John McCain on Education
by Nancy Pfotenhauer

Over recent weeks, women working to elect John McCain as our next president have been guest-posting here at BlogHer. Today, I wanted to join them in doing so, for the specific purpose of talking about education in America and what John McCain plans to do to improve it.

Clearly, this is a topic of interest to many BlogHers, ranging from the parents among you to those concerned about worker retraining. It’s also an area of policy that John McCain takes very seriously. Unless Americans are able to benefit from an A+ education, we are damaging our ability to compete in the global marketplace. John McCain will ensure that our citizens are able to find and keep good, stable, well-paying jobs. Those are his top priorities, just as I am sure they are yours. However, they will be difficult to achieve without bringing our education system into the 21st century.

Let’s start by talking about education at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. John McCain believes that in order to deliver meaningful K-12 reform, above all else, we need to eliminate wasteful bureaucracy and empower parents and teachers.

In practice, that means a number of changes:

• First, we need to keep the emphasis on standards and accountability established under No Child Left Behind, but shift our focus from group averages to ensuring that each child is able to reach his or her own potential. In other words, we need to make sure individual achievement is the primary goal by measuring student growth year to year.

• Second, while maintaining strong public schools, we need to give parents more choices where their children’s education is concerned. This is especially important for less well-off parents and students, such as those benefiting from Opportunity Scholarships in Washington, D.C. John McCain believes this is an education success story and wants more funding for the program (an increase to $20 million per year from $13 million per year). His bottom line is that parents across the country must have more choices and control of the money needed to make them.

• Third, we need to do more to place quality teachers in struggling schools. That means doing more to recruit highly motivated and highly qualified teachers into the field, for example by devoting 5 percent of Title II funding to states to recruit teachers who graduate in the top quarter of their class or who participate in programs like Teach for America. It also means directly providing bonuses to top-performing teachers who choose to work in underperforming schools, have students who have demonstrated improvement, or teach subjects like math and science.

In addition to the above, John McCain is focused on leveraging technological developments to improve education across America. He will allocate $500 million of existing federal funds to build new virtual schools and develop online course curriculums. He will direct $250 million of this to a competitive grant program that will allow states to expand virtual math and science academies. Through this program, states will be able to offer greater opportunities in AP Math, Science and Computer Sciences courses, as well as provide access to online tutoring in areas like foreign language learning. The other $250 million will go to students in need: low-income students will be eligible for up to $4,000 for online courses that give them access to SAT/ACT preparation, as will as virtual tutoring or credit recovery.

These initiatives will offer the highest-quality education possible for America’s youngest generations and prepare them to compete in a global economy. It is also important that our current workforce meet the demands of the 21st century. John McCain’s worker retraining program will push our economy forward and ensure that workers develop much-needed skills suited to fast-growing industries.

Why is that important, you may ask? Simply put, as a strong supporter of free trade, John McCain clearly sees the merits of eliminating tariffs and other barriers to exports and imports. He is also well aware that free trade can dislocate American jobs in certain industries and calls for short-term worker assistance and training. We have seen older, more traditional jobs disappear in places like Youngstown, Ohio, and new jobs appear in industries like software and tech. The bottom line is that workers need new skills to prepare them for growing sectors in the economy. John McCain believes that by prioritizing and funding adult education, using important centers of learning like community colleges, we can ensure that those who have lost jobs are ready to take on 21st century opportunities right in their own hometowns. This should be a national priority.

I hope the above has given you an idea of what John McCain is proposing to bolster quality education across the country. I also hope that you will share your thoughts with me.

Nancy Pfotenhauer is a senior policy adviser on domestic issues for the John McCain presidential Campaign.

Submitted by Nancy Pfotenhauer (view blog) on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 1:06pm

Comments

 

Teach for America

Teach for America is a fine program -- in theory.  What I have seen when I taught in a low-performing urban area is that many of the young adults who entered teaching through this program did not stay in teaching.  I have come to believe that for many it was the opportunity to receive some student loan forgiveness.  I also think that there should be stricter enforcement of the credentialing part of the program.  I know of several who started, but did not complete, the credentialing process.  These same individuals continued to teach.  So much for "highly qualified teachers."

Submitted by Dagny on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 14:16
 

A few questions

You mention direct bonuses to teachers who work in underperforming schools would this include merit pay? And if it includes merit pay would that be via collective bargaining between LEAs and their union and would test scores be used?

Along the same vein; I would assume that the senator wants to encourage people to go into the teaching profession and yet he voted against the College Cost Reduction act (senate vote #307) which increases financial support for those going into the teaching profession. Granted it did pass but that still gives me pause. 

And lastly how does he plan to measure student growth? ESEA standards say that students need to be on a trajectory towards proficiency by 2013-2014 can multiple measures be used or is his plan to keep using test scores to label students and schools as failing? 

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance

Submitted by HeatherB on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 16:20
 

Adding questions...

If schools become marketed, i.e. parents shop for their school, how does John propose to see make certain quality schools exist for those not first in line? Is there a way to prevent parents from being adversely selected against?

Secondly, what is John's opinion of teacher/student ratio and class size?  

 

nelle

&

llhaesa

Submitted by nelle2nelle on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 17:50
 

Talking Out Of Both Sides Of His Mouth

It is so past the time when politicians make enormous decisions regarding education that I feel almost silly saying it again: ask teachers.

Teachers will tell you that:

1. Whoever gets to measure the arbitrary goal of "potential" doesn't truly understand the growth of a child. What does that really look like and what does it truly mean? I fear that standards are applied differently to different groups and this is too vague an exploration as you've posted here.

2. If all schools were equalized parents wouldn't need more choices. This usually serves to allow wealthier parents to choose entitled schooling for their children and is a classic case of the rich getting richer.

3. "Quality teachers" doesn't take into account some of the most important qualities of educators. In my experience teachers who graduate in the top of their class aren't the best teachers. The best teachers are the ones who CARE about the students. Can you ensure that those "top grades" college students will actually care more about children?

4. Putting technology into schools requires training teachers FIRST. He wants technological development for virtual schools? Are you going to pull from those "top graduates" with the "topo grades" once again? This, to me, doesn't seem to help the issue of students simply not reading at grade level. It appears to be one more way to divide the haves and have-nots. Those math and science academies serve to stimulate students who do well in those courses, but, again, it takes students away from schools that then become 'struggling schools'.

Nothing is mentioned about early childhood programs focusing on literacy and numeracy or helping high school students and their families access higher education. That is part of the reason real reform continues to fail the masses: real reform isn't FOR the masses.

Meaningful reform comes from taking the lead from the true leaders. No one ever asks them in a format that brings about true change and educators keep on working to meet impossible standards (how is it again that we're responsible for their attendance when we get no support from state and local agencies to enforce this?) and do the work that no one else is willing to do or even be responsible for when it fails.

 

Mocha Momma

Submitted by Kelly Wickham on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 18:20
 

Have the education dollars follow the child

I agree with Sen. McCain that this is key--individual children come first and empowering parents to choose the school that best meets their needs will improve all schools.

Have the education dollars follow the child. Let's have a consumer model of education, with choice, not one size fits all.

In my experience too often education dollars go to buiildings and administrators rather than to teachers and students. 

Submitted by BackyardConservative on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 20:41
 

Where is the money coming from?

Ok if the education dollars are to follow a child where do these education dollars come from? The federal government gives a small percentage to each state to fund education and the state pays for the rest with property taxes at the same time the economy is terrible and people cannot afford their property taxes so they're looking for a property tax cap for relief but without finding a way to fully fund mandates. States think they can find the money somewhere but they cannot. The cyle continues so how do states get the money? 

 

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance

Submitted by HeatherB on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 20:52
 

States should give education priority over
other spending

And give each parent the $$$ so they can shop wisely.

Chicago public schools spend $10,000 per student with very poor results.

Think what a parent could do with that money..

Even if you gave a parent half to two thirds of that in most states it would go a long way to giving them the power to choose where they want their child to go to school, or start a school of their own.

It's the only fair way, because no schools are the same, and no child is the same as another.

Submitted by BackyardConservative on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 21:39
 

Teachers making decisions

I believe that Mocha Mom put it all quite eloquently but I would like to expand upon one of her points -- technology.

A couple of years ago Scotts Foreman introduced what I believe is a wonderful series for elementary school social studies.  Each child received a consummable book for the year.  What better way to teach children critical reading and notetaking skills than to give them something that they are free to mark.

A key part of this program is that it addressed multiple intelligences.  One method was through the use of technology.  While I have worked at schools at which the teachers were not that technologically savvy, this was not the case at this school.  Instead our problem was the lack of proper equipment to handle the technology.  On the technology issue, I believe it is a combination of having teacher training and adequate equipment in schools.

As far as student growth is concerned, I have huge issues with basing the measure on student growth on a single test -- a test that has the potential to be culturally biased.  Most teachers will tell you that they look at multiple assessments to determine student growth.  Given the history of this country, the use of one measure seems rather elitist.

I would surmise that if teachers were given more voice in how educational dollars are spent, we might not be having as many debates about the state of education in our country.

Submitted by Dagny on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 22:49