The Frontrunners on NCLB
No Child Left Behind? The two Democrats deem it a failure. The Republican thinks it’s off to a good beginning. When it comes to education reform, the presidential frontrunners choose their words carefully and offer few budget numbers to back up their “education is paramount” messages.
Still, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama have gone on the record with a handful of K-12 views. Here are some of their recent remarks, along with highlights from their campaign Web sites.
Hillary Clinton
“Our children are getting good at filling in those little bubbles. But how much creativity is being left behind? How much passion for learning is being left behind?"
That was Sen. Clinton, speaking at the 86th National Education Association Representative Assembly. On her Web site, Sen. Clinton proposes 11 ideas on behalf of education reform. At the top of that list: “End the unfunded mandate known as No Child Left Behind.”
Clinton acknowledges that she voted in favor of NCLB in 2001, noting, “I viewed it as a historic promise between the federal government and educators.” But “today, that promise has been broken,” she writes. “President Bush’s budget for 2006 provides $12 billion less than was promised by the No Child Left Behind Act.”
Clinton would invest $100 million in a new public/private summer internship program. She also voices support for vocational education, GEAR UP, the TRIO programs and Smaller Learning Communities as initiatives targeted at improving the performance of students most at risk of not receiving a college education. “I have sponsored letters to the Appropriations committee to reinstate funding for these critical programs,” she says.
Barack Obama
No Child Left Behind is "one of the emptiest slogans in the history of American politics,” Sen. Obama declared at the NEA Assembly. Obama seeks a reform to NCLB, believing, as his Web site puts it, “teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests.” Obama aims to “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.”
His to-do list includes improving NCLB’s accountability system “so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.”
Obama, says his campaign, would double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children. He also earmarks math and science education as a national priority, and, like Sen. Clinton, supports GEAR UP, TRIO and Upward Bound. His own "STEP UP" plan, says his campaign, “addresses the achievement gap by supporting summer learning opportunities for disadvantaged children through partnerships between local schools and community organizations.”
John McCain
No Child Left Behind “was a good beginning, in my view,” Sen. McCain said at a November town meeting in New Hampshire. A video posted on the YouTube Web site recorded him saying, “We now, after a number of years of examination and practice with it, know there’s some things that badly need fixing.”
Of the three candidates, McCain offers the least amount of detail about education reform. For instance, his Web site notes that the senator “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.” But the site includes no specific plans for creating innovative schools and attracting top educators.
McCain’s vision is to “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.” McCain, says his campaign, “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.”