Obama v. McCain: Education

Barack Obama’s Education Plan
John McCain’s Education Plan

Highlights:

Obama

• Create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state “zero to five” efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.
• Quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both.
• Provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.
• Reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law.
• Double funding for the Federal Charter School Program to support the creation of more successful charter schools.
• Recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession and support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals in the field.
• Provide funding to school districts to invest in (dropout) intervention strategies in middle school.
• Double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children.
• Support outreach programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and Upward Bound to encourage more young people from low-income families to consider and prepare for college.
• Create a national “Make College A Reality” initiative that has a bold goal to increase students taking AP or college-level classes nationwide 50 percent by 2016, and will build on Obama’s bipartisan proposal in the U.S. Senate to provide grants for students seeking college level credit at community colleges if their school does not provide those resources.
• Create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education.
• (Create) 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. Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of community service.

McCain

• We are a nation committed to equal opportunity, and there is no equal opportunity without equal access to excellent education.
• The school is charged with the responsibility of educating the child, and must have the resources and management authority to deliver on that responsibility.
• All students (will) have access to all schools of demonstrated excellence, including their own homes.
• Schools can and should compete to be the most innovative, flexible and student-centered - not safe havens for the uninspired and unaccountable.
• (Schools) should…compete for the most effective, character-building teachers, hire them, and reward them.
• Parents should be empowered with school choice to send their children to the school that can best educate them….All federal financial support must be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing school.
• Devote five percent of Title II funding to states to recruit teachers who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class or who participate in an alternative teacher recruitment program such as Teach for America, the New York City Teaching Fellowship Program, the New Teacher Project, or excellent university initiatives.
• Devote 60 percent of Title II funding for incentive bonuses for high performing teachers to locate in the most challenging educational settings, for teachers to teach subjects like math and science, and for teachers who demonstrate student improvement. Payments will be made directly to teachers.
• The first 35 percent of Title II funding would be directed to the school level so principals and teachers could focus these resources on the specific needs of their schools.
• Empower School Principals With Greater Control Over Spending.
• Expand The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program from $13 million to at least $20 million benefiting nearly a thousand more families.
• Ensure Children Struggling To Meet State Standards Will Have Immediate Access To High Quality Tutoring Programs. Local school districts can certify education service providers but providers can also bypass the local bureaucracy and receive direct federal certification. Education service providers can then market directly to parents. Title I money will be directed straight to the provider.
• Target $500 million in current federal funds to build new virtual schools.
• Allocate $250 Million Through A Competitive Grant Program To Support States That Commit To Expanding Online Education Opportunities.
• Offer $250 Million For Digital Passport Scholarships To Help Students Pay For Online Tutors Or Enroll In Virtual Schools.