Do you think that before giving people the right to vote they should meet minimum education standards?

Answer 1

What are your "minimum education standards"?

Like knowing when to use a comma?

Answer 2

On the surface, it sounds good. I would love a utopian world full of educated people making decisions and excluding those who cant be bothered to make good decisions, but in the past this was used as a means of segregating a class of citizens both by race and by wealth / class. If the opulent majority can pass policies that lead to the undereducation of a minority and then strip the right away from them to vote, its just a subtle underhanded way of enforcing segregation and unequal rights. I think many people who would push for an elitist class of voters have personal gains to be made from the issue and an interest in doing wrong with their power.

In all of the countries where this goes on, the scenariao listed above is exactly how it has played out. Its not much different than the jim crowe laws & the voters tax. Its just another way for the wealthy to stay on top of things and constrain the cieling of the poorest citizens.

Its also not fair for a representative to make laws that affect someone without them having a vote in it. Remember, no taxation without representation? Same deal.

In recent years, I've developed an additional opinion on the subject. I have developed a bit of faith that the general public will know better what to do with a vote than an elite class of voters with traditional 'education', or 'indoctrination' as some would see it. I don't think the average joe is as stupid as many of the more radical pundits would have you think, and I think given a clear set of choices they will make the right choice.

Answer 3

I think they should be able to either read, or if handicapped and unable to read, to otherwise understand in general (a) what the political party system is about, and (b) what the candidates and issues are about.

I think the worst part is that everyone automatically thinks that they dont have to vote because their vote does not count. I should hope that the elections these past few years have dispelled that myth - there were tons of elections where if 10 or 12 more people had voted, the other candidate would have won.

Answer 4

If this became law very few people now living in Britain would come anywhere near even the lowest criteria, anyone born after 1980 does not know how to spell, knows nothing about history, all they have been taught is pseudo-subjects such as psychology and philosophy if I was at school nowadays I would have got around 12 A Levels, would have gone to university and probably be prime minister by now.

Answer 5

Yes, i do agree. If they can't read or write correctly how can they possibly understand the vagaries of politics. Unless of course they have the type of dyslexia which also has phenomenal memory patterns. Uneducated people are that way for a number of reasons, circumstances sometimes and sheer laziness other. Anyone who rejects an education should be denied a vote.

Answer 6

In America people get the right to vote by virtue of their birth here.

I am not sure that I agree with that and I have read that our founding fathers had some legitimate concerns about the matter also.

Of course anyone that would propose to put requirements on the right to vote would be branded, tarred and feathered.

Wouldn't make them wrong...just the victim of democracy at work.

Answer 7

Even well eductaed people don't necessarily vote and when they do, it's not always the way you might think! It might not be a bad idea just to make sure all youngsters are educated properly before they leave school. Surely that's what education really means?

Answer 8

i would agree, but we learned in government that that was used after the civil war ended in the south. People who weren't educated enough to read fluently or answer questions that were biased toward white culture couldn't vote.

This along with White primaries, grandfather clauses (if your grandparents couldn't vote, neither could you), and poll taxes (that ensured that aristocrats could vote, but black people and poor whites couldn't) all worked together to keep the powerful powerful.

What would happen if suddenly you needed a degree from someplace like Harvard? The government could require a liberal slant to teaching (evolution, abortion, "undocumented citizens" aka political correctness, etc) therefore guaranteeing that people who disagreed with them wouldn't be able to vote.

Also, it would take away a persons constitutional right to vote.

Answer 9

definately not, because you have over glorified education, by that i mean you have mede it greater than inteligence, the world is in a bit of a mess especialy the west, this mess has been made by educated people, they have an history of doing realy stupid things because they lack inteligence. what we need is inteligente people in government that will do what is right, thats what true inteligence does.because highly educated people are like the rich they overrate their importance and become puffed up with pride, and assume that the uneducated are also void of intelegence.

Answer 10

finally? Why in the international could you're saying "finally?" you need to be relatively undesirable at history. i assume you failed the minimum guidance standards. That replaced into already tried. It replaced into certainly one of this usa's darkest hours. that's prohibited via area 2 of the 14th substitute of the form. people who're unaware of history are doomed to repeat it.