were half as likely to get re-arrested, and those who did, were half as likely to commit felonies.” He recently established a new nonprofit, Community Connections for Youth, which will provide support to nonprofits that are interested in serving as alternatives to detention or incarceration.

Austria began doing this work twelve years ago, and soon saw many faults in the juvenile justice system. “Kids who had committed very minor offenses, like hopping the subway turnstyle, shoplifting, or simply being in their own housing projects without proper identification were being incarcerated and never getting out. I saw how the system was so punitive, and targeting only certain young people from low income communities.”

Austria said that when young people are incarcerated in New York, 89 percent of boys reoffend and 81 percent of girls reoffend. He also said that it costs around 240,000 dollars per year to incarcerate one young person. “The money is going to support prisons in upstate New York where the communities are economically dependant on the incarceration of young people from low-income communities. Last month, one young person was killed while being restrained by staff, and another young person hung himself from his shoelaces in New York prisons. It’s a pattern.”

Austria said he was at the conference to support the movement of the people. “The conference has been phenomenal. There are so many people here struggling to do this work in their own corners, who might feel like there are overwhelming odds. But this has created a sense of momentum. We will starve this beast that has been devouring our children.”

Vicky Gunderson is a leading advocate in Wisconsin for keeping kids out of jail. She told the story of her son, Kirk.

“In 2005, when I was out of town, my 17 year-old son stabbed his younger brother and his father multiple times. His father and son were taken to the Intensive Care Unit. I convinced my son to turn himself in to the county police. He was incarcerated in the La Crosse County Prison.

He was supposed to go to court in November, but it was postponed. We had just cut a deal - we weren’t going to be going to trial. However, in jail, the other inmates told Kirk that he needed to give himself a tattoo. They were teaching him how to self-tattoo using a diabetic needle and ink pens. But they got caught. Kirk was taken to the hold. He was feeling anxious and told the guards he didn’t want to be left alone. But they left him alone anyway.

In those isolation cells, they had smoke detection grates. On December 27, Kirk took his own life by tying his sheets to the detection grate and hanging himself.

There are so many other ways that we could be handling juveniles in the system. What my son did was very serious, but when you do assessments and figure out why he took that path, you would see so much more. Kirk had concussions form playing football, and hockey. He was also addicted to oxycotin. He also drank alcohol. Yes, he needed to be accountable, but there were things that led him down that path to start with."