The Death Penalty

The death penalty is an extremely controversial issue in America, with people almost split evenly one whether it should be continued to be enforced in the criminal justice system. With many varying ideological and societal factors, it is almost impossible to find a general consensus. When deciding if the death penalty should remain in the United States criminal justice system, I oppose its continuity due to its alarming costs, numerous errors in conviction, and its inefficiency to repel murder rates.

Although it may appear odd, it is a fact that usually sentencing a criminal to life imprisonment is less expensive then sentencing one to death. According to an article by Maria Waters "Facts About the Death Penalty", Waters states that in North Carolina the death penalty costs "$2.16 million over the cost of sentencing murderers to life imprisonment." The article also shows that "capital cases are 70% more expensive then comparable non-capital cases." Even though with life imprisonment the federal and state governments must feed, provide, and hire guards for the incarcerations of capital offenders, it is still less expensive than the long and often unsuccessful process of sentencing one to death. Because it is financially better to sentence on to life imprisonment, the general population and citizens of the U.S. would benefit at the end of the death penalty. The financial cost is not the only flaw with the death penalty; there are also numerous cases of convicting innocent people to death.

According to the same article Waters states that since 1973 "over 130 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence." This statistic demonstrates the numerous errors that have been made when prosecuting an innocent person to the death penalty. It can also suggest that because their have been such a large amount of people exonerated, there is probably a large amount of people who have been put to death who were truly innocent. Another factor to consider is the ineffectiveness of the death penalty lowering murder rates 

According to the article "Death Sentences Drop to Historic Lows" by Laura Sullivan, Sullivan states that in this year "murder rates fell to where it was in the 1960's." she continues to state that it is a large drop of murder rates from the 1990's "when the U.S. executed more inmates than in at least half a century."(Sullivan) With this, one can see how the death penalty has no affect on the murder rates at all, and may in fact have the opposite affect. Because it doesn't help to decrease the murder rate the usefulness of the death penalty is seems much less existent.  

Although it is true that criminals should receive equal punishments of the crimes they committed, the death penalty is a separate issue. Because there are no financial gains, or notable deterrents to committing murders linked with the death penalty, it is not profitable to enforce the death penalty. And because of the numerous errors of innocent people being convicted, the death penalty appears to do more harm than good. 

The State of Homeschooling

When considering the issues applied to the educational system of home schooling, one must consider the academic advantages, limits students may have, and large parental responsibility, because they determine the students overall educational ability and the course of ones future.

           The main reason one would consider adopting a homeschooling system is for the academic advantages it would yield for the student. Many studies show students who partake in homeschooling are academically superior compared to students of the traditional public schooling system. According to Brian Ray's article “What Research Shows Us”, Ray states that home school students score on average “at the 65^th to 80^th percentile on standardized academic achievement tests” compared to the “public school average of the 50^th percentile”. With this one can see the obvious advantage that homeschooling provides students with a more advanced academic understanding. This gives the implication that a student will be more academically prepared than an average student for future situations such as college, or careers. This also suggests that dedicated parents are more inclined to teach children than certified teachers. Although home school students appear to be at a greater advantage with academic skills, other limitations such as extra curricular activities can be placed upon a student.

            Although academic learning is the main factor in a student’s education, things such as extra curricular and social activities are also key components in a student’s educational well being. According to Ray, a small amount of homeschooled students “participate in public-school interscholastic activities such as sports and music”. The lack of extra curricular activities can damage the overall idea of homeschooling due to the importance of such activities. Activities such as sports and music are not mere hobbies for some people, they are subjects that people are able to set goals towards, and  strive to constantly bettering themselves and reach succession. This can have an enormous affect on a student’s true passions and interests, and can provide students with the situations of striving to succeed. With the enormous importance that a young student’s education has on their entire life, it creates a large amount of parent responsibility.

            According to Peter White’s article "Cons of Homeschooling" the first two disadvantages to homeschooling he lists are “Family commitment” and “Some parents are not cutout to home school their children”. When a parent home schools a child, they must be fully committed and able to constantly educate their child. The clear truth is that not all parents are committed or able to teach their child properly. Due to this, some students can be left at a huge disadvantage, not learning proper criteria or in the correct manner. With public schooling systems, teachers are more likely qualified and reviewed to be fit to teach children. However, being the parent of the student usually would give one a much greater incentive to educate the student. Overall this implies that parents need to be fully committed and personally able to provide their child with a proper education, because it will greatly dictate the rest of the students life. Another issue with parental responsibility is the problem of diversity. According to Rob Reich’s “The Civic Perils of Homeschooling” a problem with homeschooling is that because our country is so racially and ideologically diverse, students should encounter situations and people that “their parents have not chosen or selected in advance.” Because the parent serves as the main source of education for the student, the parent may undoubtedly corrupt the child’s ideas when it comes to religious, ethical, or political ideas. And because a child is not exposed to the other ideas or views in their homes as they would be in a public school, students could be more easily become a mere by-product of their parents ideologies. This further adds to the responsibility of the parent, to expose their child to different scenarios, and not choose all of their child's beliefs.