Where Do the Candidates Stand on Education Reform?

tion was once the foundation of American society.on early childhood education but also early care
To advance in life, one saw receiving a qualityand education for infants, which they see as
education as the ticket to the middle-class and aparamount in preparing a child for kindergarten.
comfortable life. However, over time AmericansThe senator from Illinois will quadruple Head Start,
began placing less emphasis on education. Theincreasing its funding and improving its quality. In
public school system began to suffer and theaddition, he wants to make high-quality child care
achievement gap between American children andaffordable for working-class families.
their foreign counterparts widened.Obama believes the problem with the
Both Barack Obama and John McCain emphasizemuch-maligned No Child Left Behind program was
education reform in their platform, but whose plana lack of funds for the law. He will fund the law,
benefits you and your children the most?but not force teachers to spend an entire year
McCain believes the key to education reform ispreparing for a standardized test, but instead will
the ability of parents to choose which schoolsfind other tools to assess a student’s
their children attend, similar to his colleagues inachievement and readiness for higher education.
Congress who are able to send their children toHe plans to support the formation of more
the best private schools in their area. Thehigh-performing charter schools by doubling the
Republican nominee equates equal education tofunding of the Federal Charter School Program,
equal access to the best education. According towhile closing low-performing existing charter
his website, “John McCain will fight for theschools.
ability of all students to have access to all schoolsThe Democratic nominee wants to make math
of demonstrated excellence, including their ownand science a national priority by recruiting college
homes.”graduates with math and science degrees and
The Arizona senator wants to encouragesupporting efforts to team teachers with
competition among schools to be the mostprofessionals in the fields of math and science. In
innovative and flexible, and compete for the bestan effort to retain teachers, he would allow a
teachers and administrators.mentoring program that would team young
Furthermore, McCain believes that financialteachers with experienced teachers.
assistance must be based on a parent’sAnother key to Obama’s education
desire to relocate their child to the best schoolreform plan is his “Make College a
available.Reality” initiative, which will increase
However, Obama sees teacher retention andadvance placement courses in high school and
affordable higher learning as the key to educationimplement a new American Opportunity Tax
reform. According to his website, thirty percentCredit, which will ensure that the first $4,000 of
of schoolteachers leave the field of educationcollege tuition is completely free for most
within their first five years. In addition, the cost ofAmericans. According to his website,
a college education has grown by forty percent in“Recipients of the credit will be required to
the last five years.conduct 100 hours of community service.”
Obama and running mate Joe Biden’s planConsequently, whether it is McCain or Obama in
for education reform includes the Zero to Fivethe White House in January 2009, both candidates
Plan, reforming No Child Left Behind andare determined to make education the foundation
supporting college credit initiatives.of American advancement once again.
The Zero to Five Plan will not only place emphasis