• 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.