I’m an elementary school teacher so my biggest concern is education. I work in a poor, urban neighborhood where there are few resources…in my school and in the families of my kids. I would like to see more attention paid to meeting the needs of at-risk kids. Some kids just can’t be taught with the rest of the class. They need to be placed in special environments where they will be more likely to stay out of trouble and get individual intervention.

No Child Left Behind is no good. It’s great that students have high standards. I also think that teachers should have high standards. But where are the resources to meet these standards? I spent over 2,000 dollars of my OWN money on my classroom. My students don’t have books to read at home, so they are obviously at a disadvantage compared to other first graders in the nation who have parents who care about their students’ education.

Now these kids’ test scores are going to be lower than other kids’ because they have less resources, less parent involvement, and worse role-models. I tutor kids (for free) after school, after my normal teaching day, but it is not enough.

I am looking for a candidate who puts the future generation first. One who will not waste money on quick fixes, but will invest in long-term prevention of criminals, prevention of illiterates, and will keep illegal immigrants out of the schools so that our children have a better education.

Other than that, I am looking for a candidate who will spend money on *important* social programs, not on an unneccesary war. We need to get out of other countries and use our military here, have more border security, and defend our own nation. While we should try to have friendly dialogue with other countries, we should keep our businesses and money over here in our OWN economy, for our OWN workers. Why ship jobs over seas so people in Indonesia can make shoes for 1 dollar an hour? That’s just wrong.

I’m looking for a candidate with MORALS. Not a candidate who tells you who can and can’t get married or believes that people can’t make up their own minds and censors everything. A candidate with morals would believe in civil rights for all, but also in tough standards and responsibility. It doesn’t have to be either/or.

I’m not democratic or republican, but if it comes down to it, I will be supporting the democratic front-runner. I want to see some change in this country. Not the same old trying to cut taxes yet at the same time supporting a trillion-something dollar, unncessary war! Talk about a lack of accountability!

I have a question for conservative Republicans: Who is going to pay for your war if there are no taxes?

I’m not paying the bill. And don’t give me "I earned my money." I work much, much harder than a typical 40-hour worker, but I think our kids need that money more than some country that doesn’t even believe what we do, and I’m willing for my taxes to go to the future, not to another country.