The Politics of Education (continued)

Bradley vs. Bush vs. Gore vs. McCain

In perusing each of the four major candidates' published statements on education, I found a few details that may be noteworthy in distinguishing their policies and goals and formulating your decision.

• Bradley's educational policy is consistent with his overall philosophy; he is acutely concerned with the struggles of the underprivileged and the historically disenfranchised. If elected, he plans to help 60,000 new teachers per year get jobs in urban and rural areas. He also discusses loan forgiveness for new teachers who earn credentials at extremely rigorous universities. Other unique ideas include a plan to activate Senior Citizens as volunteers and increase the prevalence of alternative Teacher Education programs. He would also push to fully fund the Head Start program. Bradley criticized his competitor, Gore, for planning to increase military spending by a larger amount than education spending.
• On his official web site, Bush proposed a new program that would implement "Charter States," which would have maximum flexibility with their federal funds while meeting high performance standards in their schools. Another major component of his education plans focuses on increased accountability for teachers, school districts, and states, including the introduction of state-by-state report cards for tracking of performance and improvement. Bush also advocates "Moral Education" as part of the public school curriculum.
• Gore would generally continue the current Education policies of the Clinton Administration, calling for higher pay and higher standards for teachers. He also designed a 21st Century Teachers Corp, to eventually place 75,000 new teachers in high-need schools each year. Another key point in Gore's education agenda is his aim to triple the number of Charter Schools by the year 2010.
• McCain's stance on the education issue aligns with the overriding Republican philosophy: local decision-making power, accountability, and the introduction of vouchers. He also wants to weed out poor quality teachers from the nation's schools.

It's only January, barely the beginning of this presidential election year. Hopefully, this introduction to the parties and the candidates offered an easy-to-understand glimpse of the complicated and critical issue of education reform as related to politics.

Above all, I encourage you to get involved and VOTE! In my opinion, if you don't vote, you have no right to complain later!

You can't officially vote until November, but until then you can make your opinion count at our own Education & Politics poll at the Elementary School Educators Forum.

Here's to a Brighter Future!

Elementary School Educators Guide
k-6educators.guide@about.com

(Back to Part 1)

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