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Health & Fitness

BLOG: Elementary School Kids Host Congressional Debate

3rd Graders hosted the final Congressional debate for CA's new 33rd District. The students will participate in a mock Primary on Tuesday. Preliminary polls show Mr. Collett leading 10 to 1.

Friday’s debate at Hancock Park Elementary School was a demonstration of what is possible with great teaching and terrific children in public schools. Five candidates for Congress in California’s 33rd Congressional district faced off for their third and final debate in anticipation of the primary election this Tuesday, June 5.

Prepared and poised third graders Danny, Kai, Josh P, Cameron, Josh N and Samuel gave candidate introductions. Other students introduced officials and the press at the event. If anyone doubts the ability of great teachers to inspire great children, they need to observe teacher Kathy Wein and her enthusiastic students.

The subjects included healthcare, school funding and parcel taxes. Selected students took turns asking the questions and time monitoring the candidates. I joined Democrats Bruce Margolin, Zein Obagi, Tim Pape and Green Party candidate David Steinman for the debate. I am Libertarian candidate Steve Collett.

Incumbent Henry Waxman was a no show, as he has been for all of the debates. Waxman is so confident of his victory in the top two primary that he did not even bother to complete a ballot statement.

Republican Christopher David disappointed students by his last minute failure to appear. Former Republican and current no party preference candidate Bill Bloomfield, who the Los Angeles Times recently reported has spent $1.1 million on the campaign, was also absent. He had originally confirmed attendance but backed out claiming jury duty. Unconfirmed reports spotted him at a “New Majority” event with Mitt Romney in Orange County.

Apparently the plight of our public schools was not sufficient to warrant attendance by some.
It was their loss. This was the most enjoyable and educational event of the the campaign.

We were reminded how great our public schools can be with the amazing performance by so many smart kids. We were reminded how tragic our priorities have become when Mrs. Wein informed us that she has been given a pink slip with budget cuts.

I am running for Congress because I think we have lost sight of our priorities. Somehow, our legislators think it is more important to incarcerate people at five times the rate of most every industrialized country. They think it is more important to spend more on so-called defense than the next eleven highest defense budgets in the world. They think it is more important to spend hundreds of billions of tax dollars on corporate bailouts than educate our children.

As a CPA with 35 years experience fighting for taxpayers, I am uniquely qualified to go after government waste and fraud. But we cannot close the budget gap by eliminating waste and fraud alone. We need to stop spending hard earned tax dollars on failed programs that do more harm than good. We need to evaluate the costs and benefits of all government programs and spend it where we get the most taxpayer benefits for the least taxpayer costs.

We can certainly improve the way we allocate our education spending. But education is the best way to spend our money. It empowers our children, develops future job opportunities, and tends to spread knowledge to everyone who comes in contact with those we educate. Public education is why America became great.

As your Congressman, I will fight to change our priorities and make education an increasing portion of government spending. Support local schools. Support teachers like Mrs. Wein. Support giving our children the best education our tax dollars can buy.

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