By: Abby Shapiro

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bernie Sanders attended James Madison High School, Brooklyn College, and the University of Chicago. In 1981, Bernie was elected as mayor of Burlington, the largest city in Vermont. As mayor, Bernie’s leadership helped transform Burlington into one of the most exciting and livable small cities in America. Under his administration, the city made major strides in affordable housing, progressive taxation, environmental protection, child care, women’s rights, youth programs and the arts. And presently, Sanders is a running democratic presidential candidate for the 2016 elections in November.

Sanders has been speaking on a number of controversial topics including women’s rights, racial injustice, LGBTQ rights, college tuition, terrorism, gun control, the United States rural economy, disability rights, and much more. Sanders has strong opinions on each of the topics he has touched on, but many voters do not know what they specifically are.

Here are a number of opinions Sanders has on a few of these topics:

Education
Sanders has spoken on a number of accounts that undergraduate college tuition should be eliminated. USA Today states as president, under the [Sanders] plan, “The Federal Government would cover 67% — $47 billion dollars each year — of the costs. States would be required to produce the remaining 33% of the costs, or 23 billion dollars for undergraduate college education. USA Today also said that the Sanders plan would ensure universities maintain or increase expenditures on students each year, by maintaining or increasing operation expenditures each year and guaranteeing that after 5 years on this program, at least 75% of instruction is taught by tenured or tenure-track professors.”

When it comes to early childhood education, Sanders presents new viewpoints and perspectives. The website FeelTheBern.org, a campaign who keeps voters up to date on Bernie’s speeches, debates, and more, on Feb. 2014, Bernie said, “There is perhaps no issue more important than how we educate our youth. I am very concerned that, on many levels, we are failing our youth. We must do away with the archaic notion that education begins at 4 or 5 years old. For far too long, our society has undervalued the need for high-quality and widely accessible early-childhood education.”

Civil Rights
According to FeeltheBern.org, “Senator Sanders was an early supporter and has continued to be a committed advocate for LGBTQ families. He has regularly fought for them to have the same rights as heterosexual families.” On the Sanders’s website, he says that as president, he will “advance policies to ensure students can attend school without a fear of bullying, and he will also work to reduce the amount of suicides among LGBTQ people.”

Sanders has also spoke on the injustice of “people of color.” FeeltheBern.org said “[Bernie’s] extensive record as an advocate of racial justice goes back to his participation in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. He is proud to have marched on Washington with Martin Luther King, Jr. and watch him give his “I Have a Dream” speech. They also say that Sanders believes that the injustice of people of color is presented in a variety of different forms, including criminal, economic, voting, immigration reform, and housing.”

Senator Sanders has spoken on his views on women’s rights, like abortions and family planning. Said in the website FeeltheBern.org, “In addition to co-sponsoring the 1993 Freedom of Choice Act, Bernie voted numerous times to allow women to travel interstate for abortions, supported permitting federal funding of organizations that conduct abortions, voted to increase access and funding for family planning for women, and co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2013, which prohibited many limitations on abortions.”

Guns
In a televised Sanders interview, Bernie has supported a ban on the sale of assault weapons, mandatory background checks for online and gun-show purchases, many and more. But, they also added that Democrats have accused Sanders of being not fully committed to gun control. Sanders voted against the Brady Bill, which made background checks mandatory in 1993. But, according to Slate, Sanders is sure that gun control can help prevent gun violence, telling one interviewer after Sandy Hook that “if you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen.”

Foreign Policy
Many people are appalled that Sanders said he believes that climate change is a direct link to terrorism. According to PolitiFact, an organization that helps its readers find the truth in politics, Sanders said “Climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism. If we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say, you’re going to see countries all over the world — this is what the CIA says — they’re going to be struggling over limited amounts of water, limited amounts of land to grow their crops, and you’re going to see all kinds of international conflict.”

Senator Sanders, according to FactCheck.org, said, “The continuous violence, political disintegration, and massive migration we’re seeing in Syria and neighboring countries right now is precisely what the Pentagon warned us about over a decade ago,” a Sanders campaign spokesman related via email. “Climate change is making terrorist threats … much worse.”

Climate Change
A number of presidential candidates are denying the ‘idea’ that climate change exists. But, Senator Sanders is not one of those candidates. Although Sanders touches on the topic of climate change in his views on terrorism, he has his own opinions on climate change as a whole. Sanders has a plan on what to do about climate change if he were elected president. In a speech reported by TIME, Sanders said, “The debate is over. The vast majority of the scientific community has spoken. Climate change is real. We will act boldly to move our energy system away from fossil fuels, toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal because we have a moral responsibility to leave our kids a planet that is healthy and habitable.”

As president, Sanders, on his website, says that “More and more countries around the world are beginning to do their part, by stepping up to significantly curb their use of fossil fuels to become part of the solution. If our democracy worked the way it’s supposed to, that would be enough – the debate would be over, the facts would be heard and lawmakers would obey the will of the people.”