We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we want to be the best we can be; we want as few people suffering as possible, economically; we want healthy children; we want to have crime-free streets; all these things, they're pretty common. The argument is how to achieve them. Liberals and conservatives are essential to the workings of representative democracies. Liberals are represented by the Democratic Party and are called the left wing, while conservatives are represented by the Republican Party and are called the right wing. Although we cannot always detect clear differences between the two, conservatives and liberals both offer different views about the role of government in society. These differences are most clearly demonstrated by their views on issues such as education, taxes, public health care, the environment, and national defense. .
Conservatives and liberals disagree about where education dollars should be spent. The liberal belief is that public education efforts and money should be directed towards public schools. Also, liberals believe that the worst thing one can do to help public schools is to take money and quality students away from poor performing schools and give it to private schools. For these reasons, liberals continue to believe that the government should focus additional funds on existing public schools, raising teacher salaries and reducing the size of classes. On the other hand, conservatives believe that federal money should be granted to state and local governments in the form of vouchers. It is believed that students who attend schools with poor performance rates should be given vouchers so that they can attend religious and/or private schools. Furthermore, conservatives believe that children in non-performing schools should have the option to go to private school at public expense. Their view is that the competition between public and private schools will improve both, leading to a better education system.
