Post 2 of ???
Today we're going to look at a little slice of Education. The candidates, predictably, both say that our education system is flawed and that they know how to fix it. Unfortunately, they cannot even agree as to what the problems are.
Policy
Obama
Barack Obama's website says it's a big problem that only 1/3 of high school graduates immediately begin college or university classes. He will fix that by making community college practically free via a (huge!) tax credit. Remember, 'tax credits' usually only take your money out of the 'taxable income' category and move it into the 'pre-tax income' category - a tax credit or deduction of $1000 is only likely to save you $200 on your taxes. Obama claims that he will size the money actually saved on this credit so that it will pay your tuition at the time it is due - you won't even have to take out a loan. So, if the student's tuition bill is $2000(smallish), the actual deduction he gets on his taxes is ~ $10000 (about 50% on top of the standard deduction- huge!)
Obama also talks a lot about giving teachers more money, though he also says nothing about trying to get rid of those teachers that don't actually teach- he would give them more money as well.
McCain
McCain's website says that the big problem is that parents are left 'without a choice' as to which public school to send their kids to. He is only concerned with testing schools, and then giving those students deemed to be in 'failing' schools the option to leave for another school. It should sound familiar, because that is the system we have now, at least in Florida. That's really the extent of it; he loves standardized tests, he seems to think that somehow everyone's score needs to be high on these. He wants to penalize schools where the scores are too low, regardless of whose fault that may be. In Florida, Jeb Bush was (and is) the big champion of this policy- and GW Bush had a similar policy in Texas. I'm not sure to what extent existing law (No Child Left Behind) makes this national policy, but it's clear that McCain wants all states following this lead.
Criticisms
Obama
Teh Community College tax credit policy is liberal in two senses - expansion of government provided benefits and control of education, and also in the sense that literally nothing like it has ever been done at the Federal level, and it especially wasn't done with a paid-forward tax benefit. I think it's a free candy policy. If implemented, it will have the down-the-road effect of Federal oversight of Community Colleges - almost making Community College the new high school.
As for what I said about not tying teacher pay to performance- I'm not referring to those teachers who try hard but many of their kids still fail standardized tests, I'm referring to the ones who just show videos - and any school principal knows how to tell the difference. The problem is that teachers' unions are too powerful to allow teachers to be paid for how talented they actually are. Obama and his party count Teachers' Unions as some of their most reliable supporters.
McCain
My problem with "school accountability" and "failing schools" and "school choice" is that they are all assume that schools are homogeneous things that can be "good" or "bad" in and of themselves. First of all, every parent has choice about where their child will go to school; they made that choice when they moved to their house. They also have choices in private and religious schools, which will often offer scholarships. More "choice" is not needed. Secondly, my first point is almost moot because an education is a matter of a teacher (or teachers), a student, and that students parents all being dedicated to it. A school is simply a building in which all of them meet. If a school is failing to attract high-quality parents, or high-quality teachers, or if its kids decide to christmas-tree the FCAT, does that make it a bad school? No, of course not- it's a school with bad students. Every school, I think, even the ones we think are terrible, have a few exceptional students who are trying and are being reached by their teachers. I think it's totally unfair to have these kids be told that they're products of a failed school. That's just me.
Policy
Obama
Barack Obama's website says it's a big problem that only 1/3 of high school graduates immediately begin college or university classes. He will fix that by making community college practically free via a (huge!) tax credit. Remember, 'tax credits' usually only take your money out of the 'taxable income' category and move it into the 'pre-tax income' category - a tax credit or deduction of $1000 is only likely to save you $200 on your taxes. Obama claims that he will size the money actually saved on this credit so that it will pay your tuition at the time it is due - you won't even have to take out a loan. So, if the student's tuition bill is $2000(smallish), the actual deduction he gets on his taxes is ~ $10000 (about 50% on top of the standard deduction- huge!)
Obama also talks a lot about giving teachers more money, though he also says nothing about trying to get rid of those teachers that don't actually teach- he would give them more money as well.
McCain
McCain's website says that the big problem is that parents are left 'without a choice' as to which public school to send their kids to. He is only concerned with testing schools, and then giving those students deemed to be in 'failing' schools the option to leave for another school. It should sound familiar, because that is the system we have now, at least in Florida. That's really the extent of it; he loves standardized tests, he seems to think that somehow everyone's score needs to be high on these. He wants to penalize schools where the scores are too low, regardless of whose fault that may be. In Florida, Jeb Bush was (and is) the big champion of this policy- and GW Bush had a similar policy in Texas. I'm not sure to what extent existing law (No Child Left Behind) makes this national policy, but it's clear that McCain wants all states following this lead.
Criticisms
Obama
Teh Community College tax credit policy is liberal in two senses - expansion of government provided benefits and control of education, and also in the sense that literally nothing like it has ever been done at the Federal level, and it especially wasn't done with a paid-forward tax benefit. I think it's a free candy policy. If implemented, it will have the down-the-road effect of Federal oversight of Community Colleges - almost making Community College the new high school.
As for what I said about not tying teacher pay to performance- I'm not referring to those teachers who try hard but many of their kids still fail standardized tests, I'm referring to the ones who just show videos - and any school principal knows how to tell the difference. The problem is that teachers' unions are too powerful to allow teachers to be paid for how talented they actually are. Obama and his party count Teachers' Unions as some of their most reliable supporters.
McCain
My problem with "school accountability" and "failing schools" and "school choice" is that they are all assume that schools are homogeneous things that can be "good" or "bad" in and of themselves. First of all, every parent has choice about where their child will go to school; they made that choice when they moved to their house. They also have choices in private and religious schools, which will often offer scholarships. More "choice" is not needed. Secondly, my first point is almost moot because an education is a matter of a teacher (or teachers), a student, and that students parents all being dedicated to it. A school is simply a building in which all of them meet. If a school is failing to attract high-quality parents, or high-quality teachers, or if its kids decide to christmas-tree the FCAT, does that make it a bad school? No, of course not- it's a school with bad students. Every school, I think, even the ones we think are terrible, have a few exceptional students who are trying and are being reached by their teachers. I think it's totally unfair to have these kids be told that they're products of a failed school. That's just me.