• McCain supports school vouchers. 

• Supports sending federal dollars directly to local
schools, cutting back on red tape and saving administrative
costs.

• McCain wants to place parents and children at the
center of the education process and empower parents by greatly
expanding the ability of parents to choose among schools for
their children. 

Editor's note: We found it difficult to pinpoint the position
of John McCain on education from his campaign website and
decided to publish an unedited copy of his position directly
from his website.

Excellence, Choice, and Competition 
in American Education 

John McCain believes American education must be worthy of the
promise we make to our children and ourselves. He understands
that we are a nation committed to equal opportunity, and there
is no equal opportunity without equal access to excellent
education.

Public education should be defined as one in which our public
support for a child's education follows that child into the
school the parent chooses. The school is charged with the
responsibility of educating the child, and must have the
resources and management authority to deliver on that
responsibility. They must also report to the parents and the
public on their progress.

The deplorable status of preparation for our children,
particularly in comparison with the rest of the industrialized
world, does not allow us the luxury of eliminating options in
our educational repertoire. John McCain will fight for the
ability of all students to have access to all schools of
demonstrated excellence, including their own homes.

No Child Left Behind has focused our attention on the
realities of how students perform against a common standard.
John McCain believes that we can no longer accept low
standards for some students and high standards for others. In
this age of honest reporting, we finally see what is happening
to students who were previously invisible. While that is
progress all its own, it compels us to seek and find solutions
to the dismal facts before us.

John McCain believes our schools can and should compete to be
the most innovative, flexible and student-centered - not safe
havens for the uninspired and unaccountable. He believes we
should let them compete for the most effective,
character-building teachers, hire them, and reward them.

If a school will not change, the students should be able to
change schools. John McCain believes parents should be
empowered with school choice to send their children to the
school that can best educate them just as many members of
Congress do with their own children. He finds it beyond
hypocritical that many of those who would refuse to allow
public school parents to choose their child's school would
never agree to force their own children into a school that did
not work or was unsafe. They can make another choice. John
McCain believes that is a fundamental and essential right we
should honor for all parents.

As president, John McCain will pursue reforms that address
the underlying cultural problems in our education system - a
system that still seeks to avoid genuine accountability and
responsibility for producing well-educated children.

John McCain will place parents and children at the center of
the education process, empowering parents by greatly expanding
the ability of parents to choose among schools for their
children. He believes all federal financial support must be
predicated on providing parents the ability to move their
children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing
schools.

		

• Obama Addressing a mostly African American crowd
outside Atlanta in July 2008, "You can't find a job unless you
are a really, really good basketball player. Which most of you
brothers are not. I know you think you are. But you're not.
You are overrated in your own mind. You will not play in the
NBA. You are probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you are
the next Little Wayne, but probably not. In which case you
need to stay in school."

• Obama opposes school vouchers.

• Obama believes that the problems with education in
the US are that the 'No Child Left Behind Law' has failed,
students have been neglected, high dropout rate, teacher
retention, and soaring college costs. 

• He believes that the goal of the 'No Child Left
Behind Law' was the right one, but unfulfilled funding
promises, inadequate implementation by the Education
Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself
have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support.

• He states that America has one of the highest dropout
rates in the industrialized world with only 70 percent of U.S.
high school students graduating with a diploma and that
African American and Latino students are significantly less
likely to graduate than white students.

• He believes that teacher retention is a problem with
thirty percent of new teachers leaving the job within their
first five years in the profession.

• He says that 2 million academically qualified
students will not go to college because they cannot afford it
because our complicated maze of tax credits and applications
leaves too many students unaware of financial aid available to
them.

• Obama proposes the comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan
to provide support to young children and their parents. His
plan places key emphasis at early care and education for
infants, believing that it is essential for children to be
ready to enter kindergarten. Obama would create ?Early
Learning Challenge Grants? to promote state "zero to five"
efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal
pre-school programs.

• Obama would improve quality and quadruple the 'Early
Head Start' program and increase funding for 'Head Start'
program.
 
• Obama wants to provide affordable and high-quality
child care to ease the burden on working families.

• Obama would reform the 'No Child Left Behind Law'
starting with funding of the law. Obama believes teachers
should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing
students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He would
improve the assessments used to track student progress to
measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve
student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama
also wants to improve the NCLB's accountability system so that
we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than
punishing them. 

• Obama wants to make math and science education a
national priority by recruiting math and science degree
graduates to the teaching profession and would support efforts
to help these teachers learn from professionals in the field.
He would also work to ensure that all children have access to
a strong science curriculum at all grade levels. 

• Obama would address the dropout crisis by passing his
legislation to provide funding to school districts to invest
in intervention strategies in middle school - strategies such
as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent
involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math
instruction, and extended learning time.

• Obama would expand high-quality after school
opportunities by doubling the funding to the main federal
support for after school programs and serving one million more
children.
 
• He would expand summer learning opportunities with
the "STEP UP" plan which addresses the achievement gap by
supporting summer learning opportunities for disadvantaged
children through partnerships between local schools and
community organizations.
 
• Obama supports college outreach programs like GEAR
UP, TRIO and Upward Bound to encourage more young people from
low-income families to consider and prepare for college. 
? He supports transitional bilingual education and would help
?Limited English Proficient? students get ahead by holding
schools accountable for making sure these students complete
school.
 
?• Obama would recruit teachers by creating new
?Teacher Service Scholarships? that would cover four years of
undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education,
including high-quality alternative programs for mid-career
recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a
high-need field or location. 

?• Obama would prepare teachers by requiring all
schools of education to be accredited. He would also create a
voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure
that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the
classroom and start teaching effectively. Obama would also
create Teacher Residency Programs that would supply 30,000
exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools. 

?• He wants to retain teachers with a plan that would
expand mentoring programs that pair experienced teachers with
new recruits. He would also provide incentives to give
teachers paid common planning time so they can collaborate to
share best practices. 

• Obama wants to promote new and innovative ways to
increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not
imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs
that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to
new teachers with a salary increase. Districts could reward
teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and
inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the
classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well. 

• Obama wants to make college affordable for all
Americans by creating 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. Obama would
 also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at
the time of enrollment by using prior year's tax data to
deliver the credit when tuition is due. 
?
• Obama wants to streamline the financial aid process
by eliminating the current federal financial aid application
and enabling families to apply simply by checking a box on
their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used,
and eliminating the need for a separate application.