Education Platform

This is what I’m talking about!  Some decent media coverage about putting education front and center in the presidential election.  It makes me happy that someone who can do something (as in not just me and my little blog) is trying to make this a national issue.  As a matter of fact the article says that polls are showing that education and the economy are ranking as more important than the war in Iraq. 

I was all kinds of shocked to hear that.  I mean the war in Iraq IS important and all of the men and women over there should definitely be in our minds this election season but that is what everyone is focusing on in the media.  There cause doesn’t need me to go around waving the banner.  Education on the other hand does need some banner waving. 

One last thing, I’m not by any means saying I’m with Watts on what he thinks needs to be done with education but any discussion at all is better than what I have been seeing!

Do you think education will play an important role in the presidential election this year or am I just dreaming??

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According to this article McCain is saying some things but nothing that I feel strongly one way or the other about.  The part of the article that really interested me is that McCain is to discuss his education platform at the end of summer.  I’m so excited that there will BE an education platform that I hardly know what to do with myself.  One assumes (yes, I know where assumptions can get me) that a platform might have actual information.  That would be so wonderful!  Don’t get me wrong I’m not going to go with a candidate just based on what he has to say about education but it is going to have a lot of pull.  After all, the way our children are taught will have one of the most long lasting affects on our country.  As a teacher I can tell you that I’m a bit worried about how our country is going to handle the generation that is coming up for graduation. 

What issues in education are you hoping McCain addresses at the ‘end of summer’?  I’m looking forward to some information about No Child Left Behind, vouchers, standardized tests and national standards.

The topic of education is in the election news today.  This makes me happy and I can’t wait to see more of it.  In the article I read Obama really only says that college is not affordable for many students and that McCain has passed up opportunities to make it more so in favor of tax cuts for corporations.  Interesting, and you can read the entire article here, but I’m more interested in the education of children.  Is a college education a good thing? Yes.  Do I wish more people who want to go to college could go? Yes.  Do I think it is the most important topic in education for this election? Not by a long shot.

Ohhh candidates???  Are you listening?  Answer these questions and quit focusing on saving people money.

• How are you going to give the arts a more prominent position?
• How are you going to make our educational system more globally competitive?
• How are you going to fix (or please, please get rid of) No Child Left Behind?
• Can you make national standards and guides so all schools are teaching the same thing (with the exception of state history)
• Can you start funding public schools and let private schools take care of themselves?
• What about a required foreign language from elementary school?  Citizens of most countries speak a minimum of two languages.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could catch up?

So those are a few of the random things I’d like to see make it to the campaign chats the candidates will have along the way.  What questions would you like answered or what topics would you like addressed?

I found this fantastic little overview that describes Obama and McCain education policies.  I’ve been summing it up for you over the last several weeks but now that we are down to two candidates it’s time to start focusing on the role education will play in the 2008 presidential election.  CNN did a great nonpartisan clip of the two that you can see here.

I’m pretty sad that neither wants to get rid of No Child Left Behind and I think that to improve education, as well as several other problem we are currently facing, that the new president is going to have to raise taxes (something McCain doesn’t want to do and Obama says he’ll achieve by letting the tax cuts currently in place lapse).  Oh well.  It’s going to be an interesting few months!

I found a website that gives some specific answers to what Hillary Clinton, Barack Obabma, and John McCain think about various issues in education.  It is made up of questions that have been put to each of them over the years and their responses, statements they have made, as well as how they have voted on specific issues during their time in public office.  There is by far too much information for me to easily sum it all up and I feel certain that some of you might not find interesting the items I do which is why I’ve provided links to the different candidates. What I am going to do is tell you what I thought was the most interesting from each of the pages.

Hilary Clinton says she would like to see formal education opportunities start even before pre-K but that more importantly education must start at home.  I’m totally behind this.  I think parents must take more responsibility for their children.  I keep reading about needing to help the disadvantaged and poor children but then I wonder why the poor children of the past didn’t need ‘extra’ help.  If you look back at the Great Depression or really anytime prior to the last forty years or so and you’ll see that when people were given the opportunity to get an education they made the best of it.  They did what they had to do and weren’t afraid of hard work.  I saw students who didn’t want to work no matter how great the technology was in our school or how many degrees the teachers had.  I think more student accountability is necessary.  More personal responsibility in general.  For fewer rants (on my part) you can check out her statements and voting record here.

According to a campaign booklet Barack Obama supports charter schools and wants to reform not replace No Child Left Behind.  He also wants to fund zero through five early education.  Not really a fan of any of these ideas.  I don’t want to pay for daycare (because really, that’s what it is when they are that young) for every child.  We aren’t funding the schools we do have well enough to make children successful and I can’t see how the government could afford to add daycare to our education budget.  In another instance he says parents need to be parents BUT it seems like he wants the government to take over the parenting…but maybe I’m reading it wrong?  It looks like he supports a lot of early education, after school, and summer programs.  Something he says that I like is that teachers shouldn’t just be judged on standardized tests….but he doesn’t really explain how to assess them instead of the test.   I tend to focus on the things I don’t like but you can read his record for yourself here.

There is one thing John McCain said that makes me just want to hug him. 

I don’t see why a good teacher should be paid less money than a bad senator. It’s important that we have merit pay for teachers, that we have teacher testing, that we do everything we can to motivate young men and women to enter this profession. There’s a whole generation that’s retiring. It is unconscionable that the average salary of a lawyer is $79,000 a year and the average salary of a teacher is $39,000 a year

How can you not just love that??  I mean I went to school for 6 years to get my MA and I know several high school teachers with PHds.  And none of us made more than fifty thousand a year (in my case a LOT less).  He actually has a lot of interesting things to say that you can check out here.  If you were wondering, there is a lot he says that irritates me too but I’ll focus on that later.

After reading their histories and comments what do you think of each candidate?  Do you have a favorite yet?  What do you like and what do you hate?

Hillary Clinton Photo Credit:   sskennel from Flickr, Creative Commons License

Barack Obama Photo Credit:   BohPhoto from Flickr, Creative Commons License

John McCain Photo Credit:   dbking from Flickr, Creative Commons License

John McCain is going to be the Republican presidential candidate in the 2008 election.  Much like the websites for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, his website doesn’t really talk about specifics.  There were a few things I noticed him talking about that the Democratic candidates haven’t mentioned. 

• He thinks parents should be able to choose what school their child attends, especially if the schools that would normally be available to the child are substandard.
• Well, this is nice in theory.  However, why would we send students to other schools?  Why not just improve all of the schools so there isn’t a need for a voucher system?  If private schools are doing it so much better then get rid of public schools and pay the private schools.  If we are going to fund a public school system then, dang it, do it right so we don’t have to fund the private schools too.
• He includes home schooling in the options for people who don’t want to go to ‘bad’ public schools.
• I like home schooling.  I have no problem with that at all, in fact I’m seriously considering homeschooling my own children.  However, that is a personal choice and I don’t think tax payers should fund it.  Fix the problem or get rid of the problem not fund every other solution to it. 
• I wouldn’t mind a tax break if I chose to homeschool or send my child to a private school, however.
• He wants to change the educational system.  His website says the current system is:

"…a system that still seeks to avoid genuine accountability and responsibility for producing well-educated children.

John McCain will place parents and children at the center of the education process, empowering parents by greatly expanding the ability of parents to choose among schools for their children. He believes all federal financial support must be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing schools."

Again I come back to if it is so bad then work at fixing it or get rid of it.  It seems silly to me to maintain funding for something that isn’t working.  Fix the public schools and don’t throw money at private schools or get rid of the public schools and let the private sector work it out.

Wow, I’m getting a little more worked up than I thought I would for this particular candidate!  If you want to read more about John McCain’s thoughts on education you can go here.  Tell me what you think about this part of McCain’s education policy.  How do you feel about parental choice in schools?  Is there a better way to fix the problems schools are having?

John McCain wants better schools, much like Clinton and Obama.  There are differences, however.  For instance he thinks that No Child Left Behind was a ‘good start’ to improve education.  He wants to change it but not replace it.  It sounds like anything that would be good for students he is for, but again very little real examples.  

I like that John McCain acknowledges that No Child Left Behind has flaws.  If he has a way to really change it and make it better I am certainly open to learning more about it! 

I’m sure many of you have noticed I’m not a fan of No Child Left Behind, and from the way all of the candidates are saying they want to fix or remove it I’m guessing that most of America agrees with me.  Education in our country must be improved and I hope that the new administration will be able to effect that change.

What do you think of John McCain?  What about No Child Left Behind?  Do you think the program should be reworked or removed?