Campaign K-12

Updated: More reaction to McCain's Education Speech

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:03:30 -0500

After reading fellow blogger Alyson Klein's comprehensive story on John McCain's education plan, check out these reactions to his speech from around the blogsphere, a list that keeps growing:

New reactions (added today)

At first, the Cato Institute's bloggers were enthusiastic, and then, not so much.

Flypaper doesn't like the reaction of The Quick and the Ed's Kevin Carey.

Thomas Toch over at The Quick and the Ed says McCain's education advisers weren't "on the ball" because the senator didn't acknowledge that many of the teacher reform ideas are going on already in Cincinnati, where he delivered the speech.

My original list of reactions, from Thursday

Flypaper declares: "There's much to like."

The Quick and the Ed lauds McCain for a "strong start" when it comes to online education.

The New America Foundation's Early Ed Watch is disappointed that the Arizona Senator made no mention of early education.

Black Political Analysis, written by a University of Mississippi assistant professor of political science, takes McCain to task for ideas that were "simplistic."

The Ohio Federation of Teachers says McCain has "sadly no idea" how to reform public schools.

The Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog thinks McCain will get points for sticking around afterwards and answering questions from what clearly was an unenthusiastic audience.

The Four Words Not to be Uttered on the Campaign Trail

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:15:09 -0500

No Child Left Behind.

Apparently, the McCain camp has decided talking about NCLB is not good.

During his speech to the NAACP, the Arizona senator made no mention of the law that will have to be re-authorized during his presidency if he's elected.

And during a conference call yesterday following his speech, four of his advisers were asked why the presumptive GOP nominee didn't mention NCLB.

Those advisers spent 3 1/2 minutes answering this question about NCLB by—again—not uttering those four words.

Instead, education adviser Lisa Graham Keegan talked about how teacher quality and data are McCain's big focus and senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said his speech was about the "future" (doesn't McCain know he'll have to deal with NCLB in the future?). And adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer answered the question by talking about the value of diagnostic data.

Separately, the advisers addressed the law briefly, when asked by a reporter what the senator means when he or his advisors say the law should be "fully" funded, especially when he wants to freeze discretionary spending. Holtz-Eakin said the senator wants to "continue the funding for NCLB." Given that he said the funding, that, to me, means McCain does not want to devote additional money (up to the levels authorized by Congress) for NCLB.

Highlights of McCain's Education Plan

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:02:15 -0500

Sen. John McCain, who just months ago didn't even list "education" on his list of issues on his web site, has finally unveiled his education plan.

In a speech today to the NAACP in Cincinnati, he hit on three big themes: school choice, technology, and teacher quality. (Read the transcript here). My colleague Alyson Klein will weigh in more later, but I wanted to pass along highlights of his plan:

On school choice—He wants to expand the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program from $13 million to $20 million, and allocate $500 million in existing federal funds to build new virtual schools and expand other online offerings for students. He wants to allow tutoring programs to bypass "local bureaucracy" for certification under No Child Left Behind and go straight to the even larger bureaucracy of the federal government for direct certification.
On technology—He proposes a $250 million grant program to states who want to further expand online learning opportunities and another $250 million in scholarships for students who want to take advantage of online tutors or virtual schools.
On teacher quality—McCain would dedicate 60 percent of the $3 billion under NCLB's Title II to incentive bonuses (not exactly merit pay) for teachers who teach in hard-to-staff schools or subjects, and who are highest achieving (which, to me, means their students make the biggest gains on tests.) He wants to devote 5 percent to recruit teachers who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class, and the remaining 35 percent of Title II money would go to professional development.

Notably, his plan offers very little detail about how he might approach the reauthorization of NCLB. His only specific plan is to open up tutoring programs to federal certification, but beyond that, his plan talks more about the "promise" of NCLB than the specifics. In fact, during his speech—according to the transcript as prepared for delivery—he didn't even mention the words "No Child Left Behind."

Updated: McCain's Education Speech

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:42:51 -0500

(Update: Read John McCain's education plan here.)

Sen. John McCain, whose speech in Cincinnati to the NAACP will be covered by EdWeek's Alyson Klein, is expected to emphasize school choice and scholarship programs for students in low-income, poor-performing school districts. The presumptive GOP nominee is also expected to support alternative certification routes for teachers, more tutoring for poor students, and merit-pay programs for teachers.

For more about Sen. Barack Obama's speech yesterday to the NAACP, read Alyson's story here, and her blog entry here.

Obama Rep Endorses Pay Based on Student Performance

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:15:06 -0500

From contributing blogger David Hoff:

At an event in Washington today, Jane Swift explained where Sen. John McCain stands on rewarding teachers based on the improvement of their students. The Arizona Republican would give extra pay to teachers who "measurably raise" student achievement, the former Massachusetts governor told the audience of business leaders.

No surprise there.

The shocker came when Jason Kamras, the representative of the Obama campaign, essentially agreed with Swift.

In answering a question, Kamras said that "student achievement does need to be part of that equation" in performance-pay plans.

It's a bit of a departure from what Sen. Barack Obama has said during the campaign. On July 5, the Illinois Democrat told the National Education Association he wants to experiment with "new ways to define teacher pay that are developed with teachers and not imposed on teachers." He never mentioned whether he believes test scores should be part of the equation.

But Kamras cited the pay-for-increasing student achievement as an example of how Obama is "willing to challenge the orthodoxy on both the left and the right in the best interest of children."

Obama's teacher-pay plans are "something of a departure for those on the the left," said Kamras, the National Teacher of the Year in 2005 and the director of human capital strategy for the District of Columbia Public Schools.

Barack Obama and Personal Responsibility

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:57:32 -0500

So last night I attended Sen. Barack Obama's speech to the NAACP. He got a rousing reception and stressed the need for parents to step up and get involved in their children's educations. He linked that involvement to the struggles of the civil rights movement.

Many teachers in the audience liked what he had to say. You can check out their reactions in my web story on the event, posted here.

The teachers I talked to also liked Obama's policy proposals, which he alluded to briefly. They said they didn't know much about Sen. John McCain of Arizona's education platform. (That may change on Wednesday when McCain gives a speech that will supposedly focus on schools.)

Obama talked about the need to "reform" the NCLB law, but didn't get into too many specifics. Still, all of the teachers and educators I talked to (who were uniformly disparaging of the NCLB law) seemed to think that Obama agreed with them that it isn't working and needs to be dramatically overhauled.

For instance, Liney Glenn, who recently retired from her job as a reading specialist in a school district near Pittsburgh, equated Sen. Obama’s general theme of change with the need to change the school improvement law, which she said focuses too much on standardized tests.

“He definitely feels there’s a better way,” to address the problem of inequities among public schools, she told me.

I think this is a great example of how voters can (understandably) get rhetoric confused with policy proposals. Sure, Obama has made a lot of statements that are critical of NCLB. But, having parsed most of what he's said on the campaign trail, I'm still not sure if his prescriptions for changing the law would go as far as many voters I've talked to seem to think, especially since he's made it clear that he supports the idea of federal accountability.

On Funding NCLB, McCain's Advisers Can't Agree

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:43:45 -0500

A month ago, John McCain's top education advisor told a group of reporters that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee believes No Child Left Behind is "adequately funded." In fact, she was so clear in her statement that it became the headline for the blog item I wrote summarizing Lisa Graham Keegan's roundtable discussion with reporters.

But in a perplexing turn of events, another advisor said on Meet the Press this weekend that the senator wants to "fully fund" NCLB. (Hat tip to my colleague David Hoff for bringing this to my attention.)

So which is it? Does he want to spend more money on NCLB or not?

One huge difference between the two presidential candidates is spending. Sen. Barack Obama wants to spend an additional $18 billion a year to improve education, while McCain has said he wants to freeze discretionary spending (including on education programs.)

Did McCain's advisor, Carly Fiorina, misspeak on Meet the Press when she was rattling off a list of changes the Arizona senator would like to see? Or, is McCain re-thinking his position on funding NCLB?

Stay tuned. Perhaps he'll bring this up at tomorrow's speech before the NAACP, which my fellow blogger Alyson Klein is covering from Cincinnati.

Bill Clinton and Jamie Lee Curtis Get Involved in Ed Politics

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:31:24 -0500

"America is only as strong as her schools...As our schools go, so goes our country."

That's the conclusion of a new ad by ED in '08, which will start running today in seven key election states: Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, Virginia and Wisconsin. ED in '08 (which in this ad is referring to itself by its Strong American Schools moniker), spent $5 million on these ads, called "One Nation Left Behind." Watch the ad here.

In the ad, actress Jamie Lee Curtis provides the voice-over, and ticks off the names of countries that are passing us--countries like Finland, South Korea, France, and Denmark. She urges viewers to go to Strong American Schools' website to learn about how children in the U.S. stack up against their peers internationally.

The ad hits the airwaves just as the nation's governors are wrapping up their annual summer meeting, held this year in Philadelphia. They are an important group of people to watch, as they have more control over their states' schools than the presidents do. This was a meeting that was more sparsely attended than in years past (budget woes and politics kept about half of the governors home) and only three of the 14 governors who sit on the education committee actually attended Sunday's committee meeting, which focused on teacher quality. (Kudos to Maine Gov. John Baldacci, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry--the committee vice-chair--and committee chairman Donald Carcieri, Rhode Island's governor, who attended.). Most of the time was spent celebrating the National Governors Association's 100th year in existence, and dealing with the pressing issues of surging energy prices and a weakening economy. But education wasn't completely ignored.

On Saturday, former President Bill Clinton, in an hour-long speech about a myriad of topics, called for a rewrite of No Child Left Behind and for the NGA to become a serious player with the next administration and Congress over its reauthorization. Clinton said the governors must come up with a "substantive" platform for changes. But this has been a difficult task for the governors, given how divisive NCLB is and how the NGA doesn't like to get involved when its members can't reach consensus. When NCLB was reauthorized, the governors were barely in the picture. Will they be now? I asked that question of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican and the outgoing NGA chairman. Yes, he said, "preliminarily", an unspoken acknowledgment that the devil is always in the details.

The other theme developing in Philadelphia is a growing interest in international benchmarking. There will be more to come on this later. But that should make ED in '08 happy.

My takeaway from this NGA meeting is that education will continue to struggle for traction this election cycle, because it even struggles for attention in a roomful of governors who spend nearly half of their states' budgets on public education.

Superman, the NEA, and More Good Reads

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:36:36 -0500

Check out these three worthwhile reads:

"NEA too big for its britches". Don't mess with Superman, or the NEA, at Politico.com.

"Schools grapple with rising fuel costs" at EdWeek. Energy prices are an education issue.

"Presidential hopefuls differ on K-12 spending" at EdWeek. The biggest education difference between Obama and McCain is clear.

McCain to Talk Merit Pay, Tutoring

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:19:15 -0500

Sen. John McCain will use a speech he plans to give to the NAACP annual convention next week in Cincinnati to talk about education. According to this Associated Press story, he will talk about merit pay for teachers, and tutoring for low-income students on July 16.

His chief education adviser, Lisa Graham Keegan, told a group of reporters last month that McCain's official education platform won't be unveiled until later in the summer or early fall, during "back-to-school" time when people are "listening." But apparently, next week's NAACP meeting has provided the Arizona senator with the "right opportunity" to talk about schools. Given all of the focus now on domestic issues, particularly the economy, job losses and global competition, I was beginning to wonder how long McCain could wait before he started talking seriously about the role of education.

I think people are listening now.

Memo to Obama: Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:05:39 -0500

The L.A. Times this morning is throwing cold water on Sen. Barack Obama's ambitious plans to spend all sorts of money on improving education, making men better fathers, and cutting taxes for the middle class—among other things that carry hefty price tags.

Budget analysts caution that in these tough financial times, Obama's big ideas will run smack into harsh economic realities. And education will be just one of many competing priorities fighting for money and attention.

Obama's Speech and the Edubloggers

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:50:44 -0500

So my colleague, Vashali Honawar, blogged Barack Obama speech at the National Education Association's convention this weekend. You can read all about it here. And you can watch most of the speech over at the Education Intelligence Agency.

There's been quite a lot of reaction to the speech - and particularly Obama's mention of merit pay - out in the education blogland. For instance, according to eduwonk, the NEA replayed portions of the speech throughout its convention...but deleted the parts where Obama expressed support for merit pay and charter schools. And Joe Williams over at Democrats for Education Reform, has a post titled "Obama's Velvet Snub", which refers to those portions of the speech, as well as Obama's decision to accept the endorsement by telecast instead of in person. Williams praised Obama for showing he's willing to disagree with the NEA. And Alexander Russo said the speech meant Obama hasn't "flip-flopped" on education.

There hasn't been any reaction to the speech posted on the blogs of either of the two unions (Joel Packer over at the NEA, or on AFT's NCLB blog). But I'm curious what they thought...

Will Obama Get Tough with the NEA?

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:14:30 -0500

NPR this morning did a segment on just how bipartisan John McCain and Barack Obama really are. (Hat tip to Liam, over at Flypaper.)

As an example of just how willing Obama is to break ranks with his party, NPR points to an interview the Illinois Democrat gave to Fox News Sunday, in which he pointed out that he embraces the not-so-Democratic ideas of charter schools and some sort of merit pay for teachers.

But this Obama interview on Fox News was from the end of April. That was more than two months ago, before Hillary Clinton dropped out of the race, which seems like a political eternity ago. Then, the American Federation of Teachers had endorsed Clinton, and the larger National Education Association was still holding back (though the union is poised to formally endorse him on Friday.) Now that Obama is getting all chummy with the NEA, I wonder how much he'll play up his support of charter schools, and merit pay for teachers, when he addresses the teachers' union on Saturday?

The NEA's Plan to Transform Schools by 2020

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:27:29 -0500

As the National Education Association's annual convention gets started, the nation's largest teachers' union unveiled its plan to fix schools by 2020. The crux: get rid of the No Child Left Behind Act, diminish the federal role in education while still giving states lots of money.

More specifically, the NEA wants the federal government to focus grant money on recruiting, training, and supporting teachers in hard-to-staff schools, better fund Title I and special education, and require states to develop adequacy and equity plans to address funding disparities among school districts. The six-point plan also calls for revamping accountability systems to take into account socio-economic factors (such as access to health care in high-poverty schools), improving education research by decoupling the Institute of Education Sciences from the Education Department, and supporting the federal role as a clearinghouse for good school-reform ideas.

In return, the NEA commits to supporting a national White House-sponsored education summit, helping to design public-engagement programs to drive school reform in states, helping states develop new accountability systems with less focus on standardized testing, and better partnering with the U.S. Department of Education.

In a press release, the NEA says that Sen. Barack Obama (who will address the convention on July 5) likes the plan, describing it in a letter as "critical starting points for a new educational compact.” I can't post the letter--the NEA won't hand it out because officials say they can't use members' dues to distribute campaign material. But as soon as we get it from the campaign, we'll post it here.

Expect more insight on this from my colleagues and fellow bloggers David Hoff and Vaishali Honawar (who is live-blogging the NEA convention.) UPDATE: Read Vaishali's take here and The Hoff's take here.

Obama, McCain, and Religious Voters

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:51:58 -0500

Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wants faith-based organizations to get more involved in federal programs, including after-school programs, according to this New York Times story.

The story goes on to describe how Obama (and GOP rival Sen. John McCain of Arizona) are courting religious voters.

But it doesn't mention one key education demographic: religious homeschoolers, a well-organized and influential group of folks (as anyone who followed the come-from-behind win by Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas in the Iowa Republican caucuses can attest). I wonder what (if anything) McCain can do to get them excited about his candidacy.

And it doesn't talk about a potential backlash against Obama by groups interested in the separation of church and state. Is that because there isn't one? Or is it that some groups uncomfortable with Obama's plan to invest federal money in faith-based organizations just haven't spoken up yet?