Education policy has gotten short shrift so far in this year's presidential campaign season, yet both Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama and GOP hopeful Sen. John McCain have offered visions of education reform, and the differences between them could not be more striking.
Mr. Obama wants to strengthen public schools by boosting funding for early childhood education, rewarding good teachers with higher pay and offering tax credits for college tuition. Mr. McCain's plan centers on giving parents vouchers for private schools, eliminating most federal regulation of education and expanding online programs that let students take advanced math and science courses in schools where they aren't offered.
Both candidates agree that American education is in crisis. Currently, 6 million middle and high school students read below grade level, and only 70 percent of high school students graduate with a diploma. Nearly a third of new teachers quit within their first five years on the job. And soaring college costs have left millions of students unable to afford higher education, the principal key to success in today's information-based economy. Even those who can pay often leave school with crippling debt.
Senators Obama and McCain also both acknowledge that the federal No Child Left Behind Act passed under the Bush administration is inadequate. The law requires schools to make steady improvements in instructional quality each year as measured by student performance on standardized achievement tests. But it doesn't provide money for schools to hire better teachers, upgrade curriculum and equipment or create after-school enrichment programs. The law is a classic example of an unfunded mandate that leaves struggling states and local governments to pick up the tab for costly federal initiatives.
And that's where the main difference between the candidates lies: Senator Obama promises to fully fund the NCLB law and make quality public education available to every child. Senator McCain, by contrast, says the law's shortcomings merely show that parents should have more choice about where to send their children to school; that's why he favors giving money directly to parents, in the form of vouchers, to pay for private school tuition.
In a city such as Baltimore, the problem with Mr. McCain's plan is obvious. Even if substantial numbers of parents took advantage of vouchers to flee to private schools, there still would be tens of thousands of children trapped in troubled or failing public schools. And those schools would have less hope than ever of getting federal help to get better. In a reprise of the racially segregated school systems of the past, such a plan would re-create a dual school system, based on class and funded by taxpayer dollars, that would benefit a lucky few at the expense of the vast majority. Such an outcome would be a disaster for Baltimore and every urban school district in the country like it.
