Improving Schools
by Lee Ann ObringerOctober 2004
The Issue
 Photo courtesy NASA |
The push for more standardized testing is strong from both parents and educators. However, there is also the argument that standardized testing is overly emphasized in schools, with teachers teaching based on the standardized test rather than the usual curriculum, or what they say students should be learning. Still, teachers agree that the benefits of testing, such as identifying students who need additional help, and the fact that students work harder when they know they will be tested, are strong as well. And many parents rely on test scores to find out whether their schools are doing a good job.
Poor student behavior and lack of parental support are two of the problems most frequently cited by teachers. Almost half of teachers spend more time trying to maintain order in the classroom than they do actually teaching. Parents agree: Only half say they feel they have successfully taught their children to always do their best. Over half of teachers say that more parental involvement in their child's education would increase their child's chances of doing well in school.
Parents expect students to graduate with strong basic skills in reading, math, and writing. But they also expect them to be prepared for college, which requires higher learning skills. Only about half of college professors believe that public schools are preparing students adequately for higher education. The most lacking areas are in writing clearly, grammar, and spelling, as well as basic math skills.
School administrators overwhelmingly agree that if they were given more autonomy in making decisions for their school, leadership at their schools would improve. They should be able to reward exceptional teachers and get rid of ineffective ones. Instead, they spend too much time and effort on politics and bureaucracy.
The major issues are: education spending, the question of school accountability, and providing school choice.
Badnarik: Position and Record
by Ed Grabianowski
October 2004
The Libertarian solution to failing public schools is to privatize them. Badnarik thinks the government should have no involvement with education whatsoever. In a 2004 interview with the Augusta Free Press, he said, "I've read the Constitution many times. No matter how I read it -- forward, backward, upside down or with my Captain Liberty Secret Decoder Ring -- I can't find anything in it that empowers the federal government to be involved in education."
Badnarik wants to place decisions regarding where, when, and for how long students attend school, as well as who teaches them and what will be taught, into the hands of parents and educators. He feels that private schools are more efficient, and that simply putting more tax money into public schools won't solve the problem.
Record:
Since Badnarik has never held a public office, he has no voting record on this issue.
Bush: Position and Record
President Bush's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 was enacted to ensure that every child got the opportunity to have a good education. NCLB addresses many of the concerns listed above and is designed to:
- Help parents prepare their children for learning
- Give parents objective data on how their child is doing academically
- Give parents a detailed report card on how their child's school is doing in relation to other schools
- Allow parents to transfer their child to a better school or get additional tutoring if their current school is consistently low-performing
- Give teachers hard data through annual standardized tests that will point out each child's strengths and weaknesses so they can adequately plan their lessons to meet specific needs
- Ensure that teachers are highly qualified
- Increase resources for schools
- Give principals and administrators more flexibility and control in their schools and fewer requirements for forms and red tape
- Put more emphasis on teaching techniques that have been clearly demonstrated to work
- put $1 billion into a new Secondary and Technical Education program that provides the traditional vocational education with added emphasis on academic achievement
- expand opportunities for math and science education in colleges and universities by establishing a new public-private partnership to provide $100 million in grants to low-income students who study math or science
- include 12th graders in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to ensure they are prepared for higher education and to identify areas where schools are not meeting the needs of students
Record:
- Standards and Accountability: Since President Bush signed NCLB into law, every state has developed a plan to ensure reading and math proficiency and to begin to close the achievement gap between students of different socio-economic backgrounds.
- Funding: President Bush's overall Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 budget represents a 49 percent increase for elementary and secondary education since FY 2001. (This funding under the NCLB Act has been $6 billion short of what was proposed.)
- Reading First and Early Reading First: President Bush proposed and signed into law the Reading First and Early Reading First initiatives to ensue that every child can read by the third grade.
- Options Available for Parents: Using tutoring money provided under NCLB, low-income parents of children in schools that have been identified as needing improvement can access supplemental service providers approved by the states.
- Providing Parents with School Choice: A school choice program was included in the FY 2004 Omnibus Appropriations bill for approximately 1,700 low-income children in the District of Columbia to attend the school of their choice.
Kerry: Position and Record
Kerry has a three-part plan to improve the nation's schools. First, he proposes a new National Education Trust Fund that guarantees the federal government will meet its obligation to fully fund education.
Second, Kerry supports No Child Left Behind but with the following changes:
- Schools will be judged on more than just test scores. Under Kerry's plan, schools would also take into consideration such things as parental satisfaction, teacher and student attendance, and graduation rates.
- States that implement high standards will be rewarded. Kerry feels that the current NCLB Act rewards schools with low standards and penalizes schools with high standards, because schools can achieve higher scores with lower standards.
- Enact reforms that give states and school districts the freedom to provide more assistance for schools with the most difficulties, provide federal government funding for professional development requirements, ensure that any group or program that receives NCLB funding fully complies with federal civil rights laws, and close loopholes.
- Higher teacher pay for higher standards - Teachers should be highly qualified, and schools should institute strong professional development plans to ensure continued teacher growth and support.
- Recruiting and training school principals - Because a high percentage of school principals are now retiring, Kerry proposes investing $120 million for the School Leadership Program to recruit and train principals in every low-performing or high-needs school across the country.
- Ensuring school discipline and creating "second-chance" programs - Kerry would ensure that teachers and school districts can remove students who are violent or chronically disrupt the classroom. "Second chance" programs would be provided to help these students in an alternate learning environment while they are in school rather than letting them drop out and end up in the juvenile justice system.
- Investing in school repair and modernization - Because so many of the nation's schools are in disrepair, and many areas need additional school facilities, Kerry supports the federal government adding $24.8 billion in school modernization bonds to help districts repair and modernize school facilities.
Record:
- Supported "No Child Left Behind"
- Supported funding smaller classes instead of private tutors
- Supported funding student testing instead of private tutors
- Supported spending $448 billion of tax cuts on education and debt reduction
- Did not support Educational Savings Accounts
- Did not support allowing more flexibility in federal school rules (which would have allowed states to waive certain federal rules normally required to receive federal school aid)
- Did not support school vouchers in Washington, D.C.
- Did not support $75 million for abstinence education to reduce teenage pregnancy
- Did not support requiring schools to allow voluntary prayer
- Supported national education standards
- Kerry signed the manifesto, "A New Agenda for the New Decade," with goals of:
- Turning around every failing public school
- Making charter schools an option in every state and community
- Offering every parent a choice of public schools to which to send his or her child
- Making sure every classroom has well-qualified teachers who know the subjects they teach, and pay teachers more for performance
- Creating a safe, clean, healthy, disciplined learning environment for every student
- Making pre-kindergarten education universally available
- Supported $35 billion for Reinvestment, Reinvention, Responsibility
Nader: Position and Record
Ralph Nader stands against standardized testing in schools, stating that it has a negative impact on student learning and forces teachers to spend too much time teaching to the narrow scope of the test. He believes it "de-enriches" the curriculum, gives a false accountability, is culturally biased, and takes an inordinate amount of financial resources to administer. He supports broadening education to include civic skills that teach students how to succeed in the real world.
Nader believes that all children should have access to equal education opportunities regardless of where they live or their parents' incomes. He supports the federal government's funding for:
- Head Start
- Guaranteed pre-school education for all children
- Nutritional programs for all schools
- Repair of the nation's crumbling schools within three years
Record:
Because Ralph Nader has never held public office, he has no voting record on education issues.
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