| | Numerous studies have shown that reduced class sizes, high academic standards, challenging curriculum, safe and orderly classrooms and qualified teachers contribute significantly to education success. But funding shortfalls and crumbling, overcrowded schools make teaching and learning difficult for many in public elementary and secondary schools. The AFL-CIO recently asked the 2004 presidential candidates what they will do to ensure the nation’s children receive a quality education. |
George W. Bush
Candidate response not received.
For more information, visit www.georgewbush.com and www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/bushwatch/.
John Kerry
Education
What specifically will you do to ensure all our children can get a high-quality public education in safe school buildings conducive to learning?
Fully Fund the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. My first priority as President will be to live up to the funding commitments made in the No Child Left Behind Act and fully fund the law. Unless schools receive the resources they were promised and respect they deserve, the new law will fail and inequality will persist. Where the Bush Administration sought to cut funding for school reform and issued restrictive guidelines, I will fund the law and ensure states have the flexibility to meet the goals of the law. I will also make full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act a top priority. The federal government has never met its funding obligation for special education and the impact has been devastating to schools and communities, which have been forced to make up the difference. I have consistently supported efforts to fully fund IDEA in Congress and as President I will ensure that the federal government becomes a true partner of state and local governments in the provision of special education.
Making Professional Development a Priority and Increasing the Supply of Teachers. Teachers play the most important role in helping children learn and succeed. And teacher quality is perhaps the single most important factor in closing the achievement gap between low and high income children. Yet the Bush Administration proposed cutting $81 million from programs to improve teacher quality this year. I understand that supporting teachers requires dedication and resources, not just rhetoric, and as President I will provide the necessary support for professional development, I will treat teachers with the respect they deserve, and I will support programs that encourage talented young people to become teachers. Instead of fostering environments that drive dedicated teachers from schools, I will work to create supportive environments that provide teachers with opportunities to improve their skills, that have robust mentoring programs, smaller class size, and alternative education programs for chronically disruptive and violent students so that teachers can focus more on teaching and less on discipline.
Class-Size Reduction. Smaller classes promote student achievement, improve discipline and classroom order, and expand quality learning time. It's just common sense - and it's borne out by research - that when teachers have more time to spend with individual students, there are tremendous learning benefits to the child. I have consistently supported efforts to provide a dedicated funding stream for reducing class size. Rather than terminate successful programs to reduce class size like the Bush Administration has done, I will champion initiatives that ensure children are not forced to learn in overcrowded classrooms, particularly in the early grades.
School Construction. The physical structure of our nation's school buildings are in desperate shape: there are $127 billion worth of school construction and emergency repair needs nationally; 14 million children are learning in substandard schools in need of major renovation; and half of all schools have at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition, such as polluted drinking water or soot-filled ventilation. I have been at the forefront of the fight in Congress to obtain federal funding for school construction, introducing legislation that would allow the federal government to issue $24.8 billion in school modernization bonds - and apply Davis-Bacon prevailing wage standards - in order to help states and school districts repair and build modern schools. As President, I will make repairing and renovating existing school buildings and building new ones a major priority. I will end the partisan divide that threatens progress on school construction and bring members of both parties together to do what is in the best interest and safety of our nation's school children.
Early Childhood Development and After-School Programs. In my Administration, initiatives that help children get ready for school and provide support after school will be top priorities. Students who reach the first grade without having had the opportunity to develop cognitive or language comprehension skills begin school at a disadvantage. Children who have not had the chance to develop social and emotional skills do not begin school ready to learn. I believe it is the obligation of government to ensure that all children have the opportunity to succeed. As President, I will work toward providing a healthy, safe, and supportive start for all children of pre-school age.
After-school programs are also an important component of helping students succeed in school. Unfortunately, President Bush has proposed cutting funding for the federal after-school program by 40 percent - more than 550,000 children across the country would lose access to after school programs under the President's plan. This Administration's decision to decimate federal after-school funding is tragic for the hundreds of thousands of young people who will be denied a place to go after school and an unwise decision for improving educational outcomes. I will fight the Bush Administration's cuts and as President I will work to provide funding to public schools and community-based organizations programs that provides after-school programs.
Do you support or oppose private school vouchers and education tax credits for private schools?
I have never supported vouchers. I understand why parents want more choices and I believe they should have more choices in public schools. But what public schools need most are resources and support, and vouchers drain them of both. Our inner-city schools and our rural schools need better buildings, more textbooks, higher paid teachers, the best principals, and smaller classes. They also need the strongest possible support they can get from our leaders - especially the President of the United States.
As president I will do everything I can to support public schools and make them better, not resort to gimmicks that are cynically designed to drive those schools into the ground. I understand the frustration that some parents must feel, faced with sending their child to what they know to be a low-performing public school. That's one reason I so strongly support pilot schools and greater public school choice. But drawing money out of the public school system and sending it to private schools hurts our children and we must make it a priority to improve those schools.
