[DRAFT] Students on Strike

[Nchiyamengi]

Title: Students on Strike

Description: Vast crowds of students, from pre-schoolers all the way through to University students, have taken to the streets demanding the government increase funding to public education as a way of addressing @@NAME@@'s dismal performance. The students vow to block traffic and disrupt daily life until the government meets their demands.

Validity: Have a poorly funded or completely unfunded public education system.

The Issue:
[option]"Education is a right! Not a Privilege!" shouts university student @@RANDOMNAME@@, blocking a road and waving a pen menacingly at a group of irritated commuters. "We demand quality affordable education for every student from pre-school all the way through to university! Without it how on earth are we going to compete in the modern job market? The pen is mightier than the sword! We need education now! Only then shall we allow the daily business of the nation to return to normal". The student hurls the pen at a car, where it bounces off the windshield anti-climactically.
[effect]the government and public alike live in perpetual fear of politicised pre-schoolers.
[stats] public education increases massively, taxation increases massively, political freedoms increase

[option]"Young hooligans blocking the roads and breaking the law" assesses Police Commissioner @@RANDOMNAME@@, while stroking a tear gas canister lovingly. "Allow me and my officers to break up these riots and arrest these whippersnappers and they'll be running home to mommy and daddy before they can say 'police brutality'. Trust me @@LEADER@@, I'll have this done in no time."
[effect]police frequently throw unruly toddlers into solitary confinement.
[stats] law enforcement increases, taxation increases, charmlessness increases massively, political freedoms decrease massively

[option]"Well there is obviously a compromise here, just turn to charter schools" reasons slick businessman @@RANDOMNAMEMALE@@, presenting you with his business card. "It's simple, the government increases spending to these privately run schools, we businessmen, celebrities and well off types cover some of the rest of the costs, and in return we help run them for you. It means less costs for the taxpayer and more variety in teaching, win win with no catch! Well, aside from the occasional unscrupulous administrator pocketing the cash for themselves and leaving the kids with nothing, but that hardly happens anymore".
[effect]school years occasionally last just a few weeks at sketchy charter schools.
[stats] public education increases slightly, taxation increases slightly, corruption increases slightly

[option]"Educashun? Folks still believe in that hocus-pocus?" asks filthy mercenary @@RANDOMNAMEMALE@@, while cleaning what you hope is tomato sauce off his boot. "All the teachun' those grunts need is how to hold a gun. Why, I don't even know how to spell me own name, and that never caused no problems for me. Send me and my folks in, and we'll have those midgets doing pushups in no time".
[effect]learning how to reassemble a gun in the dark has replaced learning how to spell.
[stats] public education plummets, military spending surges, economy decreases, charmlessness increases, political freedoms decrease massively

There are several issues on public education already, but none to my knowledge that take into account potential student protests and how a government may address that. Also I believe most tend to focus in on university education rather than education in general (although I may be mistaken about that).

Let me know what you think.

[Egyptian Pharocracy]

Title: Students on Strike

*snip!*

Let me know what you think.

I find the entire Issue concept amusing. When I was kindergarten to 18, we spent most of our time and effort trying to figure out how to avoid going to school - not get more of it.

Validity: Have a poorly funded or completely unfunded public education system.

Good validity concept.

That said, I'm going to note that while my nation has a "poorly funded" public education system, the majority of our education prior to university level is done with Private Schools, Charter Schools, Alternative Schools, Trade School as an alternative to HS and College, Military Preparatory Academies, and Homeschooling, rather than government funded Public School systems. So while we have less public schooling, we have a really strong education system, even though NS wouldn't recognize it as such.

(And poorly funded is relative: with a GDP of 43 trillion, even with a tax rate of a low, low 7.5%, a funding of 20.3% means the Pharocracy has a larger public education budget than some real world 1st world countries.)

In my observation, NS doesn't really take into account alternative education methods in its stats (not a complaint: I'm not sure how it could), and I haven't seen many NS issues that address or even mention that those possibilities exist.

So, we have here:

Option 1: Government funds "quality affordable education for every student" for all age ranges.

Option 2: Send in the Law on the protestors - what I like to call the "Machinegun 'em all into a ditch!" option.

Option 3: Increase (government) funding for for pre-schools through to high schools to get the kids back to class - a repeat of #1

Option 3: Send in the Military! Another "Machinegun 'em all into a ditch!" option, repeats #2, but with troops instead of cops, IMO.

How about consolidating the duplicate options/solutions, and using an actual, "There's a third way!" option as #3?

[option]"Hey! I have a radical idea that just might work," shouts Doctor Philobolous, a noted Mastafarian Schooling advocate, "Why not get the government out of schooling, or at least keep the funding where it is, but give tax credits or vouchers to parents who want to send their kids to private schools, homeschooling - or even alternative schooling? Like my own Patented Scientodic Unschooling System? Sure, it will irritate the teachers guilds and the Education Monopolists and traditionalists, but that's a small price to pay!"

[effect]the outrageously popular M-Box University has replaced @@NATION@@'s public school system

Then have Option 4 be something completely whacked, like, oh... having all of the kids study whatever interests them at their own time and pace and have the education boards relegated solely to judging their knowledge levels based on whatever essays or projects they feel like turning in at end of year. (Or something else suitably insane... this example is close enough to a few RW alternatives that it's kind of mild.)

Effect: students in @@NATION@@ now earn degrees based on their high scores in Max Pong

Just a couple of thoughts.

[Nchiyamengi]

Title: Students on Strike

*snip!*

Let me know what you think.

I find the entire Issue concept amusing. When I was kindergarten to 18, we spent most of our time and effort trying to figure out how to avoid going to school - not get more of it.

Validity: Have a poorly funded or completely unfunded public education system.

Good validity concept.

That said, I'm going to note that while my nation has a "poorly funded" public education system, the majority of our education prior to university level is done with Private Schools, Charter Schools, Alternative Schools, Trade School as an alternative to HS and College, Military Preparatory Academies, and Homeschooling, rather than government funded Public School systems. So while we have less public schooling, we have a really strong education system, even though NS wouldn't recognize it as such.

(And poorly funded is relative: with a GDP of 43 trillion, even with a tax rate of a low, low 7.5%, a funding of 20.3% means the Pharocracy has a larger public education budget than some real world 1st world countries.)

In my observation, NS doesn't really take into account alternative education methods in its stats (not a complaint: I'm not sure how it could), and I haven't seen many NS issues that address or even mention that those possibilities exist.

So, we have here:

Option 1: Government funds "quality affordable education for every student" for all age ranges.

Option 2: Send in the Law on the protestors - what I like to call the "Machinegun 'em all into a ditch!" option.

Option 3: Increase (government) funding for for pre-schools through to high schools to get the kids back to class - a repeat of #1

Option 3: Send in the Military! Another "Machinegun 'em all into a ditch!" option, repeats #2, but with troops instead of cops, IMO.

How about consolidating the duplicate options/solutions, and using an actual, "There's a third way!" option as #3?

[option]"Hey! I have a radical idea that just might work," shouts Doctor Philobolous, a noted Mastafarian Schooling advocate, "Why not get the government out of schooling, or at least keep the funding where it is, but give tax credits or vouchers to parents who want to send their kids to private schools, homeschooling - or even alternative schooling? Like my own Patented Scientodic Unschooling System? Sure, it will irritate the teachers guilds and the Education Monopolists and traditionalists, but that's a small price to pay!"

[effect]the outrageously popular M-Box University has replaced @@NATION@@'s public school system

Then have Option 4 be something completely whacked, like, oh... having all of the kids study whatever interests them at their own time and pace and have the education boards relegated solely to judging their knowledge levels based on whatever essays or projects they feel like turning in at end of year. (Or something else suitably insane... this example is close enough to a few RW alternatives that it's kind of mild.)

Effect: students in @@NATION@@ now earn degrees based on their high scores in Max Pong

Just a couple of thoughts.

I'll consider the matter. When it comes to charter schools I might add that as a 5th option (if possible), and make it an option that offers improving public education slightly and raising taxes slightly (as charter schools do, to my understanding, receive government funding while being privately run), while at the same time throwing in a critique about some charter schools being somewhat unreliable and closing down really quickly, an effect like: "school years occasionally last a few weeks due to sketchy charter schools".

I'll work on it. I'm keen to keep the partial public education increase though, as it is a more centrist option.

[Australian rePublic]

Hello and welcome to Got Issues! It's always nice to see a new writter!

You have an excellent draft here Well done! Well done!

However, you make constant references to pre-schoolers protesting in the street. Do you honestly expoect people to believe that? Pre-schoolers don't know what money is. I've heard stories of pre-schoolers flushing money down the toilet, thinking that it was toilet. I mean, I knew what money was at a relatively young age, but not when I was in pre-school. Very good otherwise!

[Egyptian Pharocracy]

I'll consider the matter. When it comes to charter schools I might add that as a 5th option (if possible), and make it an option that offers improving public education slightly and raising taxes slightly (as charter schools do, to my understanding, receive government funding while being privately run), while at the same time throwing in a critique about some charter schools being somewhat unreliable and closing down really quickly, an effect like: "school years occasionally last a few weeks due to sketchy charter schools".

I'll work on it. I'm keen to keep the partial public education increase though, as it is a more centrist option.

Entirely up to you - it's your issue.

I would seriously consider consolidating the two pairs of similar options though. They really do look to do the same thing to me, just in slightly different ways.

(as charter schools do, to my understanding, receive government funding while being privately run)

Your understanding matches mine, then. My understanding of it is:

Charter schools: partially gov't subsidized, partly private.

Private Schools: generally privately run and funded, usually by tuition and endowments.

Parochial Schools: private schools that are run and funded by a church or religious organization.

Alternative schools: wide variety, but a lot are private, with a few gov't funded ones being the exception to the rule.

Military Prep: generally gov't funded and run by a branch of the armed services, but not always - there are some private ones.

Trade Schools: wide variety, but generally private and focusing on teaching a particular trade.

Homeschooling: just what it says on the tin.

And with that, we've close to exhausted my store of knowledge on the topic of different types, and mine only applies to the U.S., as it's what I'm familiar with. And I only have that really because I researched a bit when designing my nation - I don't have kids, and it's been ages since I did HS and grade school.

[Trotterdam]

I'm having trouble following exactly what this issue is about because of its length, but it doesn't look like it's doing anything especially new.

There are several issues on public education already, but none to my knowledge that take into account potential student protests and how a government may address that. Also I believe most tend to focus in on university education rather than education in general (although I may be mistaken about that).

#209 is indeed specifically about universities (not that I think NationStates tracks the difference between different stages of education), but it does mention students protesting.

That's the only issue I could find that's specifically about students needing more money to be able to afford school. Most other "education needs more money" issues tend to assume that everyone is able to afford to go to school, but the schools are poor quality (usually without any suggestion that there are better schools available to the rich, except #273#273[/url] option 4).

How about consolidating the duplicate options/solutions, and using an actual, "There's a third way!" option as #3?

Heh, I remember when I was the one giving this advice to you!

The student becomes the master?

Your understanding matches mine, then. My understanding of it is:

Charter schools: partially gov't subsidized, partly private.

Private Schools: generally privately run and funded, usually by tuition and endowments.

Parochial Schools: private schools that are run and funded by a church or religious organization.

Alternative schools: wide variety, but a lot are private, with a few gov't funded ones being the exception to the rule.

Military Prep: generally gov't funded and run by a branch of the armed services, but not always - there are some private ones.

Trade Schools: wide variety, but generally private and focusing on teaching a particular trade.

Homeschooling: just what it says on the tin.

And with that, we've close to exhausted my store of knowledge on the topic of different types, and mine only applies to the U.S., as it's what I'm familiar with. And I only have that really because I researched a bit when designing my nation - I don't have kids, and it's been ages since I did HS and grade school.

There is also the possibility of the government giving parents money, which they can then spend on a private school of their choice (like a form of welfare, maybe with possible restrictions on what you can spend it on), rather than the government directly funding schools. This combines some of the benefits of capitalism (parents can choose which schools get their money, exposing the education system to market competition) and some of the benefits of socialism (parents are less likely to be unable to afford good schooling).

(This is currently represented in #040 option 3.)

[Nchiyamengi]

I'm having trouble following exactly what this issue is about because of its length, but it doesn't look like it's doing anything especially new

A fair point, let me try make the case then. This issue is to some extent meant to reflect the 1976 Soweto Uprising, when vast numbers of black South African students protested against the poor quality "Bantu" Education that they were taught under, and against the use of English and Afrikaans and the mediums of instruction, rather than their own Sintu languages (such as isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho sa Leboa, Setswana, Sesotho, Tsonga, siSwati, Tshivenḓa and isiNdebele). The protest branched over into black consciousness, anti-apartheid and even a really interesting call on going after illegal shebeens because the children argued their parents were getting drunk too often and not being revolutionary enough as a result. On the last point, the illegal shebeens were able to turn the protesters to their side by offering them free alcohol, supporting the uprising, and even creating the tradition of "after tears" commemorations (essentially getting really drunk after a friend or friends of yours are killed by the police).

The protests would succeed in getting Afrikaans dropped as a medium of instruction in Bantu schools, and would revive political activism by the black masses against Apartheid in South Africaquite significantly, but all that would come at the cost of between 176 - 700 students getting killed by the police. One of the 13 year old students killed by the police, Hector Pieterson, has become the symbol of the uprising, mostly due to the iconic photograph taken of his body being carried away from the battle after he was shot.

This issue could also somewhat be likened to the #FeesMustFall protests of 2015 and 2016, but those were limited far more so to Universities. I guess it could also be likened somewhat to the student protests that helped spark the 1956 Hungarian Revolution against the USSR, but only tangentially. Somewhat also to the May 1968 strikes in France.

The issue I found with some of the other issues is that, even when student protests are briefly mentioned, it seems ending those protests is usually as easy as just saying "well you aren't getting the money, so there!". I think an issue were the government are forced to actually send in the police to break things up would put a new twist on things, present nations with the dilemma of arresting underage students (I won't even go so far as the Soweto Uprising argument and mention killings), actually give in and meet student demands, otherwise try "divide and conquer" the student protesters, or just send in mercenary soldiers to crush the protests violently and make all children, including those from rich families, into soldiers (the extreme version of option 2, for the dictatorially minded).

[Nchiyamengi]

(Image)

Hello and welcome to Got Issues! It's always nice to see a new writter!

You have an excellent draft here Well done! Well done!

However, you make constant references to pre-schoolers protesting in the street. Do you honestly expoect people to believe that? Pre-schoolers don't know what money is. I've heard stories of pre-schoolers flushing money down the toilet, thinking that it was toilet. I mean, I knew what money was at a relatively young age, but not when I was in pre-school. Very good otherwise!

*Thanks you for the fruit basket and takes a bite of an apple*

That is more just for the quirky nationstates spin on the issue, protesting pre-schoolers being quite an extreme, and I hope amusing thought. That being said, children as low as primary schools supported actions like #FeesMustFall last year and 2015, with some primary school kids even having to take cover after Wits University students and police clashed last year. The primary school students had been marching with the Wits university students. You also tend to see young children brought along to the more peaceful marches and demonstrations by some sympathetic staff members and lecturers.

[Australian rePublic]

(Image)

Hello and welcome to Got Issues! It's always nice to see a new writter!

You have an excellent draft here Well done! Well done!

However, you make constant references to pre-schoolers protesting in the street. Do you honestly expoect people to believe that? Pre-schoolers don't know what money is. I've heard stories of pre-schoolers flushing money down the toilet, thinking that it was toilet. I mean, I knew what money was at a relatively young age, but not when I was in pre-school. Very good otherwise!

*Thanks you for the fruit basket and takes a bite of an apple*

That is more just for the quirky nationstates spin on the issue, protesting pre-schoolers being quite an extreme, and I hope amusing thought. That being said, children as low as primary schools supported actions like #FeesMustFall last year and 2015, with some primary school kids even having to take cover after Wits University students and police clashed last year. The primary school students had been marching with the Wits university students. You also tend to see young children brought along to the more peaceful marches and demonstrations by some sympathetic staff members and lecturers.

Okay, fine, the child comes alongyo the proyest. Does the child understand what's been proyested? I mean I've seen people b8ng thei children to po-gay marriage potests. I would doubt that the children undestand what's happening

[Australian rePublic]

I would encourage you to write an issue about the ethics of taking children to a protest, but it should be a seperate issue

[Egyptian Pharocracy]

How about consolidating the duplicate options/solutions, and using an actual, "There's a third way!" option as #3?

Heh, I remember when I was the one giving this advice to you!

The student becomes the master?

*deadpan* Hey, where do you think I stole it from, eh?

Gonna steal, steal from the best, I always say!

(Speaking of, I am gonna get back to that issue draft - I just haven't had any real time lately for writing. And I still am looking at yours, Ransium's, and CWA's critiques to incoporate suggestions when I do get back to it.)

Your understanding matches mine, then. My understanding of it is:

*snip list of school types*

(This is currently represented in #040 option 3.)

Cool, thanks. Off to read Option 3.

[Nchiyamengi]

Know I haven't posted on this in a while, just been busy.

So I've updated option 3 to the following:

[option]"Well there is obviously a compromise here, just turn to charter schools" reasons slick businessman @@RANDOMNAMEMALE@@, presenting you with his business card. "It's simple, the government increases spending to these privately run schools, we businessmen, celebrities and well off types cover some of the rest of the costs, and in return we run them for you. It means less costs for the taxpayer and more variety in teaching, win win with no catch! Well, aside from the occasional unscrupulous administrator pocketing the cash for themselves and leaving the kids with nothing, but that hardly happens anymore".
[effect]school years occasionally last just a few weeks at sketchy charter schools.
[stats] public education increases slightly, taxation increases slightly, corruption increases slightly

Any thoughts?