3mo ago

Hawaii public school lesson on presidential candidates stirs mixed emotions

www.hawaiinewsnow.com Hawaii public school lesson on presidential candidates stirs mixed emotions

The race for the White House is reaching local classrooms and one lesson has some parents calling "bias."

The controversy is over a two-page document that was handed out to classrooms at Kapolei Middle School.

It broke down where the U.S. presidential candidates — Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump — stand on the issues.

The state Department of Education confirms the document was put together by a group of teachers at the school who simplified the information in a candidate comparison article in the New York Times.

The material given out to students lists six issues.

CRIME

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        Harris: “Gives money to police”
    Trump: “Sends soldiers to cities”

DEMOCRACY

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        Harris: “Wants to keep our country a democracy”
    Trump: “Tried to overturn the 2020 election

IMMIGRATION

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        Harris: “Hires more people to watch the border”
    Harris: “Limits how many people can move to the U.S.
    Trump: “Finds and catches people in the U.S. illegally”
    Trump: “Takes children away from their parents”

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30 comments

I read the headline and thought the controversy was probably stupid. Then I read the comparisons.
They should have pulled out planks from the party platforms. At least write what the party says it is going to do in its own words. It's OK to simplify, but this list is heavily editorialized. I don't know how much of that was from the NYT article (editorial?) and how much was the teacher's take.
I think it would be fine to have these characterizations of each party's policies in Speech & Debate coming from the opponents.
- It's a comparison between Harris and Trump, not between the parties.
  
  In theory the candidate supports and has a heavy influence over the party platform.
  
  So that's either true in practice, in which case there's no problem putting the candidates' views there, since they represent the party too; or it's false in practice, in which case the candidates' views should be there, because that's who you're voting for.
  
  My point is they are putting up views they ascribe to the candidate. It would be better to quote a written or spoken statement.
  I guess people can't figure this out without having it reversed so they can understand it. Imagine a school district in Idaho handing out a lesson to students where they characterized the candidates' positions thusly:
  Abortion Trump: Opposed to baby-killing Harris: Allows baby-killing in most cases.
  
  So you're saying that some of the answers are flat out lies like in your example?
- At least write what the party says it is going to do
  No, they should present what each party actually tries to do. No more lies.

30 comments