Coming Tuesday is election day in the US, I don’t think anyone failed to notice that. Both Obama and McCain are mainly focussing on the financial crisis and the war in Iraq. These are also what most voters claim to be the most important issues facing the US at the moment. With the campaigns hardening, it is quite possible to miss out on what the election candidates stand for when it comes to (K-12) education.
I found it hard to find out exactly what the main differences are between the two. But when it comes to K-12 education policies like school choice and funding, there are fundamental differences. McCain is much more supportive of school choice and local control than Obama, and Obama supports a much larger increase in federal education spending. Obama supports an 18 billion dollar increase in federal education spending, with 10 billion of that increase devoted to an expanded federal effort in early education and preschool.
what do you find more important? More money for early education or freedom of school choice? Or both?
October 31st, 2008 at 6:17 pm
School choice is much more important than spending monies on early education. Most money spent on early education goes into a few people’s pockets and doesn’t really help the children that need it. Go into any public school in this country and see if the money spent on early education has made any difference. If anything, the students are less knowledgeable than they were before the government stepped into the child care/preschool business. Students are more inconsiderate of others as well. If money was spent on school choice, than schools would rethink how their schools are run because they want that money going to them.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
As somebody who is not happy with our current school, I would have to say that more funds might be the solution. We are finding that our school does not meet the needs of the gifted children, and the reason is they do not have the funds to manage a gifted program. Problem is, our son is gifted and bored to tears and every morning it’s a battle to get him to school. Choice is only worthwhile if they have the ability to implement the choices. Without the money, that just isn’t going to happen.
Good question!
November 12th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
School choice is very important, however, I believe that early education is just as important if not more. Notice that children are brighter at a younger age. If we were to point them in the right direction early on, in the future, our society would be up to par and compete with the education levels of other countries.