Campaigns rely on political platitudes: "We need to have more community policing. We need our schools to function better. We need to invest in the areas hardest hit by poverty ..." is just a whole lot of blah, blah, blah. It' the nature of campaigning and politics in general ... stating the obvious while offering no policy solutions. Unfortunately, it also may be endemic to the populace in general which has a short attention span, is deeply entrenched in their ideology, and has little time for debate. So platitudes stick. And, of course, there's the problem of money, which you pointed out.
I'd like to add one thing to your list of solutions. Recently, Pennsylvania Gov. John Shapiro signed an executive order that drops the requirement of a college degree 92 percent of state jobs. Maryland adopted this policy last year, and Utah later followed suit. This policy opens up opportunity to larger segments of the population(s). In Pennsylvania, for example, 70 percent of the populace do not have college degrees. Instead, they're adopting a policy based on measuring skills based abilities.
Good stuff, Erin.
Campaigns rely on political platitudes: "We need to have more community policing. We need our schools to function better. We need to invest in the areas hardest hit by poverty ..." is just a whole lot of blah, blah, blah. It' the nature of campaigning and politics in general ... stating the obvious while offering no policy solutions. Unfortunately, it also may be endemic to the populace in general which has a short attention span, is deeply entrenched in their ideology, and has little time for debate. So platitudes stick. And, of course, there's the problem of money, which you pointed out.
I'd like to add one thing to your list of solutions. Recently, Pennsylvania Gov. John Shapiro signed an executive order that drops the requirement of a college degree 92 percent of state jobs. Maryland adopted this policy last year, and Utah later followed suit. This policy opens up opportunity to larger segments of the population(s). In Pennsylvania, for example, 70 percent of the populace do not have college degrees. Instead, they're adopting a policy based on measuring skills based abilities.
Anyway, really good piece. -- Jim (Jim's Gems)