Education
I have a personal opinion of our education system, and what needs to be done to fix it. First and foremost, we need to raise the pay of public school teachers, and create a competitive work environment for them. Teachers should be subject to testing to ensure they remain qualified to teach that which they were hired to teach. Working conditions for our teachers should be such that they attract the best and brightest students. Our schools should be palaces, shrines to learning, and a place where students and teachers are eager to be. School should also be on a more consistent yearly schedule. At the end of the school year, kids have gotten a good grasp on that which they learned during the year. At that time they are released for three months of vacation. Does this make sense? I’m not suggesting we abolish seasonal breaks altogether. Wouldn’t a 2 week break every quarter of the year, and the occasional 3 and 4 day weekend between those longer breaks suffice? 365 days of the year, subtract the weekends gives 261 days. Take off an additional 21 days for “other” vacations gives us 240 days, subtract from that the 40 days off for the 2 week quarterly breaks gives us 200 school days in a year. 55 minutes in each class with 5 minutes between classes and 45 minutes for a lunch break gives us a school day equaling 6 hours and 45 minutes, and a school year equaling 1,350 hours. #3 is currently in school from 7:30 – 2:00 (6.5 hours) and (if I remember correctly) 180 days a year (1,170 hours), not too much of a difference there is it? But I’m willing to bet it’s enough of a difference to guarantee a better and more consistent learning environment for our kids.
I would also propose a complete overhaul to the structure of our grades. Students shouldn’t be allowed to be passed forward unless they have a good grasp on the subjects. Some students would pass more quickly through the levels than others, but who cares? Isn’t it more important that little Johnny and Susie are able to keep up at their own learning level rather than pushing them through subjects more quickly than they are able to comprehend that which they are learning? Maybe Susie gets through a math level in one quarter, and it takes Johnny two or three quarters to accomplish the same understanding of the subject. As long as the student understands the subject, does it matter whether it takes one quarter or three? Shouldn’t schools have one class in each day dedicated towards tutoring programs to help those students who do have troubles? I distinctly remember having a study-hall when I went to high school, unstructured as it was. Wouldn’t it make sense to have a more structured version of study hall available for students?
He hitch? To accomplish this, taxes would go up. Public schools = public money. Over and over again school levies are shot down. People want it better, but don’t want to pay for it.
Do I know how to make this happen? Nope, not a clue.
Currently we have the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) program. Don’t get me started on that.
If our politicians want to make Education a major issue, they need to have a real plan on how to fix it, and broadcast that plan far and wide.
As a disclaimer, the following information comes from the voters pamphlet for my state, and the websites for the candidates. The information is quoted directly from those sources, and may not be complete. If you’re REALLY interested, I urge you to go to those websites and look at the information yourself. Any key information left out was not done intentionally, I just took the portions that gave a flavor of the candidates position without making this entry longer than War and Peace.
Here is what the 4 front runner candidates have to say on the subject of education:
Hillary Clinton, from my states voters pamphlet: “We must fix our schools so they can provide hope and opportunity for the next generation.”
From Hillary Clinton's website:
Early Childhood Education
Hillary knows that parents are our children's first teachers, and the early years have a tremendous impact on their lives. That is why she will invest heavily in proven strategies to get all children ready for school, including:
• Nurse home visitation programs to help new parents develop parenting skills.
• Quality child care and Head Start.
• Pre-kindergarten for all four-year olds.
K-12
Hillary also knows that we have to improve our K-12 system in order to ensure that every child is prepared to compete in an increasingly global economy. As president, she will:
• End the unfunded mandate known as No Child Left Behind.
• Meet the funding promises of IDEA to ensure that children with special needs get the attention and support they deserve.
• Recruit and retain thousands more outstanding teachers and principals, especially in urban and rural areas.
• Cut the minority dropout rate in half.
• Create "Green Schools" in order to reduce energy costs and eliminate environmental hazards that can hinder children's development.
• Expand early-intervention mentoring programs to help one million at-risk youth aspire for college and job success.
• Identify at-risk youth early on and provide $1 billion in intensive interventions, such as early college high schools and multiple pathways to graduation, to get them back on track.
• Double the after school program to ensure that 2 million young people have a safe and stimulating place to go between 3 and 6 p.m.
• Invest $100 million in a new public/private summer internship program.
• Provide opportunity for 1.5 million disconnected youth in job programs linked to high-growth economic sectors.
College Access
In the 21st century, a college education is more important than ever. Hillary believes it's time for a new bargain with the American people -- a bargain that gives all Americans willing to work hard the tools they need to get ahead. Her plan will make college more affordable and accessible so that every American who has earned it and wants to go has the chance to get a college degree. As president, she will:
• Create a new $3,500 college tax credit.
• Increase the maximum Pell Grant.
• Strengthen community colleges through a $500 million investment.
• Create a graduation fund to increase college graduation rates.
• Increase to $10,000 the college scholarship for those who participate in AmeriCorps full-time for one year.
• Get rid of the red tape in financial aid.
• Hold college costs down and hold colleges accountable for results though an online college cost calculator, a college graduation and employment rate index, and truth in tuition disclosure.
• Challenge selective colleges to expand access for students from low-income communities.
Barack Obama (had nothing on this in my states voters pamphlet)
From Barack Obama's website:
The Problem
No Child Left Behind Left the Money Behind: The goal of the law was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers.
Students Left Behind: Six million middle and high school students read significantly below their grade level. A full third of high school graduates do not immediately go on to college. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.
High Dropout Rate: America has one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world. Only 70 percent of U.S. high school students graduate with a diploma. African American and Latino students are significantly less likely to graduate than white students.
Teacher Retention is a Problem: Thirty percent of new teachers leave within their first five years in the profession.
Soaring College Costs: College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past five years. The average graduate leaves college with over $19,000 in debt. And between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to college because they cannot afford it. Finally, our complicated maze of tax credits and applications leaves too many students unaware of financial aid available to them.
Barack Obama's Plan
Early Childhood Education
• Zero to Five Plan: Obama's comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, Obama's plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.
• Expand Early Head Start and Head Start: Obama will quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both.
• Affordable, High-Quality Child Care: Obama will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.
K-12
• Reform No Child Left Behind: Obama will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law. Obama believes teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama will also improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.
• Make Math and Science Education a National Priority: Obama will recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession and will support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals in the field. He will also work to ensure that all children have access to a strong science curriculum at all grade levels.
• Address the Dropout Crisis: Obama will address the dropout crisis by passing his legislation to provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention strategies in middle school - strategies such as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math instruction, and extended learning time.
• Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Obama will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children.
• Expand Summer Learning Opportunities: Obama's "STEP UP" plan addresses the achievement gap by supporting summer learning opportunities for disadvantaged children through partnerships between local schools and community organizations.
• Support College Outreach Programs: Obama supports outreach programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and Upward Bound to encourage more young people from low-income families to consider and prepare for college.
• Support English Language Learners: Obama supports transitional bilingual education and will help Limited English Proficient students get ahead by holding schools accountable for making sure these students complete school.
Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America's Teachers
• Recruit Teachers: Obama will create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field or location.
• Prepare Teachers: Obama will require all schools of education to be accredited. He will also create a voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively. Obama will also create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.
• Retain Teachers: To support our teachers, Obama's plan will expand mentoring programs that pair experienced teachers with new recruits. He will also provide incentives to give teachers paid common planning time so they can collaborate to share best practices.
• Reward Teachers: Obama will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase. Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well.
Higher Education
• Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students. Obama will also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at the time of enrollment by using prior year's tax data to deliver the credit when tuition is due.
• Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid: Obama will streamline the financial aid process by eliminating the current federal financial aid application and enabling families to apply simply by checking a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating the need for a separate application.
Mike Huckabee from my states voters pamphlet: “As President, I will protect America from terrorism; secure our borders and stop illegal immigration; protect the sanctity of life; improve the health care system; put thee IRS out of business by adopting the FairTax; make America energy-independent so that our gas dollars no longer fund terrorism; restore the nation’s ability to respond to a man-made or natural crisis; protect Second amendment rights (right to bear arms); improve education and make arts and music available to all students; and pass a Veterans’ Bill of Rights.”
From Mike Huckabee's websited:
Education And The Arts
• I believe that every child should have the opportunity for a quality education that teaches the fundamental skills needed to compete in a global economy.
• Music and the arts are not extraneous, extra-curricular, or expendable - I believe they are essential. I want to provide every child these "Weapons of Mass Instruction."
• Our future economy depends on a creative generation.
• We need to judge the success of our schools by the results we obtain, not the revenue we spend.
• Test scores rose dramatically when I was Governor of Arkansas because of my education reforms.
• I have been a strong, consistent supporter of the rights of parents to home school their children, of creating more charter schools, and of public school choice.
• We need a clear distinction between federal and state roles in education. While there is value in the "No Child Left Behind" law's effort to set high standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.
I believe that every child should have the opportunity for a quality education that teaches the fundamental skills needed to compete in a global economy. As I traveled the country and the world over the last decade bringing jobs to Arkansas, the business leaders I met weren't worried about creating jobs, they were worried about finding skilled and professional workers to fill those jobs.
In addition, I want to provide our children what I call the "Weapons of Mass Instruction" - art and music - the secret, effective weapons that will help us to be competitive and creative. It is crucial that children flex both the left and right sides of the brain. We all know the cliché of thinking outside the box: I want our children to be so creative that they think outside the cardboard factory. Art and music are as important as math and science because the dreamers and visionaries among us take the rough straw of an idea and spin it into the gold of new businesses and jobs. It is as important to identify and encourage children with artistic talent as it is those with athletic ability. Our future economy depends on a creative generation.
Music has always been an important part of my life. I still play bass guitar in my band, Capitol Offense.
As Governor of Arkansas, I undertook several initiatives to encourage arts in education. I passed landmark legislation to provide music and art instruction by certified teachers for all Arkansas children in grades one through six, forty minutes a week. As Chairman of the Education and Arts Commission of the States, I created a two-year initiative called "The Arts - A Lifetime of Learning," which promotes the benefits of arts education to all fifty states.
Students with strong art and music programs have higher academic achievement overall, are far more likely to read for pleasure and participate in community service, and are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior. These programs have a powerful effect in leveling the academic playing field for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The study of music improves math scores, spatial reasoning and abstract thinking.
The success of our schools has to be judged by the results we obtain, not the revenues we spend. A focus on true quality rather than mere quantity requires us to set high standards for our students and teachers, measure their performance diligently, and hold educators and administrators accountable for the results in an atmosphere of transparency and efficiency.
As Governor of Arkansas, I created intensive reading and math programs that went back to basics. I started with elementary students and, as those children thrived, I expanded the program to middle and then high schools. Our test scores rose dramatically. I then created one of the most demanding high school curricula in the country, and the number of students taking advanced placement classes grew by leaps and bounds.
I opposed the teachers' union and got the Fair Dismissal Law passed, which allowed us to terminate poorly performing teachers. To attract top talent, I raised teachers' salaries from among the lowest in the nation to among the most competitive. I created systems to make our schools accountable to both parents and taxpayers by insisting on transparency in how money is spent, efficiency in putting money into classroom programs rather than administrative costs, and clear responsibility of all employees for the tasks assigned to them.
As Governor, I fought hard for more charter schools, with their strong parental involvement and their unique ability to serve as laboratories for education reform, and for the rights of parents to home school their children. I am a strong supporter of public school choice. I am proud that my three children attended public schools from K through twelve, as did my wife and I.
In addition to my gubernatorial experience, I have significant national experience in education policy. I was Chairman of the National Governors Association from 2005-2006 and also Chairman of the Education Committee of the States from 2004-2006, working with governors, legislators, and education chiefs from all fifty states to advance education policy and conduct research on effective trends in education.
We need to test teachers as well as students, replace teachers who aren't competent, and impose reasonable waiting periods for teachers to gain tenure. We should provide bonuses and forgive student loans for high-performing teachers to work in low-performing schools. Just as there are executives in the corporate world who specialize in turning around failing companies, we need teachers who are "turn-around specialists" for failing schools.
Typical employment procedures provide a disincentive for teachers and often discourage potentially good teachers from entering what I consider to be a noble profession. Educators and teachers should be involved in the design of compensation initiatives that encourage training and promote performance based on merit, so that our children can have the best education in the world.
As President, my education agenda will include working towards a clear distinction between the federal role in assisting and empowering states and in usurping the right of states to carry out the education programs for their students. While there is value in the "No Child Left Behind" law's effort to set high national standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.
As President, I will use my broad and deep expertise in education policy to lift up our children and America's economic future.
John McCain from my states voters pamphlet: “I will work to modernize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, bring choice and competition to our schools, and address climate change.”
From John McCain's website:
Excellence, Choice, and Competition in American Education
John McCain believes American education must be worthy of the promise we make to our children and ourselves. He understands that we are a nation committed to equal opportunity, and there is no equal opportunity without equal access to excellent education.
Public education should be defined as one in which our public support for a child's education follows that child into the school the parent chooses. The school is charged with the responsibility of educating the child, and must have the resources and management authority to deliver on that responsibility. They must also report to the parents and the public on their progress.
The deplorable status of preparation for our children, particularly in comparison with the rest of the industrialized world, does not allow us the luxury of eliminating options in our educational repertoire. John McCain will fight for the ability of all students to have access to all schools of demonstrated excellence, including their own homes.
No Child Left Behind has focused our attention on the realities of how students perform against a common standard. John McCain believes that we can no longer accept low standards for some students and high standards for others. In this age of honest reporting, we finally see what is happening to students who were previously invisible. While that is progress all its own, it compels us to seek and find solutions to the dismal facts before us.
John McCain believes our schools can and should compete to be the most innovative, flexible and student-centered – not safe havens for the uninspired and unaccountable. He believes we should let them compete for the most effective, character-building teachers, hire them, and reward them.
If a school will not change, the students should be able to change schools. John McCain believes parents should be empowered with school choice to send their children to the school that can best educate them just as many members of Congress do with their own children. He finds it beyond hypocritical that many of those who would refuse to allow public school parents to choose their child's school would never agree to force their own children into a school that did not work or was unsafe. They can make another choice. John McCain believes that is a fundamental and essential right we should honor for all parents.
As president, John McCain will pursue reforms that address the underlying cultural problems in our education system - 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.