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http://www.nick.comMy daughter asked me to vote for Kerry for her (I was on the computer) and I know a lot of her friends went online to vote. The results were announced earlier this evening on Nickleodeon and on the website. Kerry won it.
We should listen to the kids. Speaking of, tomorrow is the big day: formal speeches by students at my daughter's school. The mock election is Friday. Here's the text of her speech. See what you think (she's in fourth grade and yes, she used spellcheck, etc.).
I believe Senator John Kerry has a lot of good plans for America and Americans and I believe he has the strength, intelligence, and leadership to carry them out. Three areas Senator Kerry wants to help Americans in are health care, education and jobs.
45 million Americans don’t have health care insurance, which means they have to pay full price every time they go to the doctor or take their children to the doctor. That can cost from $50 to $150, depending on what the doctor does. Most families cannot afford that every time they need to see a doctor. With the plan Senator Kerry has, 27 million of those Americans would have health insurance again, including ALL American children. When parents can’t afford to take their kids to the doctor, they just get sicker. This shouldn’t happen in the greatest country on the earth and John Kerry will fix it!
Also, prescription medicines have gone up in price by 17% in just one year! Senator Kerry wants to bring those costs down so Americans aren’t spending so much of their money on medicine.
In education, the reason us kids are busy getting ready for the TAKS testing is mostly because of the No Child Left Behind Act, passed by President Bush. The problem is, President Bush didn’t give the schools enough money to help them meet the requirements of that act. The funding fell short by $27 billion dollars! Senator Kerry would make it a requirement that Congress funds any education acts, so that schools have the resources they need to get better for all kids! Kerry wants to enact a plan that will recruit 500,000 high-quality teachers over the next four years. The plan will offer teachers pay raises of $5,000 for teachers in high-need areas. I’m sure every teacher would appreciate being paid more! A happy teacher means happy students! Also, we are lucky in xxxxxxx to have a good after-school program run by the YMCA but in a lot of America, kids don’t have after-school programs, so they go home to an empty house while their parents are still at work. This is unsafe for kids. The Kerry "School's Open 'Til Six" plan will offer after-school opportunities to 3 ½ million children, through programs that are open until 6 p.m.
Lastly, a lot of Americans, 1.6 million, have lost their jobs in the last four years under President Bush. Three million more families live in poverty than we had in the year 2000, and it is harder than ever for a lot of people to find a job. Senator Kerry wants to cut out the tax breaks American companies get when they send their jobs to other countries instead of keeping them here and he wants to jump start our manufacturing companies in America. Manufacturing companies make things. Under President Bush the biggest tax cuts went to the wealthiest Americans. Under Senator Kerry, middle-class and poor families would get bigger tax cuts. Since they are the people who need tax relief the most, this makes sense. Most of our parents would get bigger tax breaks under Senator Kerry as president than they have under President Bush.
I’m only a kid, but I am worried about our future if things keep going the way they are. Senator Kerry would cut the government debt, help middle-class and poor families, make the government give the schools money to help them perform better, and make sure ALL children get the health care they need. For all those reasons and more, I am supporting John Kerry.
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