The Best Education President?
2004 Candidates Beginning to Clarify Positions
By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 16, 2003; 8:25 AM
URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4271-2003Dec16.html
It's pitiful, but true. My requests for information from the nine Democratic presidential contenders on what they would do to fix our schools have gone unanswered.
This is not so surprising. Education reporters are accustomed to getting no respect. You may notice, on the list of 11 news topics on the washingtonpost.com home page, that education comes in ninth, just before obituaries and corrections.
But as I said when I complained in a recent column about the lack of a presidential campaign education debate, I still love The Post's political coverage and understand that candidate spokespersons might not have time to respond to me when there are several dozen messages from the battalion of Post reporters who, unlike me, actually cover those campaigns.
In that earlier column I faulted the Democratic presidential contenders for avoiding the crucial argument among educators -- should we insist that our schools focus on measurable gains in achievement with regular testing, as the federal government is trying to do, or is it better to improve teacher training and salaries and let the professionals do their jobs without so much kibitzing?
Most of the response to that column came from admirers of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the apparent Democratic front-runner, who said their guy had been very specific about his distaste for the testing regime. The official statements on the Dean Web site were still pretty vague, but shortly after my column ran, Dean began to provide in speeches and interviews just the answers I was looking for.
Some of the other candidates have also become more specific, and so in thanks to them, I offer this updated guide to presidential politics for school wonks like me. Instead of whining again about how much the candidates are NOT telling voters about their education plans, I am going to give you the highlights of what they are saying, and some clues to the differences between them.
The American Federation of Teachers has helpfully posted on its Web site the candidate responses to a series of questions they submitted. The AFT is the nation's second-largest teachers union and has a considerable amount of political power, so they get their messages returned rather swiftly. I am using the AFT answers as a standardized measure of each candidate's educational priorities, and have gathered additional material, including information from the Web sites for Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) and another Democratic candidate, the Rev. Al Sharpton, whom an AFT spokesman said did not return their questionnaire.
You ought to read the entire responses if you have time, but for each I offer two aspects of their thinking that will help me decide whom to vote for: (1) the educational theme they emphasize most and (2) the educational proposal that seems most different from those mentioned by the other candidates. The most emphasized idea will generally be a quote from the beginning of each response to the AFT question, "What do you believe are the challenges facing public education, and how would your administration address those challenges?" Each candidate's unique proposal will be my personal pick, based on what they and their opponents have said so far.
All of the candidates besides President Bush are Democrats and each of the Democrats appears to support more funds for the new No Child Left Behind law. They all apparently endorse more money for preschools and special education and college tuition support. So I am trying to figure out how to tell them apart.
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN
Most emphasized idea: "The most important challenge facing public education is the waning of national consensus about its importance. Too many point to any number of failings in public education, and they are largely responsible for attitudes that undermine our national commitment to providing free, universal, quality public education," she says. She has put unusual stress on education for children with disabilities and wants full funding of the federal promise to provide 40 percent of special education costs.
Most unique idea: She is one of the few candidates to attack the common method of funding schools through local property taxes. She says she will "expand national financial support of education . . . but in ways that will maintain local control of decision-making."
PRESIDENT BUSH
Most emphasized idea: His campaign told the AFT that it was not ready yet for a full response, but even someone as lacking in foresight as I am can safely predict that Bush will be touting his success in getting No Child Left Behind passed. His administration supports annual testing of all public school students in grades 3 to 8 and in high school, requirements for steady progress of each major minority group, as well as low-income and special education students, and reorganization of schools that don't improve.
Most unique thought: Bush supports tax-supported scholarships to private schools, often called vouchers, for low-income students, something none of the Democrat candidates favor.
RETIRED GEN. WESLEY K. CLARK
Most emphasized idea: "I am living proof that in this country, when you get a good education, you can achieve anything -- no matter where you start, no matter what your background might be. I want every child to have the same chance I had," he says. He calls for more funding for No Child Left Behind and more support for schools and teachers so they can help all children learn.
Most unique thought: Clark's $70 billion Universal Preschool Plan would provide grants to states that accept his challenge to make high-quality, voluntary preschool available to all four-year-olds and a growing number of three year olds.
HOWARD DEAN
Most emphasized idea: "In recent years, the federal government has imposed massive new requirements on public school teachers and school boards while providing insufficient resources to meet those requirements. Basic decisions about education should be made at the state and local level, but the federal government must play a major role in helping states improve schools and address educational inequality," he says. He supports more funds for No Child Left Behind and early childhood development.
Most unique thought: He has had very specific recommendations for changing the new federal law. He told Education Week that he would like to keep the bill's focus on improvement in each student subgroup, such as African Americans and Hispanics, but discard the current requirement that each subgroup show a certain amount of annual progress.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-N.C.)
Most emphasized idea: "Nearly 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, we still have two school systems, in fact if not in law, and they are still separate and unequal. Our best public schools are among the best in the world. But the state of many of our schools remains a blot on our nation," he says. He wants to double the federal $3 billion a year spent on improving teacher and principal training, expand after-school programs, and work to establish smaller schools.
Most unique thought: He is the only candidate to emphasize the need for more access to demanding high school courses. "Every child should be put on the track to complete college-prep classes, unless their parents choose otherwise," he says. He calls for college-level Advanced Placement courses even in small, isolated and high-poverty schools.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-Mo.)
Most emphasized idea: "I benefited from great public school teachers growing up in St. Louis. I know this much: teachers are the single most important factor in providing our children with a quality education. That is why we have to continue to recruit the best and brightest to the profession," he says. He wants reduced class sizes, particularly in the early grades. He says he fought for the Class Size Reduction initiative in Congress and thinks "smaller class sizes result in more successful students." He also wants more money for early childhood and after school education.
Most unique thought: He wants to create a Teacher Corps through special college loans for students willing to commit to five years in the classroom.
SEN. JOHN F. KERRY (D-Mass.)
Most emphasized idea: "We need to reform the way we fund our public schools. Our system penalizes the urban school systems that need the most help. And it creates public schools that are separate and unequal. It's time to secure for every school the resources it needs to insure that no school will be left behind, especially low-performing schools and under-resourced schools," he says. He supports more funds for No Child Left Behind, teacher quality improvement, school construction and repair and pre-school and after school programs.
Most unique thought: He is one of the few to mention what he calls "alternative education programs for chronically disruptive and violent students so that teachers can focus more on teaching and less on discipline."
REP. DENNIS J. KUCINICH (D-Ohio)
Most emphasized idea: His Web site says "the right of every American child to a high-quality free public education is one of America's most treasured principles. Dennis Kucinich intends to improve the quality of public education in those schools that are struggling, and to expand public education to include pre-kindergarten beginning at age 3 for any families that want it, as well as tuition-free college for millions of students." He wants more school repair and construction and more college access for welfare recipients.
Most unique thought: He wants to spend $48 billion to make college tuition free for the 12 million students who attend state colleges and universities.
SEN. JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN (D-Conn.)
Most emphasized idea: "I believe that President Bush's tax cut for the wealthy has left our states and schools billions short of the critical resources they need. That is why I supported an amendment in the Senate that expressed the need for states to receive at least $30 billion in immediate relief, and why I am committed to fully funding mandates imposed on the states, including No Child Left Behind and special education," he says. He wants to fund school modernization, expand pre-school education and increase federal funding of education for children with disabilities.
Most unique thought: His College Opportunity Plan sets a goal of 90 percent of high school graduates going on to college, vocational school or the military by 2020, with the support of more federal grants and loans.
THE REV. AL SHARPTON
Most emphasized idea and most unique thought: On Sharpton's Web site, his strongest and most unusual education idea appear to be the same -- amend the U.S. constitution to create "the right to a public education of equal high quality." Some state constitutions include this, but Sharpton quotes a 2000 federal court decision that says "the right to an education is not guaranteed, either explicitly or implicitly, by Constitution, and therefore could not constitute a fundamental right." Sharpton has said that without this amendment the "educational system is structured to be 'separate and unequal' -- 50 states, 3,067 counties, tens of thousands of cities, 15,000 school districts and 85,000 schools, . . . each with varying degrees of opportunity, funding and quality."
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