Steffi Badanes
Blogs Editor
I am surprised that Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has stayed in the race for this long. Since our May 25 2011 post, Looking ahead at 2012: Newt Gingrich, Gingrich has certainly proven me wrong and actually managed to launch his campaign. Gingrich has managed to avoid the bottom of the polls, coming in 4th place in the Iowa Caucus with 13% of the vote, and 4th place again in the New Hampshire primary with 9% of the vote. But there is still a lot that will keep Newt Gingrich from getting the Republican nomination. Like I said in our previous post, coming out against Congressman Paul Ryan’s plan to slash Medicare spending lost Gingrich the support of extreme conservatives. His “patriotic” affair and three marriages haven’t helped his image either.
But Gingrich’s recent plan to put poor students to work as janitors during school hours has really pushed me over the edge. There are a number of things wrong with this plan:
1. It violates child labor laws since students of all ages would be included.
2. It raises unemployment since school janitors across the country would be laid off and left unemployed.
3. It’s not a child’s job to make money to support a family. A parent or guardian’s job is to work to support a family. A child’s job is to go to school so they can get the education to have a career when they are adults.
4. It further divides social classes since it reveals who’s poor and who’s not in a school.
5. It gives kids unnecessary humiliation and makes them more susceptible to bullying.
Newt Gingrich feels that this plan will reduce the need for food stamps, thus reducing government spending. At the Fox News GOP debate on Jan 16, Gingrich said, “I’m going to continue to help poor people learn to get a job, learn to get a better job, and eventually learn to own the job.” Conservatives like Newt Gingrich need to realize that food stamps are good for keeping the poor fed, and that “not knowing how to get a job” isn’t the reason why the poor are poor. (Although we are no longer in a recession, we are still in pretty tough economic times where finding a job is still very difficult. Other people may be working multiple jobs and under certain circumstances, still struggle to make ends meet.)
The South Carolina primary is this Saturday, Jan 21. Newt Gingrich still isn’t pleasing me, and he’s not pleasing Republican voters enough to stay at the top of the polls. So basically, if Newt Gingrich fails in the upcoming primary, he really needs to go.
Video by BuzzFeed
Many kids at our school have jobs. For instance, I know a number of kids who work at Bruegger’s Bagels. Why do they work there? So they can earn money.
What Gingrich is proposing, is an opportunity for young students to learn to have experience working, and get paid for it. Secondly, I am sure kids would have the opportunity to work as janitors during school hours where they would most likely not be seen by other students – or perhaps, clean in rather remote areas of their school.
Your right – It isn’t a child’s job to make money to support a family. But, perhaps this kid wants to buy an Xbox. He could be the wealthiest kid in his school, and perhaps his parents don’t want to buy him an Xbox, unless he does something to earn it. In the end – If the kid decides to work at the school, both he, and the parents eventually end up satisfied.
Also – I see no real difference between your last two points – essentially they are a restatement of the same idea. And as I addressed before, there are simple countermeasures to such instances. Additionally, Gingrich was merely using janitorial work as one example of many opportunities for the young to earn money. Perhaps students would rather assist their schools in other ways, such as assisting them in their computer networking system, or perhaps something else within their school library.
Gingrich is proposing this system – not promising to implement it. Surely this act would have to pass congress in order to justify it based on the pre-existing legislation you mentioned earlier, but Gingrich is not effectively challenging the current laws in his proposal.
Lastly, I find it prudent for all to realize that, the personal lives of politicians, should play absolutely no part in deciding the outcome of any election. Yes, Gingrich has had many marriages. What does this have to do with being the President of the United States? Not everyone is a saint, and taking the mistakes they make in their personal matters, and turning it into something significant during a presidential primary is wrong. (To paraphrase Gingrich himself)
I mean no offense in my statements – I just wish to express my views, as you have expressed yours.