How The Outcomes Of The Election Effect Education

  Recently I read an article in The Huffington Post about how school curriculum all over the country is facing multiple levels of reform due to new bills being passed.  This new legislature is due to the election of new officials and representatives for education departments across the nation.
  Over the past few years, many reform efforts in education have been achieved through the election of people with authority in each state; reform could be looked at through either lens, good or bad in this case.  A lot of people would be surprised at what children are learning today in schools.
  In many southern and western states, homosexuality and sexual education have been banned or restricted to a point where abstinence is the main focus.  Some schools also offer safe sex practice procedures as well as sexual education for parents as well as students.
  The voucher system has come under fire in recent years, stemming mostly from people paying taxes and government involvement in local affairs.  Vouchers, for those who don't know, allow lower middle class families to send their children to private or charter schools with the money they would've been spending in taxes at their local public school.  Obviously there's a lengthy application process involved and approval from the board of education.  Even though I believe the option to send children to other schools should lie with the parents, the voucher system only hurts public education by allowing parents a "safety net" for a better education.  Those in office should be putting more emphasis on funding, reform, and improvement of public educational systems instead.
  Schools across the country have also decided to drop the use and teaching of cursive writing, stating that there isn't enough time or space in each curriculum to devote to this style of writing.  While many students could care less, (who loved learning how to write in cursive?), parents are concerned with the serious change in school policies and curriculum across the board.  The emphasis is now on teaching children keyboarding techniques in order to gear them more towards a 21st-century business zone focusing on technology advances in society.  Although this will ultimately be a useful change in the education system, the loss of cursive writing and other important time-tested teaching practices have startled parents.  If we lose cursive, what's next?  Recess?  Calculators?  Rulers?
  However bleak things may seem for education, there has been significant progress.  According to the article by Huffington Post, last year California became the first state to require the teaching of gay and lesbian history and current contributions to the nation in public schools.  This is a huge milestone in education as well as in homosexual rights and history.  Perhaps this new legislature will eventually move into more public schools across the country, especially with marriage equality growing across the board.