Where Clinton, Obama, and McCain Stand on Education
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| No Child Left Behind | ||
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"We can do better than No Child Left Behind. This law is not working for our teachers, our parents, and, most importantly, our kids." Clinton has vowed to end NCLB and create a system that focuses on individual students' academic growth. |
"[Teachers] feel betrayed and frustrated by No Child Left Behind. We shouldn't reauthorize it without changing it fundamentally. We left the money behind for [nclb]." Obama would improve the tests and offer more support to schools that need help. |
"No Child Left Behind was a good beginning. We now, after a number of years of examination and practice with it, know there's some things that badly need fixing." McCain would consider changing the testing requirements for some students. |
| Teacher Pay | ||
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"We have a teacher shortage because we have a respect shortage. I believe we need to raise base teacher pay and provide...incentives for teachers who teach in high-need schools." Clinton supports schoolwide performance-based pay. |
"We can find new ways to increase pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them and not based on some arbitrary test score. That's how we're going to close the achievement gap." Obama supports pay based on individual teacher performance. |
"Choice and competition is the key to success in education in America. That means...rewarding good teachers and finding bad teachers another line of work." McCain supports merit pay for individual teachers. |
| Higher Education Affordability | ||
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"[Borrowers] are overly burdened...as they repay their student loans.... Student loan debt alone can put people in economic handcuffs and force them out of important but low-paying professions." Clinton would create a $3,500 tax credit for tuition costs. |
"Putting a college education within reach of every American is the best investment we can make in our future. I'll create a new and fully refundable tax credit." Obama would create a $4,000 tax credit to cover the costs of college tuition. |
"We will draw on the great strengths of America's community colleges, applying the funds from federal training accounts to give displaced workers of every age a fresh start." McCain has not revealed the details of his plans. |
Reader Comments
Clinton and Obama: Same old on education
It's been proven over and over again that no matter how much money you funnel into public schools ($24,000 per kid in DC), the kids are not going to learn if it's a monopoly. They have no choice to go elsewhere when the school fails. It is unfair that rich people can choose which private school to go, and poor people are stuck in lousy schools. Only McCain has said that he supports choice and competetion for families, so poor people can also decide where they want to go to school.
Consultants?
Consultants are the fix? Seriously? What has a consultant ever fixed in the past? Do we actually have a huge track record of success with consultants in any field?
The Emperor Has No Clothes
Any and all revisions, changes or proposals regarding federal and state tests of students' learning fail to acknowledge and therefore fail to effect any meaningful change and measurement of what our schools teach---namely, the test-takers have no personal stake in how well they do on the tests. No grade, meaningful reward or punishment is associated with the individual student, so the data is seriously flawed. Imagine taking a driver's test, both written and behind-the-wheel, when the results of the tests have no impact on whether you get your license or not. Ridiculous? Precisely. In the meantime, then, school performance, teacher credibility (and, possibly and laughably, teacher pay), curriculum adjustments, and real estate values, hinge on tests in which the test-taker largely cares less about the outcome. How warped is that? Only an exit exam has a personal bearing on whether the student graduates or not, but given that the test-taker gets to re-take the exit test over and over renders it ineffectual. The bottom line: tests are mere expedients that do not measure student learning, particularly when the student has no stake in the outcome.
Teacher pay
Yes, I've heard that "throwing more money at the problem won't work," but it WILL if it's put in the right place. We pay for what we value. If we value good teachers, we will be willing to pay them competitive salaries.
Sad to say, those who have the most money seem to receive the most respect. We all want our kids to be doctors, lawyers, engineers -- but how would those people get to where they are without teachers? We should be paying teachers like those other higher paid jobs. THEN the youngsters AND parents would respect them.
We need good and well paid administrators, but most of all we need highly paid, good teachers who will WORK to keep their jobs. We all feel more appreciated if we receive good salaries. Poor salaries promote poor morale and lack of enthusiasm. Teachers just get TIRED of always trying to swim upstream without the proper support -- that means MONEY as well as parental and community interest.
Individual instruction and parents
Those two things have proven to work. Nothing else has.
The classroom is a bad environment for teaching.
When INCOMPETENCE and CORRUPTION deprive both students and very competent staff as in the case of ALEXANDRIA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS in VIRGINA (only "2" miles from our WHITE HOUSE) one becomes quite discouraged about what is taking place in the USA (FORBES MAGAZINE PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE HIGH COSTS per student in ALEXANDRIA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS but did not list the high number of CREATED ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS nor the costs involved in outsourcing special education students to other jurisdictions......while CREATING a HIGH PAYING position in ALEXANDRIA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS for FORMER MAYOR KERRY DONLEY who apparently needed easy work..
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NCLB Solution: Outsource Independent Consultants
Politicians should stop funding school programs that don't work and start providing funds directly to independent consultants who provide education management mentoring to students and parents. More info at http://www.mearsmanagement.com/
May 08, 2008 22:46:36 PM [permalink] [report comment]