Saturday, March 04, 2000
Presidential primaries are schoolyard fights
Bradley, Gore have best ideas, educator says
BY JAMES PILCHER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
With next Tuesday's Ohio presidential primary coinciding with levy decisions in several Tristate school districts, voters will already have education on their minds when they enter the polling booth. And that's just fine with all four major candidates, all of whom have major education ini tiatives in their campaign platforms.
But one local expert says none of the plans would dramatically impact Southwestern Ohio schools.
“A lot of all of these plans are rhetoric or promise things that are already in place,” said Dr. Lawrence Johnson, interim dean of the college of education at the University of Cincinnati, who on Friday undertook a review of all four candidates' plans as presented on their Web sites.
For example, all four candidates say they will require states to provide report cards on all public schools to parents, listing items including attendance, test scores and graduation rates.
But the federal government has already required such programs.
Another example: All four plans make some sort of stipulation about returning control of schools to states and local districts.
“States have had real control of the schools even where federal funding goes for years,” Dr. Johnson said.
Overall, Dr. Johnson gave former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley's plan high marks for its commitment to early education and child care.
Vice President Al Gore, who leads Mr. Bradley in the race
for the Democratic nomination, also got high marks for his commitment to school technology, new construction, and reducing class size.
Both candidates promise to raise school accountability and increase funding to schools. Mr. Gore wants to use $115 billion of an anticipated budget increase, while Mr. Bradley is tying federal funds to schools meeting certain criteria such as hiring qualified teachers or reducing the achievement gap.
“Bradley by far is best on specifics,” Dr. Johnson said. “And while Gore talks about funding school construction, he also has addressed some traditionally Republican issues, such as character development and state takeover of bad schools.”
The two Republican candidates, front-runner George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain, don't rate as high for their plans, Dr. Johnson said, even though Mr. Bush has the most material on his Web site concerning education of any candidate.
“McCain has some very Democratic-specific ideas, while Bush is short on specifics,” Dr. Johnson said. “And Bush kind of views schools as being a problem that needs to be fixed, not a positive thing that can be improved.”
The focus of Mr. McCain's plan is to increase school choice, whether through vouchers or emphasizing charter schools — which receive state and federal funding but are run by parent groups or other community organizations.
Mr. Bush, on the other hand, threatens to take away federal funding from schools that don't produce and put that money toward charter schools.
In addition, Mr. Bush wants to move the federal Head Start pro gram, which provides early education and child care for disadvantaged new parents, from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Education.
“That just shows he really doesn't understand what the program is all about,” Dr. Johnson said. “That program does so much more than teach preschool. It provides job training for parents, health care and other public welfare programs.”
Dr. Johnson said parents with kids in the area's plentiful parochial school systems will probably favor the plans of Mr. Bush or Mr. McCain, since they favor tax credits or vouchers for private and charter schools.
“It all depends on who you are as to what the effects will be,” Dr. Johnson said.
Just the fact that the two GOP hopefuls are even discussing education as a leading issue is a change.
“Education has long been a Democratic issue that kind of has been co-opted by Republicans,” Dr. Johnson said.
Mr. Bush has the most visible record on education, having implemented a massive reform package in Texas that initially has raised achievement levels among all racial and socio-economic groups.
But with all the other issues that have come up in his tougher-than-anticipated fight with Mr. McCain, he's had trouble getting his message out — even in Ohio, which is contemplating reforming the way education is funded.
“I think voters are hearing us on this issue, despite all the attempts to the contrary,” said Bush campaign spokesman Scott McClellan. “And in Ohio, where Gov. (Bob) Taft is tackling education reform, this issue should resonate.”
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