Real Education Reform: Strengthening Accountability and Empowering Parents

"No child in America should be segregated by low expectations . . .imprisoned by illiteracy . . . abandoned to frustration and the darkness of self-doubt."  

                                                           — George W. Bush

             The question is "Are our schools better off now than they were eight years ago?"  At a time of remarkable economic growth, when a world of opportunity awaits students who are prepared for it, American colleges and universities are offering remedial courses and American businesses are unable to find enough qualified or trainable workers to meet the demand.  Worst of all, so many of our children, America's most precious asset, are headed toward failure in school, and that will hold them back throughout their lives.  Republicans desire a better result.  We believe that every child in this land should have access to a high quality, indeed, a world-class education, and we're determined to meet that goal.

            It's long past time to debate what works in education.  The verdict is in, and our Republican governors provided the key testimony: strong parental involvement, excellent teachers, safe and orderly classrooms, high academic standards, and a commitment to teaching the basics — from an early start in phonics to mastery of computer technology.  Federal programs that fail to support these fundamental principles are sadly out of date and, under the next president, out of time.  For dramatic and swift improvement, we endorse the principles of Governor Bush's education reforms, which will:

• Raise academic standards through increased local control and accountability to parents, shrinking a multitude of federal programs into five flexible grants in exchange for real, measured progress in student achievement
  

• Assist states in closing the achievement gap and empower needy families to escape persistently failing schools by allowing federal dollars to follow their children to the school of their choice.
  

• Expand parental choice and encourage competition by providing parents with information on their child's school, increasing the number of charter schools, and expanding education savings accounts for use from kindergarten through college.
  

• Help states ensure school safety by letting children in dangerous schools transfer to schools that are safe for learning and by forcefully prosecuting youths who carry or use guns and the adults who provide them.
  

• Ensure that all children learn to read by reforming Head Start and by facilitating state reading initiatives that focus on scientifically based reading research, including phonics.

             Nothing is more important than literacy, and yet many children have trouble reading.  This problem must be addressed at all grade levels.  And as is so often the case in education, the solution is parent and child working together with teachers to help break a cycle of illiteracy that may have extended from generation to generation.  We want to replace that pattern with the rich legacy of reading.

            We recognize that under the American constitutional system, education is a state, local, and family responsibility, not a federal obligation.  Since over 90 percent of public school funding is state and local, not federal, it is obvious that state and local governments must assume most of the responsibility to improve the schools, and the role of the federal government must be progressively limited as we return control to parents, teachers, and local school boards.  Programs beginning the process by congressional Republicans to return power to the people, such as "Straight As" legislation and "Dollars to the Classroom" are a good step to reach this goal.  The Republican Congress rightly opposed attempts by the Department of Education to establish federal testing that would set the stage for a national curriculum.  We believe it's time to test the Department, and each of its programs, instead. 

            Over thirty years ago, the federal government assumed a special financial responsibility to advance the education of disadvantaged children through the Title I program.  Today, $120 billion later, the achievement gap between those youngsters and their peers has only widened.  The fiscal loss is not a good thing, but the human loss is tragic.  We cannot allow another generation of kids to be written off.  For dramatic and swift improvement, we endorse Governor Bush's principles of local control, with  accountability, parental choice, and meaningful student achievement as essential to education reform.  

            Qualified teachers are the vanguard of education reform.  With mastery of their subjects, a contagious enthusiasm for learning, and a heartfelt commitment to their students, they can make any school great.  That is why we advocate merit pay for them and expanded opportunities for professional development.  Today, however, many teachers face danger and disrespect in the classroom, and their efforts to maintain order are hampered by the threat of litigation.  We propose special legal protection for teachers to shield them from meritless lawsuits.  We advocate a zero-tolerance policy toward all students who disrupt the classroom and we reaffirm that school officials must have the right and responsibility to appropriately discipline all students, including students with disabilities, who are disruptive or violent.  Toward the same end, we will encourage faith-based and community organizations to take leading roles in after-school programs that build character and improve behavior.  We propose to improve teacher training and recruiting by expanding the Troops-to-Teachers program, which places retired military personnel in the classroom, and by rewarding states that enact a system for teacher accountability.  We will expand teacher loan-forgiveness to encourage qualified candidates to serve in high-need schools.  As a matter of fairness, we will establish a teacher tax deduction to help defray the out-of-pocket teaching expenses so many good home, private, and public school teachers make to benefit their students.

            Local responsibility for neighborhood schools has been the key to successful education since the days of the little red schoolhouse.  We salute congressional Republicans for their continuing efforts, through Ed-Flex and other initiatives, to shift decision-making away from the federal bureaucracy and back to localities.  We strongly endorse Governor Bush's proposal to consolidate cumbersome categorical programs into flexible performance grants, targeting resources to the classroom and tying them directly to student achievement. That is real reform.

            In the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Congress required that every community in the country provide a free and appropriate education for all students with special needs and fund their schooling at higher levels.  In return, the federal government promised to pay 40 percent of the average per pupil expenditure to cover the excess costs.  During all the years the Democrats controlled Congress that was not done.  It was congressional Republicans who took the first real strides toward fulfillment of the IDEA promise.  We applaud them for recognizing that federal mandates must include federal funding.  We will strive to promote the early diagnosis of learning deficiencies.  Preventive efforts in early childhood should reduce the demand for special education and help many youngsters move beyond the need for IDEA's protections.

            In the final analysis, education remains a parental right and responsibility.  We advocate choice in education, not as an abstract theory, but as the surest way for families, especially low-income families, to free their youngsters from failing or dangerous schools and put them onto the road to opportunity and success.  By the same token, we defend the option for home schooling and call for vigilant enforcement of laws designed to protect family rights and privacy in education.  Children should not be compelled to answer offensive or intrusive questionnaires.  We will continue to work for the return of voluntary school prayer to our schools and will strongly enforce the Republican legislation that guarantees equal access to school facilities by student religious groups.  We strongly support voluntary student-initiated prayer in school without governmental interference.  We strongly disagree with the Supreme Court's recent ruling, backed by the current administration, against student-initiated prayer.

IMPROVING EDUCATION

Today, our people compete with workers on every continent. Information flows across oceans. High-wage jobs are more dependent than ever on high-level skills.

Now, as never before, education is the key to opportunity, essential to a strong America. So we believe in an America that offers the best education to all our children – wherever they live, whatever their background. Period.

We believe in an America where every child comes to school ready to learn. Where every student is held to high standards, and every school has the resources and responsibility to meet those standards. Where every classroom has a great teacher, and every student gets enough personal attention to foster a talent or overcome a difficulty. We believe in an America where every teenager completes a rigorous high school curriculum. Where every qualified young person who wants to go to college can afford it. And where every adult who needs additional job training can get it.

In President George Bush's America, our government ignores the shameful truth that the quality of a child's education depends on the wealth of that child's neighborhood. Our best public schools are the best schools in the world, but too many children go to schools that just don't work. Too many children who beat the odds and succeed in school can't afford to go on to college. And too many adults who need added training aren't able to get it.

For this White House, education is an easy promise – easy come, and easy go. When President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, he said the right things – asking more from our schools and pledging to give them the resources to get the job done. And then he promptly broke his word, providing schools $27 billion less than he had promised, literally leaving millions of children behind.

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John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democratic Party believe that a strong America begins at home with strong families, and that strong families need the best schools. We believe schools must teach fundamental skills like math and science, and fundamental values like citizenship and responsibility. We believe providing resources without reform is a waste of money, and reform without resources is a waste of time. And we believe politicians who expect students to learn responsibility should start by keeping their own promises.

Meeting our responsibilities. Under John Kerry and John Edwards, we will offer high quality early learning opportunities, smaller classes, more after school activities, and more individualized attention for our students, particularly students with special needs, gifts, and talents. The federal government will meet its financial obligations for elementary and secondary education and for special education.

A great teacher in every classroom. Continuing the fight for reform, we will make an intensive effort to put a great teacher in every classroom. Nothing has a bigger impact than a teacher on the quality of a child's education. We need to do more to attract and retain teachers, more to encourage their excellence, and more to ensure that all teachers are offering high-quality teaching. We must raise pay for teachers, especially in the schools and subjects where great teachers are in the shortest supply. We must improve mentoring, professional development, and new technology training for teachers, instead of leaving them to sink or swim. At the same time, we must create rigorous new incentives and tests for new teachers. We need new rewards for teachers who go the extra mile and excel in helping children learn. And teachers deserve due process protection from arbitrary dismissal, but we must have fast, fair procedures for improving or removing teachers who do not perform on the job.

Parents are our children's first and most important teachers, and they have a responsibility to participate in their children's education. We will help them do so by offering information and resources to better teach their children, whether reminding them about homework or attending a parent-teacher conference.

Securing high achievement for all. Vast achievement gaps persist in America. Nearly half of African-American, Latino, and American Indian youth don't graduate high school. We believe in the potential of every child and we will not accept this loss of talent. Because education in the earliest years of a child's life is critical, we will expand and improve preschool and Head Start initiatives with the goal of offering these opportunities to all children. Because children need safe, loving, and disciplined homes in order to learn, we will work on a bipartisan basis to reform foster care. And we will undertake a national campaign to raise graduation rates by raising student achievement, expecting more from schools, reaching out to troubled youth with mentoring and tutoring, and strengthening the basic high school curriculum. We will meet these challenges together—parents, teachers, principals, educational support professionals and paraprofessionals, along with universities, community-based and faith-based organizations.

Making schools work for children. We will use testing to advance real learning, not undermine it, by developing high-quality assessments that measure the complex skills students need to develop. We will make sure that federal law operates with high standards and common sense, not just bureaucratic rigidity. Instead of pushing private school vouchers that funnel scarce dollars away from the public schools, we will support public school choice, including charter schools and magnet schools that meet the same high standards as other schools. And at a time when so many schools charged with our future are relics of the past, we will build new schools and offer the technology and equipment for a 21st century education.

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Teaching good citizenship and good values. We must remain committed to the moral and civic dimensions of education. Education requires the engagement of the whole community in order to teach the whole child. Students should learn responsibility in our schools, and students who are irresponsible—using drugs or bringing violence into schools—must face strict discipline. We should support character education in our elementary and secondary schools and community service as a condition of graduation from high schools. We should also give back to those who give to America, in the tradition of the G.I. Bill and AmeriCorps.

The promise of America is the promise of opportunity. If we are going to keep that promise, every child should have a great teacher and every high school graduate should have the chance to go to college. Nothing less is good enough for America.

Lifelong learning. We will make sure that Americans are the best-skilled, best-trained workers in the world. In addition to reforming K-12 education, we will expand training and opportunities for Americans of all ages. We will support regional skills alliances, workforce development conducted at community colleges, and other initiatives that prepare workers for high-skills jobs that offer family-sustaining wages and benefits. And we will support high-quality distance learning so that Americans everywhere can use a keyboard to learn from experts anywhere.

Education