King County GOP platform abolish WASL

[Arthur Hu <arthur@SOFTWAREREVOLUTION.COM>]

-----Original Message-----
From: mgbernardy@juno.com [mailto:mgbernardy@juno.com]
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 10:36 AM
To: wa-ed-deform@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [wa-ed-deform] Republican Party Platform--see Education #4


Hi Julanne et al,
        I tried to copy just the education plank of the Platform but the
whole kit and caboodle came with it. :) Pat Herbold is the new King County
Chair of the R Party.  Obviously not a candidate/politician/ or elected
public servant.  She was elected (by a majority of the PCO"s in King County)
to the post over Reed Davis who served us well for 6 years. I supported
Reed. I am still quite impressed with the ethical and energetic and truly
organized presentation and vision.  It would be astonishing if she was out
giving anything remotely resembling a pro-Federal stand on Education.  I
think that did not happen.  Her e-mail address is
pat.herbold@mindspring.com <mailto:pat.herbold@mindspring.com>
                                                maureen
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: mgbernardy@juno.com <mailto:mgbernardy@juno.com>
To: mgbernardy@juno.com <mailto:mgbernardy@juno.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 10:15:44 -0800
Subject: Republican Party Platform
Message-ID: < 20021220.101544.-842201.3.mgbernardy@juno.com
<mailto:20021220.101544.-842201.3.mgbernardy@juno.com> >

        We, the Republicans of King County, "hold these Truths to be
self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the Pursuit of Happiness --That to secure these Rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the
Governed..."

We believe that the U.S. Constitution provides the best model for a more
perfect union of our fifty sovereign states. We acknowledge the necessary
role of a properly limited government to "establish Justice, insure domestic
Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."

We are dedicated to the preservation of the American Dream. We believe that
all Americans benefit from the creative energies of individuals who are free
to enjoy the fruits of their own intellectual and physical labor. We believe
that all citizens must be accorded equal opportunity in education,
employment and other endeavors. We reject government policies that attempt
to impose equal results through the suppression of personal initiative and
personal accountability.

We believe that as sovereign citizens of a free society we have the right
and the duty to provide for the needs and desires of ourselves and our
families. Like Ronald Reagan, we recognize that "a government big enough to
give people everything they want is also big enough to take away everything
they have." Like George Washington, we believe "Government is not reason, it
is not eloquence, it is force! Like fire, it makes a dangerous servant and a
fearful master." Like Abraham Lincoln, we seek a new birth of freedom, so
that "government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not
perish from the earth."

In furtherance of these principles, we subscribe to the following:

1. Family

a. Restore fundamental rights of parents to raise their children, including
reasonable rights to enforce discipline
b. Simplify the procedures for adoption
c. Enforce laws providing for child support
d. End judicial discrimination against fathers when implementing and
enforcing parenting and visitation plans
e. Affirm the social value of the traditional institution of marriage and
the family
f. Encourage medical schools to train physicians in care for the terminally
ill and treatment for depression
g. Recognize the value of the father and mother in the upbringing of
children
h. Require parental consent before providing non-emergency medical or
psychological services to minors

2. Respect for Life

a. Our laws and courts must respect the fundamental right of every person to
life, whether born or unborn
b. Support a ban on late term (partial-birth) abortions
c. Oppose use of public money to promote or fund abortions
d. Require parental consent before providing abortions to minors
e. Oppose legalization of infanticide, euthanasia, and physician-assisted
suicide
f. Require the consent of married fathers to abortions
g. Oppose all human cloning
h. Oppose all embryonic stem cell research in preference to research
utilizing adult stem cells or stem cells from umbilical cord blood and
placentas.
i. Outlaw all trafficking in fetal tissue

3. Defense

a. Support The United States' War on Terrorism
b. Maintain U.S. military pre-eminence
c. Restore strong coordinated foreign intelligence capability
d. Develop and deploy an effective anti-missile defense system
e. Strengthen export control of defense-related technology
f. Support a healthy military morale and discipline
g. Improve military compensation to attract and retain qualified personnel
h. Pursue full accounting for POW's and MIA's
i. U.S. troops shall never serve under United Nations or foreign command

4. Education

a. Eliminate the dysfunctional US Department of Education and retain those
education dollars within the states
b. Reduce federal and state regulation of education curriculum
c. Restore control of education to families
d. Support rights of parents to choose their children's school, whether it
be public, private, or home schooling, with a tax credit or voucher system
to facilitate that choice, provided that no strings of control accompany the
money
e. Support merit-based compensation for public school teachers
f. Reduce administration costs so that more tax money reaches the classroom
to benefit the students
g. Support teachers in restoring discipline to classrooms
h. Require all children to master the English language
i. Teach a view of our nation's history, its ideals and accomplishments,
with academic integrity
j. Restore emphasis on basic education tools (language, arithmetic and
science)
k. Prohibit teaching that encourages sexual activity by minor children
l. Return the focus of education to academics, eliminating such programs as
School-to-Work and turning back from the destructive regulations and effects
of Goals 2000
m. Refuse all federal education money (which comprises an average of
approximately 6% of the state and district education budgets) and the
connected requirements that cost more than is granted
n. Abolish the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) and return
to rigorous, fact-based, teacher-administered tests

5. Taxes

a. Reduce the overall tax burden
b. Cut taxes in times of sustained budget surplus and recession
c. Reduce the state's portion of the real property tax
d. Eliminate the Washington B&O tax
e. Support the mandates of I-601 and I-695, requiring the state to live
within its means and to seek the permission of the voters to raise or impose
new taxes
f. Reduce regulations that burden small business
g. Repeal all taxes on telephone service
h. Oppose new taxes on Internet sales and usage
i. Oppose any state income tax
j. Allow for deduction of Sales and Use Taxes on Federal Income Tax Returns
k. Support elimination of the "marriage penalty" in the federal income tax
l. Promote tax equity and reduce massive costs of tax compliance by
replacing the lobbyist-drafted federal tax code with a simplified flat-rate
tax
m. Repeal estate and inheritance taxes (death taxes)
n. Support making President Bush's recently approved federal tax reductions
permanent
o. Repeal the tax on Social Security income
p. Reward capital formation and the resulting job creation by the
elimination of capital gains taxes
q. Protect property owners and families by opposing any reduction in the
vote required for passage of property tax levies
r. Protect property owners and families by opposing the institution of taxes
based upon utility services

6. Transportation

a. Give high budget priority to maintenance and construction of new roads to
Washington State's most congested highways
b. Allow privatization and competition in ferries and other transportation
services
c. Use state gasoline tax and all license tab revenue exclusively for road
improvements
d. Repeal outdated "prevailing wage" laws that inflate road construction
costs
e. Eliminate HOV lanes
f. Exempt Washington public works construction from state sales tax
g. Allow for tolls ONLY on new road projects, with the stipulation that the
toll must be removed when the cost of the project has been paid
h. No fixed rail transportation system should be built unless population
density along the route and job density at its terminus will support
viability

7. Economic Recovery / Jobs

a. "A frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is essential to the
security of individual rights and the perpetuity of free government"
Washington State Constitution, Article 1, Section 32
b. Reduce the massive cost of regulation compliance.
c. Reduce reporting requirements when hiring people to fill jobs
d. Reduce excise taxes and other tax burdens when creating new jobs
e. Eliminate the requirement that the employer is responsible for whether or
not an employee is a legal immigrant
f. Eliminate the civil and criminal penalties that employers are subjected
to if an employee falsifies paperwork presented to the employer
g. Eliminate regulations that make an employer responsible for environmental
clean-up of old contamination on a site when occupying the site for the
first time
h. Allow employers to fill job vacancies with the most qualified individual
without regard to race, creed or gender
i. Allow employers to have an "Open Shop" if they so desire
j. Voluntarily return free enterprise to individual unincorporated business
k. Support elimination of the Federal Reserve Note from circulation and
replace it with a United States Note
l. Eliminate anticompetitive wage rate regulations
m. Eliminate apprenticeship requirements in public works contracting

8. Government Budget and Spending

a. Repeal recently enacted Democrat legislation requiring the governor to
bargain with public employee unions
b. Seek rational reductions in spending at all levels of government
c. Encourage contracting out of government services to reduce spending
d. Protect taxpayers by eliminating fraud and duplication in government
e. Require each agency to justify its appropriations in each budget cycle
(zero-based budgeting)
f. Require the government to adopt and use generally accepted accounting
principles
g. Insist that the federal government maintain a truly balanced budget
h. Apply part of any general federal budget surplus to national debt
reduction
i. Maintain strong commitment to programs providing education, medical care
and disability coverage for military veterans of the U.S. Armed Services
j. Return spending authority and regulatory controls to state and local
government where not clearly mandated to the federal government under the
U.S. Constitution
k. Cease using tax money for grants to the arts, and eliminate the "1% for
art" requirement in public construction projects
l. Evaluate all new state, local and federal regulations for their cost and
impact on personal liberties and freedoms
m. Institute independent performance audits for all state and local agencies
n. Cease using withholding of federal tax money as a means to force States
into accepting new federal regulations
o. Enforce prohibitions against campaigning and lobbying by government
officials
p. Transfer the governance of City Light to a separately elected independent
board chosen by all areas served by City Light
q. Free enterprise is the economic system of our democratic Republic, not
socialism

9. Constitutional Rights and Freedoms at Risk

a. Defend freedom of speech against government restraint and institutional
censorship
b. Defend the privacy of individuals and their personal data and records,
recognizing that a person's vital data and records are their property and
that government intrusion and commercial exploitation is not to be tolerated
c. Resist quotas, set-asides or any other laws that seek to discriminate for
or against any race, religious creed, nationality or gender
d. Defend free exercise of religion
e. Defend the individual's right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the
Second Amendment
f. Defend private property owners against government takings without just
compensation and due process
g. Respect the constitutional separation of powers by restraining judicial
legislation and abuse of executive decrees
h. Resist efforts to achieve security at the cost of precious, individual
liberties
i. Restore the sovereignty of the states and the people under the Tenth
Amendment
j. Defend the right of individuals to protect their person, family and
property without fear of criminal prosecution or civil liability
k. Oppose the use of the social security system as a means of instituting a
national identification system
l. Support the essential principle of a fair and prompt hearing for judicial
nominees
m. English shall be the single official language of our government

10. Social Security

a. Honor our country's commitment to pay Social Security benefits to
retirees
b. Encourage retirement security by allowing individuals to choose personal
retirement accounts
c. Oppose expanding the Social Security program beyond its retirement
function into a welfare system

11. Heath Care

a. Promote private insurance which allows individual choice of health care
providers
b. Support a Medicare recipient's individual choice of health care providers
c. Implement private medical savings accounts
d. Support free market incentives for medical advances
e. Implement "tort reform" to prevent lawsuits and excessive settlements
f. Support efforts to reduce government control of health care
g. Favor portability of coverage between jobs
h. Allow insurers to charge rates which reflect the true cost of insurance
i. Apportion government funding for disease cures, weighted by the number of
victims

12. Crime and Criminal Justice

a. Protect the public by vigorously enforcing existing laws against crime,
rather than creating new crimes, especially when it comes to guns
b. Retain and timely execute existing capital punishment laws
c. Support mandatory sentences for repeat violent offenders
d. Oppose creation of new federal crimes that duplicate existing state and
local laws
e. Oppose "hate crime" laws and other legislation that criminalize ideas
rather than behavior
f. Expedite appeals so that delay does not hamper justice
g. In all cases exercise common sense, but especially regarding frivolous
defenses and technical objections
h. Support expansion of prison capacity whether publicly or privately
operated
i. In criminal trials, limit exclusion of material evidence based on trivial
technical objections; allow the jury to hear all the evidence
j. Require vigorous investigation on allegations and prosecution on evidence
of police or officers of the Court for perjury, subordination of perjury,
obstruction of justice and willful violation of citizens' civil rights with
mandatory prison sentences
k. Restore the constitutional protection that a person does not stand in
double jeopardy for the same offense

13. Environment

a. Affirm the historic Republican commitment to conservation, including
America's scenic beauty
b. Protect clean air and water
c. Apply proven scientific principles in identifying environmental issues
and devising cost effective solutions.
d. Apply common sense fishery policies to restore and maintain healthy
salmon populations
e. Protect low cost electricity, irrigation supply and recreational lakes by
opposing demolition of hydroelectric dams
f. Protect private property rights, including water and mineral rights and
people's need to earn a livelihood, when making environmental policy
g. Repeal environmental laws that impose criminal liability on defendants
without proof of criminal intent
h. End the state agency logjam in water-rights applications; make approval
automatic six months from the application date if no ruling has been issued.
i. Oppose shoreline regulation that constitutes a "takings" in violation of
the Constitution.

14. Social Services Reform

a. Provide incentives that build self-sufficiency rather than dependency
b. Reduce regulations that unduly restrict the vital roles of families and
private charities
c. Maintain limitations on how long able-bodied adult persons may receive
public assistance before age 65
d. Implement outside performance audits to eliminate fraud and abuse
e. Remove cash incentives for welfare recipients to add dependents
f. Eliminate public assistance to illegal aliens except for access to public
health hospitals for emergency treatment
g. Require members of the Washington State Basic Health Plan to provide
evidence of eligibility annually

15. Foreign Policy and International Trade

a. Support free enterprise with free and fair trade
b. Promote international free expression of ideas and beliefs
c. Promote ownership and respect for private property
d. Maintain a strong stand against international terrorism
e. Support Middle East peace that maintains the security and sovereignty of
Israel
f. Maintain support of the representative government of Taiwan
g. Welcome lawful immigrants while establishing strong interdiction against
illegal immigration, including much stronger control of US borders
h. Oppose a general amnesty for illegal immigrants
i. Press internationally for the honoring of copyrights, trademarks and
patents
j. Oppose communism and all other forms of totalitarianism
k. Prevent unlawful product dumping and other unfair trade practices
l. Reduce aid to foreign governments
m. Press for international cooperation in the war against illegal drugs
n. Oppose any treaty or policy which weakens American sovereignty
o. Use trade sanctions to restrain foreign countries from dangerous sales of
weapons of mass destruction to aggressive groups or nations.

16. Elections and Campaigns

To ensure voter confidence and maintain integrity and accuracy in the
election process, Republicans support:
a. A political party's right to have its bona fide members choose its own
candidates for general elections
b. Upholding the Constitution by requiring proof of citizenship for voter
registration
c. Eliminating the use of tax dollars to finance political campaigns
d. Ensuring representation of local communities by electing council members
by neighborhood districts
e. Affirming First Amendment free speech by removing dollar limits on
campaign contributions, provided that all contributions be immediately and
publicly reported through on-line disclosure
f. Preserving neighborhood polling locations by encouraging citizen
involvement in poll judging, by opposing abuse of "absentee" voting,
universal "vote by mail" and internet voting
g. Protecting union workers' political rights by requiring yearly written
permission for any wage deductions used for political purposes



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