Obama-McCain on education

From the Harrisburg Patriot News/pennlive.com

Both want more school accountability
Sunday, September 28, 2008
BY JAN MURPHY
Of The Patriot-News

When it comes to educating children in classrooms, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama have presented voters with a clear choice on some key issues.

McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, supports school vouchers that would give parents money to move their children to a better performing school.

Obama, his Democratic opponent, generally doesn't support vouchers. But he is supportive of charter schools and putting federal aid into expanding public school options.

Obama wants the federal government to fully fund the No Child Left Behind law, which seeks to bring all students to math and reading proficiency in six years. Many educators say the government hasn't provided the money to meet the law's requirements.

McCain would prefer to build on No Child Left Behind and direct some money now going to schools directly to students for tutoring.

Obama wants to move toward voluntary universal preschool, a goal shared by Gov. Ed Rendell. McCain looks to expand Head Start, a federally funded preschool program for low-income children.

But the two candidates hold similar views on other issues.

Both call for increased accountability measures on failing schools. Obama advocates meaningful report cards on their children's progress. McCain speaks of giving school principals greater control of funds and holding them accountable for raising student achievement.

Both candidates want to reward top teachers and those who take jobs in urban areas. Both speak of increasing the number of charter schools. Both have called for stepping up federal support of special education, which Pennsylvania has sought for years.

Obama's plan, laid out over 20 pages, invests heavily in early education and school readiness and extends to higher education, where he offers $4,000 in exchange for community service.

McCain's nine-page plan invests far less new money in educational programs, redirects aid to individuals rather than institutions, and targets $500 million of current funds to build virtual schools and develop online courses.

His virtual-school program and Obama's innovative-schools fund could help Pennsylvania, which recently launched a study of creating a state-run virtual high school.

To people such as Jim Testerman, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the choice as to which would be better for Pennsylvania is clear. It's Obama all the way.

"McCain's answer to everything is privatize it," Testerman said. "He really has no interest in taking public education and improving it. His interest is in just destroying it and let the wealthy kids go to private schools."

Obama wants to restructure the weakest parts of No Child Left Behind such as removing the emphasis of punishing underperforming schools and assessing students beyond just math and reading tests. Testerman likes Obama's emphasis on small class sizes and early education, both initiatives that Rendell has promoted. And he favors Obama's support for providing more aid for college.

McCain is the obvious choice to Eugene Hickok, a former state education secretary and a former political science professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle.

"If I had to summarize McCain's approach, it really is about empowering families, empowering students, empowering teachers as opposed to funding the system," Hickok said. "That doesn't mean he's against funding the system, but his argument is we need to rethink the system."

Goldsboro parent Gale Mitchell, a registered Democrat, said she is torn about which candidate to support when it comes to education.

"With all this economic situation, I don't know that either of them will be able to deliver on what they are saying they can do," she said.

No Child Left Behind

Parents and educators interviewed for this story agreed that President Bush's signature education law has done some good. It has forced districts to examine the performance of all students, including those with special needs or limited English proficiency.

"But kids are being tested to death. It's just crazy," said Cheryl Desmond, a Millersville University education professor. Neither of the candidates is "really looking at what No Child Left Behind has done to schools in terms of the emphasis on these incredibly high-stakes tests."

Kathy Swope, the president of the Lewisburg Area School Board, has two complaints about the law: the penalties that schools face if they don't improve -- such as leadership changes -- and the law's failure to recognize special-education students' circumstances. She said she has yet to hear what the candidates would do to address them.

Swope dislikes McCain's plan to pay parents directly for tutoring instead of giving it to schools, which takes away schools' control while still holding them accountable for student learning. She is not enthralled with the targeted funding that both candidates espouse.

"Neither platform ... [allows] individual districts the opportunity to tell the federal government what our needs are and funding those needs. That concerns me," said Swope, an undecided Republican.

School choice

The willingness of Obama and McCain to support options to traditional public schools delights Larry Jones, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools.

"I think Senator Obama and Senator McCain both are showing school choice does not have to be an enemy of public schools. It can actually be one of the saving graces," said Jones, CEO of the Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in Philadelphia.

Jones, a Democrat, said he can see a distinction between the two candidates' views.

Obama supports public school choice, particularly in underperforming districts. He advocates creating a fund to help states and districts create public school options such as charter schools, theme-based schools and career academies that could be partially supported with private sources.

McCain embraces public and private school choice, including school vouchers.

"Parents deserve a choice in the education of their children," McCain said at the Republican convention. "And I intend to give it to them."

None of this school choice sounds good to Kim Loch, a parent of three children in the West Shore School District.

"It doesn't fix what's wrong with our public schools," said Loch, a registered Republican. "It leaves kids who don't have an option in failing schools."

Susan Haesseler, dean of Messiah College's School of Education and Social Sciences, said her concern over school choice is the heavy reliance on parents to know what choices are available.

"These are very challenging issues for parents for whom English is not their first language, who are living in poverty," Haesseler said. "I haven't seen how either candidate addresses that."

Desmond said that most vouchers fall short of covering private schools' tuition.

"It couldn't be extended to every child unless John McCain really wanted to fully fund that," Desmond said. "But he is interested in reducing government spending, so it doesn't make sense."

Affording college

McCain wants to provide tax incentives for families to save for college. Obama would provide a $4,000 refundable credit for students who commit to 100 hours of public service a year.

McCain calls for consolidating some federal aid programs to make paying for college less complex. Obama proposes to do this by simplifying the process of applying for federal student aid by allowing families to check a box on their federal income tax forms.

Some financial aid officers said this might complicate the process of applying for state and college aid programs, which rely on the federal student aid form.

Mitchell, a mother of a high school student and two college students, said neither is proposing what she wants to see -- having all the money available to pay for college in one place.

"You hear that there's all this money out there that goes unused every year," she said. "We've been looking and looking and looking and can't find it."

JAN MURPHY: 232-0668 or jmurphy@patriot-news.com

A SERIES OF ISSUES

Starting today and on the next four Sundays, The Patriot-News will look at key issue in the presidential election and how they affect you. TODAY: Education Oct. 5: National security Oct. 12: Economy Oct. 19: Energy Oct. 26: Health care