Clinton and education

The following information was obtained through education.com. Next up in my look through the candidates and their viewpoints on various aspects of education is Hillary Clinton. Education.com spoke with Catherine Brown, one of Clinton's policy advisors to discuss the following issues related to education.

HILLARY CLINTON

In General
2008 promises to be a cutthroat year when it comes to Democratic politics, and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is having to cling tight to stay on top. But despite lots of talk about the economy, the war in Iraq, and pulling out “the race card”, few of the candidates have spent much time discussing an issue that’s at the forefront of most parents’ minds: education.

Standardized Testing
Say goodbye to the bubble test. While Clinton “supports having an accountable education system,” Brown says she wants to give school districts more flexibility in how they measure success. And since bubble tests can’t test critical thinking and problem solving abilities, Clinton “would like to provide states with the flexibility to use performance assessments, such as class projects and presentations, aligned with state standards,” Brown says. Clinton is also committed to making sure that standardized tests don't force schools to focus solely on math and reading, to the detriment of other subject areas. “She wants to ensure that art, music, and other programs continue to be a rich part of children’s educational experiences,” Brown says.

School Choice
Charter schools, magnet schools, school vouchers…where does Clinton stand? According to Brown, “Hillary supports public school choice, as well as charter schools, and has for many years. But she is a strong advocate for public schools.” In other words, she’s for choice within the public school system, but not for vouchers that allow parents to use public money for private school education. “Research thus far has not shown that children who attend private schools through voucher programs do better on math and reading tests than their counterparts in public schools,” Brown says. Translation: Clinton doesn’t want to drain precious resources from the public school pot.

No Child Left Behind
Goodbye to NCLB? Likely. “Hillary believes No Child Left Behind has proven to be too rigid and unworkable for our teachers, principals, and most importantly for our children. She thinks it’s time to end this one-size-fits-all approach to education reform, and start a new beginning that prepares every child to succeed in our global economy,” Brown says. When asked how she’ll make sure schools are successful and accountable, without NCLB forcing their hand, Clinton’s campaign office points to a few key ideas:
-More funding for schools. One of the main problems with NCLB, they contend, was that schools weren’t given enough money to make it successful.
-State standards that move kids towards an ultimate goal—college. Clinton says standards should be directly aligned with college-prep needs.
-Improved efforts to recruit and retain outstanding teachers, especially in urban and under-resourced areas.
-More after school programs, “that keep young people safe in the riskier hours of the day”.
-Multiple pathways to graduation and mentoring for at-risk youth, in order to lesson the high school dropout rate.

College Funding and Affordability
Many other countries seriously subsidize the cost of college. Could America be next? Well, maybe. Clinton wants to give a $3,500 tuition tax credit to all families with a kid in college. Sure, $3,500 might not cover the full cost of most universities, but according to the Clinton campaign, it’s more than 50% of the cost of tuition at the average public institution. Clinton says she will also increase Pell Grants. When the Pell Grant was first introduced it covered 99% of the cost of a two-year college, 77% at a four-year public school, and 36% at a private school—now it doesn’t even come close. Clinton wants to make sure that each year the Pell is adjusted to take rising college costs into account. And she wants to do good for do-gooders, by giving Americorps members, who do 1-2 years of full-time public service, $10,000 to put towards college. She also wants to start a Public Service Academy, which her campaign says will be “like the West Point of public service”.

Other key points of Clinton's college affordability plan:
-Improve college graduation rates by creating a $250 million graduation fund.
-Strengthen community colleges with $500 million in incentive grants, and make transferring to a 4-year institution easier.
-Eliminate the need to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form. Instead, allow families to check a box on their tax return requesting financial aid. Upon checking that box, they will receive a letter from the Department of Education with a coupon showing the amount of grants and loans they’re entitled to. Schools can reach out directly to the Department of Education to collect the funds.
-Force schools to provide Truth in Tuition Disclosures—in other words, require them to tell families in advance how much college will cost from Freshman year onwards.

Universal Preschool
Should preschool be free for all children? Clinton says yes. In fact, universal pre-K is one of her cornerstone educational issues. According to Nobel Laureate and University of Chicago Economics Professor James Heckman, half of the black-white achievement gap that exists at the end of high school is evident before children start kindergarten. But state-funded pre-K still only serves one out of every five 4-year-olds in America. Clinton wants every kid in the country to have access to free preschool in the year before kindergarten and she’s proposed $10 billion in spending to make it happen. Her program would be “a federal-state partnership”, according to the Clinton campaign. In other words, while the Feds will provide some money, states need to match it dollar-for-dollar. They also need to follow some rules. For example, all teachers hired must have a bachelor’s degree and specialized training in early childhood development. Programs need to maintain a low teacher-student ratio. And the program has to be offered to all kids in the state, free of charge. Once states hit those benchmarks, they get to have some flexibility in how they use their funds, but not before that. Why the push for universal pre-K? Clinton contends, “Children who attend pre-kindergarten are less likely to enroll in special education; they are less likely to drop out of high school. They are more likely to go on and graduate from college. They are less likely to be unemployed, and they are less likely to go on welfare… If you put in a dollar in early childhood, you are going to get at least seven dollars back. Imagine if you could buy a stock with that kind of return.”

All this educational spending won’t come cheap. “Obviously we are spending more than half a trillion dollars on the Iraq war and when we finally end that, we are going to have to start getting ourselves out of deficit,” Clinton says, “But we need at the same time to make some investment that will keep our country strong.” Education, says Clinton, is a place to start.

Alright, so my impressions are: Clinton wants to get rid of standardized testing in favor of allowing teachers and schools more freedom to evaluate their students based on projects and presentations. I'm very in favor of this move, but perhaps Clinton should also think about training teachers to evaluate efficiently while earning their licensure so the system can still show tangible progress. Clinton encourages school of choice, but her main focus is on getting rid of the 'No Child Left Behind' Act. While there is A LOT of upside to this, Clinton needs to be careful to keep the good aspects of the NCLB Act (such as: every teacher candidate needs to have a Bachelor's degree and certified licensure - which she has proposed if NCLB is eliminated). Clinton also wants to help alleviate the financial burden for college and she beleives pre-K education is a neccessity to the better future of our country. Overall, Clinton seems to have a very detailed plan on how to improve our education system and the steps of those plans are very realistic. She is by far the best candidate of the four in regards to the issues revolving around education. If you care about the education of our country and the teachers who run that system, vote for Hillary.