Voting for the Issues of the Day

Seniors at the country’s largest high school, Theodore Roosevelt in East Los Angeles, have been studying the presidential campaign in their government and economics classes through news clippings and magazine articles. Their teacher, Randy Fong, brought some of them together during the Republican National Convention this week to talk with Times education writer AMY PYLE about which issues they would like to see the candidates address.

KATALINE BARRERA

17, Boyle Heights

The tax cuts that [Republican nominee Bob] Dole’s coming out with are going to just make taxes go higher in the end. Like the $500 tax credit per child, if the parent is paying taxes. It might sound great, but what happens when the government runs out of money? I think he’s doing this just to get the vote, trying to sugarcoat everything, but it will just fall down later. I think the Republicans are right about stopping abortion, though. If you’re old enough to have sex, you’re old enough to take the consequences. It would protect the babies’ lives.

JUAN ROMERO

17, Aliso Village

They talk about cutting taxes, but in reality you can’t cut taxes. It will take money out of local government agencies and they will start closing things down--they are already and it would get worse. We should put more taxes in place; other states do. We have to look at the bright side: If we increase taxes, our community will look better and be safer, there will be more security. I’m also worried about ending public assistance for legal immigrants. People are forgetting that they came here as immigrants and took over a big chunk of the world. I agree with the part that says illegals should not get help, nobody asked them to come here. But the legal ones pay taxes, and they should get assistance if they need it.

CARMEN CONDE

17, Boyle Heights

I think the Republicans are right about school prayer. I like to think I’m a good Catholic, but the fact is I don’t go to church. I could pray at home, but there’s TV and other things to distract me. But if I was here at school and it was offered, I might do it. The ultimate thing is that for most people, religion brings out what is right and what is wrong. Some people don’t have that at home, so if they get that in school, that’s good.

RIGO CRUZ

17, Boyle Heights

We’re [Latinos] not the only immigrants who came to this country, but we’re getting blamed for everything these days. I’ve read the [U.S.] Constitution--”All men are created equal”--does that mean only some of us? What happens to the money we pay in taxes? Don’t we deserve some of that? We do all the hardest work, the African Americans and the Mexicans. We work on the farms, in the fields, picking the fruit and vegetables. All the hardest jobs. We should have some opportunities.

GLORIA ANTUNEZ

17, East L.A.

If you keep cutting welfare, people will get poorer, then you get homelessness and it just increases all the other problems. Everything is related to something else. The Republican platform fails to see that. What are the consequences? The rate of children going hungry? I also feel like none of the parties are referring to the issue of violence. I keep waiting for that. They should be saying they have a plan for gang violence, crime violence, every kind of violence. I don’t feel safe. I don’t feel secure. I see violence even in children here in East L.A. My little niece, she’s 4, talks about guns. She says, “Let’s pretend I’m your boyfriend and I hit you.”

BERTHA VARGAS

17, Boyle Heights

I’m concerned about affirmative action. We need it. How can you compare a person who goes to school in Bel Air with one who comes here to Roosevelt, to classes with 40 people. They’re packed! I know I have to work weekends and I don’t have as much study time as another person. It just evens out the playing field for me. I would like to hear the Democrats enforce the idea of everybody being equal. I agree with the Republicans’ idea of keeping kids born here to illegal parents from being citizens. I know people who come here to visit when they’re pregnant just so they can have the baby here and come back whenever they want for health care and stuff. They take advantage of the system and ruin it for everybody.

JOSE LUIS ROSAS

17, Aliso Village

Me, I’m worried about violence too. People want to put more cops on the streets, but that’s just going to add more violence because they’re just going to harass you even if you know your rights. What I think is that when criminals go to jail, they should serve their full time, because they come out early and just do more crime. And if they’re going to keep you for life, I think they should just kill you. They should get tough on crime that way, make you pay for what you do, and they should treat 14-year-olds like adults if they commit crimes. They know what they’re doing.

VIVIANA VARELA

17, Boyle Heights

Teen pregnancy. There are many girls getting pregnant at an early age. They’re misinformed about it and they misinterpret what they are told. As president, I would educate them at an earlier age and make birth control not that hard to get. I would try to make parents understand that just because their kids ask about birth control doesn’t mean they’re going to do it right away.

DANNY MELENDEZ

16, Boyle Heights

You come here to school to learn, not to pray, that’s why you have certain clubs and church. I don’t think it’s necessary to have school prayer. I don’t think that’s a good idea. You don’t go to math to pray. You don’t go to science to pray. Your family values should stay at home.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

National Youth Platform

A consortium of youth groups in sponsoring the first National Youth Conventions running alongside the regular party conventions in San Diego and Chicago. They are reaching out nationwide on the Internet as well, and this week presented the Republicans with the vote tally so far from the thousands of browsers under the age of 24 who responded to their online survey.

In no particular order, here are the top six areas in which respondents want to see improvement:

Discrimination

Education

Violence / crime

Government

Environment

Poverty

The web site can be found at: < http.//www.youthink.org.>