Platform Three: Education

Greetings.

With only three candidates left, the field becomes much smaller. For John McCain, the race for the candidancy is over; now—as the Republican candidate—he aims for the Presidency. For Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton though, they must still win the Democratic Candidancy, and though Obama is in the lead, Clinton is not too far behind. But for the platform at this moment, I will look education.

The Republican Candidate, John McCain, first pushes that public schools should be charged with the responsibility of educating children, and must report to parents and the public. McCain believes that student should be allowed access access to all schools, including home schooling. He feels that the No Child Left Behind program has focused on how student performs against a common standard, but McCain believes we can’t accept low standards for some students and high standards for others, and thus we must finally see what is happening to students who were previously invisible. Also, McCain believes that the schools must compete to be innovative, flexible and student-centered institutions and also must compete for the most effective, character-building teachers, hire them and reward them. McCain feels that if the schools won’t change, the students should be able to change schools and wants to pursue to reform the system to seek genuine accountability and responsibility for producing well-educated children. Finally, McCain will place children and parents at the center of the education process and put federal financial support to help parents move their children from failing schools.

Currently in the lead of the Democratic race, Barack Obama first plans for a comprehensive “Zero to Five” plan to provide early childhood support, which places key emphasis at early care and education for infants and increase affordable and high-quality child care. No Child Left Behind reform, first by funding the law. Obama doesn’t think teachers should be forced to teach in preparation for standardized testing, so he will improve assessments to measure readiness for college and the workplace. He shall address the dropout crisis by passing legislation to provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention strategies (such as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math instruction and extended learning time) in middle school. Obama supports transitional bilingual education and will help Limited English Proficient students get ahead by holding schools accountable for making sure these students complete school and will create new Teacher Service Scholarships to cover teacher education in exchange for teaching at least four years in a high-need field or location, but also will support the teachers by expanding mentoring programs with experienced teacher and promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay.

To help catch up, Hillary Clinton has many plans for education reform, such as ending unfunded mandate known as No Child Left Behind and meeting the funding promises of IDEA to ensure that children with special needs get the attention and support they deserve. Clinton also supports the recruitment and retaining of thousands more outstanding teachers and creating “green schools” to reduce energy costs and eliminate environmental hazards. She wants to identify at-risk youth early and provide one billon dollars for intense intervention and also invest $100 million in new summer a internship program. For higher education, Clinton will also strengthen community colleges with $500 million investment, increase to $10,000 the college scholarship for those who participate in AmeriCorps full-time for one year, get rid of the red tape in financial aid, hold college cost down and challenge selective colleges to expand access for students from low-income communities.