PSA #3: Education

Oops! I missed a day. Sorry -- things get very busy for me at work this time of year.

Barack Obama's Education Plan
John McCain's Education Plan

Early Childhood Education
Obama: "Zero to five" plan places key emphasis on early care and education for infants, and providing support to parents as well. He would create early learning challenge grants to help states move toward voluntary universal preschool. He would quadruple Early Head Start, increase funding for Head Start, and improve the quality of both. He also hopes to provide affordable, high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families (visit his website through the link above for more details on how).
McCain: He believes that current federal funding for early childhood is adequate, and that we should "leverage and better coordinate" existing programs. He wants to make sure that the neediest children have access to federally-funded programs. He believes that many Head Start centers are lacking in quality, and would like to create Centers for Excellence in Head Start. There would be at least one in each state, and each would receive $200,000/year, depending on the availability of funding, to disseminate their best practices and improve coordination of early childhood education in their region.

K-12 Education
Obama:
- No Child Left Behind (NCLB): He would fully fund it as promised by the Bush administration. He would improve assessments so that teachers don't have to teach to a test all year. He would also improve NCLB's accountability system so that under-performing schools are helped, rather than punished.
- Charter schools: He would double current federal funding for charter schools. The expanded funding would go only to states that improve accountability of charter schools and commit to closing down underperforming charter schools. They would also support expanding the best charter school programs.
- Math & science: Obama wants to recruit math and science graduates into the teaching profession, and would make these curriculum areas a priority in their education policy.
- Dropout crisis: Obama would provide funding to schools to invest in middle school strategies to prevent dropouts, things like teaching teams, parent involvement, and mentoring.
- After-school programs: He'd like to double federal funding to existing programs to serve an additional 1 million children.
McCain: McCain has very little in the way of specifics. He says he will enact "meaningful reform," but does not say what that is.
- Vouchers: While he never uses the word "vouchers," he talks a lot about "equality of choice," which is an often-used buzzword when talking about vouchers. He also wants to increase the funding for Washington D.C.'s voucher program from its current level of $13 million to at least $20 million.
- Tutors: He wants to have the federal government certify tutors, rather than local school districts, and allow tutors to market themselves to parents independently of the school system.
- Homeschooling: $1 billion in current federal funding would be reallocated to home schooling under McCain's plan. He would reallocate $500 million in current federal funding for education to develop online courses for home-schooled children. He would also reallocate an additional $250 million of current federal spending on education to states for the purpose of expanding online educational opportunities. Last but not least, an additional $250 million of current federal funding for education would be made available as scholarships for children to study online. A student could receive up to $4,000 to take courses, study for college entrance exams, or receive tutoring online.

Higher Education
Obama: As mentioned in the tax policy post, Obama wants to create an income tax credit of up to $4,000 per year for college tuition. He believes that this would make community college tuition cost-free, and would cover 2/3 the cost of tuition at the average public college or university. In return for claiming the credit, the recipient would have to perform 100 hours of community service. He also wants to streamline the process for applying for federal financial aid, so that all a family has to do is check a box on its tax return in order to apply.
McCain: He would reduce federal regulation of higher educational institutions (I wish he offered specifics, because I really don't know how the federal government regulates colleges and universities.). He wants to make the information that colleges and universities report to the federal government each year more accessible to parents (again, I'm sorry, but I have no idea what sort of information this is). He wants to simplify existing tax benefits for higher education, without providing any new benefits. He believes we should simplify the federal financial aid program by consolidating many programs into one. He would eliminate earmarks for research.

Teachers
Obama: Obama has a plan to recruit, prepare, retain and reward teachers. He would offer scholarships for a four-year college education in return for four years of teaching in public schools. He advocates a national performance assessment for teachers. He would expand mentoring programs for new teachers, and provide for common planning time so that teachers can collaborate. In cooperation with teachers, he wants to promote innovative ways to increase teacher pay.
McCain: He would like to invest in alternative methods for new teachers to be licensed. He would devote a small portion of current education funding to recruiting teachers who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class, or who complete alternative teacher recruitment programs like Teach for America. He wants to provide bonuses to high-performing teachers who work in challenging environments. He would focus funding for professional development on technological skills.

So let's talk.
McCain wants to create a lot of new programs for vouchers and homeschooling without increasing federal funding. Is that realistic?

On the other hand, Obama proposes new funding for education at all levels. Is that realistic?

Under whose plan do you think you could achieve the education plans you hope to provide to your children?