Campaign K-12

It seems Sen. John McCain is not backing away from his widely debunked education ad attacking Sen. Barack Obama's record on education.

The Republican presidential nominee told National Public Radio yesterday that the ad was accurate. Here's the exchange:

NPR: Have you come back to your advisers at any point and said — for example, the ad that ran with your name on it saying that Barack Obama supported comprehensive sex education for primary school students, something that factcheck.org said was wrong. Have you ever gone to your staff and said, "Take that ad off. It's not right"?

McCain: It's factually correct. It's absolutely factually correct, and you can go on my Web site and you can see the exact language of the bill that Senator Obama sponsored. ... And if someone named factcheck.org or anybody else doesn't agree with it, I respectfully disagree with their conclusions.

Here's a link to Edweek's analysis of the ad, and to the bill itself.

The long and short of it is that the Democratic nominee was not the main sponsor of the measure, although he did vote to support it. The bill, which ultimately did not pass, would have authorized comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education for students in grades K-12. Parents could opt out of that instruction. Obama said during his U.S. Senate race that the lessons for kindergartners would have been aimed at helping kids avoid sexual predators.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Even in the face of a federal bailout of the financial services industry that could cost $700 billion, Sen. Barack Obama strongly suggested in tonight's debate that he would not want education to be sacrified because of it.

Moderator Jim Lehrer's question, which focused on how the uber-expensive bailout would affect their proposals, allowed the candidates to stake out their budget priorities. Sen. John McCain said he would further rein in spending--a spending freeze his advisers have said applies to education. Obama said some things would suffer, but not energy independence, health care, education, and electricty infrastructure.

Specifically, Obama--who listed education third in his list of priorities--said: "We have to make sure our children are competing in math and science." In addition, he said college must be affordable. In all, he wants to spend an additional $18 billion on education.

And a little later, Obama said he would prefer to see more investments in early education rather than subsidies to private companies that participate in Medicare.

Obama's answer tonight seems to put to rest--at least for now--the good question my co-blogger Alyson posed earlier this week in her post: "Would Bailout Affect Obama's Education Spending Plan?" Of course, making a promise in a debate and following through as president are two different things.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Sen. Barack Obama wants to spend $2 billion to eliminate the international "education gap" by 2015, which is, incidentally, one year after all American kids are supposed to be proficient in reading and math under NCLB.

In a speech he gave today via satellite to the Clinton Global Initiative, he said: "Above all, we must do our part to see that all children have the basic right to learn. There is nothing more disappointing than a child denied the hope that comes with going to school, and there is nothing more dangerous than a child who is taught to distrust and then to destroy."

Obama's pledge of $2 billion almost seems like a drop in the bucket as Congress considers a $700 billion plan to bailout the troubled financial markets.

In announcing this effort, Obama is borrowing from Sen. Hillary Clinton's Education for All Act, first introduced in 2004. (Obama gave her credit in his speech, calling her a "true champion for children.") Then, she estimated that the cost of universal, basic education for children throughout the world at $5 billion to $10 billion a year. As a presidential candidate, she proposed spending $3 billion a year by 2012.

2015, by the way, is the goal set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to achieve universal free education worldwide. According to UNESCO, an estimated 72 million children worldwide were out of school in 2005, down from 96 million in 1999. Girls account for a large portion of those numbers: 66 percent of out-of-school children in South and West Asia were girls.

When Sen. John McCain addressed the meeting in New York earlier this morning, he didn't mention education, although he did pledge to lead the world in improving child and maternal health.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Voter registration efforts are a key piece of many campaigns. Consider the decision by Barack Obama's campaign to have him accept his nomination at Invesco Field in Denver, packed by 80,000 people—many from the swing state of Colorado. He got more than just cheers—his campaign also got those folks' contact information for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts because they had to provide it in exchange for the ticket.

So it may be no small thing for the National Head Start Association and the League of Women Voters to mount a voter registration drive at the 2,600 Head Start programs across the country, which has the potential to reach the parents of 1 million children.

The voter-registration drive is permitted by language in the legislation signed in December 2007 that reauthorized Head Start. The national Head Start folks, in a press release announcing the voter drive, said: "The specific provision allows 'nonpartisan organizations' to use Head Start facilities 'during hours of operation . . . to increase the number of eligible citizens who register to vote in elections for Federal office'."

The release went on to say that these voter efforts are also supported by Congress through the intent of the Motor Vehicle Registration Act, which increases access to voter registration opportunities for in "locations accessible to disenfranchised populations."

This voter-registration drive—if it is executed—is nonpartisan but would likely help Barack Obama, because Head Start centers typically serve low-income, urban, and Democratic areas. Plus, Obama's education plan calls for boosting funding for Head Start and quadrupling the number of children in Early Head Start (for kids ages zero to three). Sen. John McCain's early education plan, however, doesn't call for an expansion of Head Start that isn't already in law.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The controversial attack ad John McCain launched against his Democratic opponent—which says Sen. Barack Obama's one accomplishment is a bill that would have taught sex ed to kindergartners—has been labeled dishonest, misleading, and off-base by many newspapers and fact-checking web sites.

But that didn't stop former New York City Mayor Giuliani, representing the McCain campaign, from defending the ad on Sunday's Meet the Press, even declaring the ad gave Obama too much credit. And Giuliani takes a line from the ad: "Education Week said that he basically had no record on education, which is why maybe Senator McCain's idea of an accomplishment in that ad goes a little bit too far." (The link takes you to page 3 of the transcript, and scroll down about one-quarter of the way to see the EdWeek reference.)

No, not quite. As we've detailed on this blog, the McCain campaign and its supporters continue to cherry-pick a quote and take it out of context.

Writer and fellow blogger David Hoff wrote: "In his eight years in the state Senate and two years in the U.S. Senate, Mr. Obama hasn’t made a significant mark on education policy." But he also wrote in the next sentence: "In Illinois, his biggest accomplishments were in reforming state ethics rules and capital punishment. He did promote early-childhood initiatives that advocates considered 'innovative and progressive'."

And EdWeek has said plenty else about his education policies besides this one story back in 2007.

EdWeek has also examined the record and proposals about John McCain, and has pointed out that McCain's track record on education isn't anything to write home about either.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So Sen. John McCain has some ideas for pre-K that are sure to generate broad support in Congress ... because lawmakers have already passed them.

On his campaign Web site, McCain said he thinks that there should be "Centers for Excellence" for Head Start programs to hold out certain programs as models for best practices.

While there are some excellent Head Start centers that can serve as models for leadership and best practices, far too many Head Start centers have fallen prey to the same institutional flaws that have undermined the larger public education system. They lack quality instructors; they lack accountability to parents; and they are focused on process, not outcomes. We should build Centers for Excellence in Head Start that actually leads to excellence in all of the pre-K and early learning programs that taxpayers support.

McCain's colleagues in Congress obviously agree with the idea, since they included the Centers for Excellence in the Head Start reauthorization that President Bush signed into law last fall.

So ... way to go out on a limb and think outside the box there, senator. Still, an advocate told me that the fact that McCain has proposed the Centers for Excellence means he would probably provide funding for them.

But some of McCain's other proposals aren't likely to be as popular because lawmakers have already dissed them, again during the years-long debate over Head Start reauthorization.

McCain's plan says that federally supported programs--including Head Start--must use "meaningful, measurable standards designed to determine that students are ready for school by measuring their school readiness skills."

That sounds suspiciously similar to the National Reporting System, a Bush administration initiative to test Head Start students. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said the test wasn't fair, in part because it's tough to design assessments to measure learning outcomes for kids that young, some experts said. Lawmakers got rid of the tests during the reauthorization, over the administration's objections.

It makes me wonder if McCain was too busy campaigning for president to pay attention to the Head Start renewal. Neither he nor Sen. Barack Obama showed up for the final vote on the bill (it passed the Senate 95-0 anyway).

But one part of McCain's pre-K plan could lead to a big change that won kudos from an advocate. McCain's plan implies that he'd like to see Head Start and other pre-K instructors receive pay that's comparable to their K-12 counterparts with similar education levels. The advocate said equal pay and benefits for pre-K teachers could go along to improving program quality.

But the advocate was also dismayed that the McCain campaign's language seems to suggest that the $25 billion the federal government spends on pre-K is sufficient. Many Head Start and other federally funded programs serve a relatively small percentage of eligible kids, the advocate said.

Meanwhile, in case you were curious, McCain's running mate on the Republican ticket, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, isn't a huge supporter of state-financed pre-K plans. (Not sure yet what she thinks about federal ones).

During her 2006 gubernatorial race, Palin came out against creating a state-financed pre-K system, saying that the private sector was already doing a good job of providing services.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A day after this blog took issue with Sen. John McCain's new ad, which hits Barack Obama on a committee vote he cast five years ago on sex ed while in the Illinois State Senate, two big newspapers are agreeing with us.

The Washington Post declares that his ad is "dishonest, deceptive." In the ad, the McCain campaign pulls out a quote from an Education Week story from early 2007 that says Obama hasn't made a "signficiant mark" on education. The Post correctly points out that the EdWeek story, however, was "generally favorable" to Obama and detailed his grassroots efforts while in the Illinois legislature, and his push for early education. The Post also takes issue with the attribution of two other statements in the ad—that's he's been "elusive" on accountability and that he's defending the "public school monopoly." These come from opinion pieces in The Post and the Chicago Tribune, but you wouldn't know that if you're not closely paying attention because the attribution quickly flashes on screen. "A casual viewer or listener could easily get the impression that all the quotes came from Education Week," The Post said.

The Post further wrote:

It implies that its critique of the Democratic presidential nominee has been endorsed by the nonpartisan journal Education Week, when in fact it is a hodgepodge of quotes from a variety of sources stitched together to form a highly partisan political attack.

Meanwhile, the New York Times finds in its "Check Point" feature that McCain's ad "distorts Obama's policy." The Times essentially says that the ad distorts the coverage of Education Week, saying:

The same publication has also criticized Mr. McCain, in language that was perhaps even stronger. Early this year, in an article titled “John McCain Where Art Thou?” it complained that he offered “a laundry list of fairly vague answers” on how to improve schools and did not make education a priority.

“McCain is a campaign-finance, foreign-relations, anti-abortion, tax-cut candidate,” the magazine said. “Education is not his thing. Depending on your perspective, McCain’s relative silence on education may be a good thing. If you think the federal government has grossly overreached into the state business of education, then he may be your guy.”

But a little fact-checking of the fact-checkers finds one flaw with the New York Times: they elevate my mere blog post to an "article." "The publication" didn't write those words—I did. As a reporter who writes both blog posts and "articles," I can assure you there's a big difference. My blog posts have a lot of voice in them as I strive to bring perspective and attention to the issue of education in this election year. They're short, written in sometimes a few minutes' time, and are part of an ongoing dialogue and back-and-forth about the issue of education—and need to be taken in that context. Our stories are far more heavily edited, are much more comprehensive, and don't take on the same voice as our individual blog posts do.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Sen. John McCain has not let Sen. Barack Obama's attack ad on education go unanswered.

And he's hit back hard. (I've pasted the video below.)

The commercial slams Obama for not making a "significant mark" on education, for being "elusive" on accountability, and defending the "public school monopoly." And then there's the kicker: The ad says Obama's one accomplishment is "legislation to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergartners" before they learn to read.

The ad, in effect, singles out a vote Obama cast a member of an Illinois state legislative committee, which approved a bill that would allow schools to teach sex ed to students younger than 6th grade.

And, if you caught the first two words of the commercial, you'll see that it cites Education Week for declaring that Obama "hasn't made a significant mark on education." Of course, there's more to the story than that, and you can read David Hoff's entire piece from 2007, early in the Democratic primary race, here.

The Obama campaign, meanwhile, has decried the ad as "shameful."

Posted by Michele McNeil at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

John McCain and Sarah Palin were originally scheduled to hold a rally at in Fairfax High School in northern Virginia. tomorrow. But they canceled - not because some folks raised questions about whether the building should be used for a political event while school while school in session - but because the school's gym is too small, apparently. It holds about 6,500 people, according to the Associated Press.

A nice side benefit: In switching locations, the campaign is side-stepping what looked like a potentially sticky squabble over whether the school can hold a political rally during academic hours at all. It's against district policy, but superintendent Jack D. Dale was willing to let it slide, because he thought the event would be a great learning opportunity for students.

Dale and the mayor of Fairfax, a Republican, said that the school allowed the Obama campaign to hold a rally at another school in the district in July. School wasn't in session then, but an arts program and some other activities were going on.

Still, this WashingtonPost story quotes some teachers saying that they felt squeamish about the political message the event would send. And a Democratic state delegate said she thought the rally could be very partisan, since an e-mail advisory announcing it encouraged folks to show up wearing something red, to show that Virginia will stay in the GOP column in November.

But as an education reporter who lives and works within driving distance of the school, I'm kinda bummed they switched locations. It would have been fun to check it out and see if any kids came to school dressed in head-to-blue or in "Yo' Mama for Obama" t-shirts.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Roy Romer and Marc Lampkin must have been high-fiving over their breakfast cereal. Or whatever it is that the leaders of ED in '08 do to celebrate a prominent place for education in the presidential campaign.

Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois released the first (in my memory) TV ad on education of the general election. So it's becoming an issue, sorta! Finally!

The ad is mostly an attack on Sen. John McCain's record on education issues. It doesn't go into detail on Obama's own proposals for schools. You can check out the ad on Obama's Web site here.

I've e-mailed the McCain campaign, and am planning a more thorough fact check, but at first glance, I would say that at least parts of this ad are misleading or don't represent McCain's current campaign rhetoric.

The ad says that the Arizona senator and Republican presidential nominee is "against accountability standards." It's possible that McCain voted against accountability at some point during his quarter century in Congress. In light lettering that's very difficult to read, the ad cites votes that appear to have occured as late as May 2001.

Still, I've never heard McCain, or any of his advisers, say that he's against educational accountability on the campaign trail. Quite the opposite, in fact. McCain voted for the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. The nominee and his advisers have said that he still supports the law and its principles of accountability, and that it needs to be "fixed."

McCain has been pretty non-specific about exactly what he would change about the law besides broadly calling for expanding school choice without going into much detail about how he would do that beyond the federal voucher program for the District of Columbia, and allowing Title I money for tutoring to flow directly to parents, not districts. But he's never said he was against accountability or standards.

The ad also says that McCain "proposed abolishing the Department of Education." Again, that's news to me, at least in the context of the campaign. To back up this claim, the ad cites a news story from December of 1994 - nearly 14 years ago. I've never heard McCain call for scrapping the department on the trail. It's possible, of course, that he supported that idea over a decade ago when it was part of the Republican Party platform. But it's not something he has said he would do as president.

The ad also claims that McCain's economic plan "gives $200 billion for special interests while cutting funding for schools." I haven't looked in detail at his economic plan, but McCain has said he wants to freeze discretionary spending, and his top education adviser, Lisa Graham Keegan, said that would apply to education programs, such as Title I. Folks like the Committee for Education Funding's Ed Kealy would certainly say that level-funding amounts to a cut, since inflation and increasing enrollment means less money per kid. So, many would call that a fair criticism, although I'm sure the McCain campaign would take issue with it.

The ad also says that McCain "voted to cut education spending" citing votes as recent as 2005. I'm going to check into those.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The American Society of Quality wants educators to weigh in on what the next president should have on his "to-do" list.

The group, which puts on the National Quality Education Conference for teachers, administrators and support personnel every year, wants educators to fill out a five-minute, three-question survey to help them compile this list, which will be delivered to either Barack Obama or John McCain after the Nov. 4 election.

The survey asks respondents to rank nine education issues in order of importance, rank seven things that American students need more of in their education, and to identify one thing the president should do to improve education.

What would rank first on your to-do list for the next president?

Posted by Michele McNeil at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For a guy who came late to the game with an education policy plan, Sen. John McCain seemed to talk longer about education than Sen. Barack Obama did during his acceptance speech.

But what really stood out about McCain's speech was that he portrayed school choice as the bedrock of his education plan. But it's really not. McCain's education policy plan is far more complex as it tackles the issues of teacher quality, accountability, and school technology, and although choice does have a role, it's a limited one.

In that regard, McCain's school choice rhetoric is disconnected from his policy proposals.

In his acceptance speech, he said:

When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them. Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have that choice and their children will have that opportunity.

That's similar to what he said to the NAACP in Cincinnati, when he pledged "school choice for all who want it."

But he hasn't explained how the federal government would operate such school choice programs. What's more, in June, his chief education and adviser, Lisa Graham Keegan, told reporters that McCain doesn't want to use Title I money for private school vouchers.

What McCain's education plan calls for is a continuation of the existing District of Columbia voucher program. And, he says he supports choice within No Child Left Behind (but even there he's vague, and seems to support making the existing parental choices of tutoring and public-school transfers available to parents earlier.) It doesn't explain how to offer school choice for "all who want it."

As I was watching cable TV network coverage last night, at least two commentators held up his school choice rhetoric as an example of how he's telling the GOP what it wants to hear. And one pointed out that McCain's line about "education is the civil rights issue of this century" is a carbon copy of a President Bush line from 2000.

Of course, school choice makes for better speech material than ideas like accountability, data, and technology.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Sen. John McCain called for a shakeup of "failed school bureaucracies" and greater parental choice in education as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night.

"Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school?" Sen. McCain said at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul., Minn. "We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work."

The crowd gave those lines one of the loudest roars of approval of the nominee's lengthy acceptance speech.

Calling education "the civil rights issue of this century," the Arizona senator said that parents deserve to choose a new school for their children a public school "fails to meet its obligations to students."

"And I intend to give it to them," Sen. McCain said. "Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have that choice and their children will have that opportunity."

The Republican nominee portrayed his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, as beholden to the existing school system.

"Senator Obama wants our schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucrats. I want schools to answer to parents and students," Sen. McCain said. "And when I’m president, they will."

Julie Harris, an Arkansas delegate and mother of six children, cheered as Sen. McCain delivered the education segment of his speech.

The Springdale, Ark., resident homeschools three of her children, one attends a private school, and her two teenagers take courses at a local community college instead of their neighborhood high school. They had been homeschooled as well.

"I am all for parental choice," Ms. Harris said after the speech. "We actually have relatively few private schools in Arkansas. I really want to see more charter schools."

"I thought he hit the nail on the head," said Eric Happala, a Minnesota delegate and a business consultant from the town of Dassel. "I liked that he said schools should be accountable to students and parents."

And he praised Sen. McCain's call to expand school choice. "I think that's really going to resonate with the African-American community," Mr. Happala said. "They're often the ones whose children are stuck in failing schools."

--Mark Walsh and Alyson Klein

Posted by Mark Walsh at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (32) | TrackBacks (0)

This EdWeek story by Alyson Klein does a great job summarizing the new Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll on the public's attitudes toward public schools.

Basically, more people think Barack Obama, and Democrats in general, would do a better job helping schools than John McCain and the GOP.

What this poll says to me, though, is how truly uninformed many people are about where the candidates stand on education, which has been an issue that hasn't received the attention it perhaps deserves.

For example, one-quarter of the poll's respondents don't know which candidate would do a better job improving public schools, and even more don't know which party they favor on the issue.

Perhaps more telling is that more people think Obama would do a better job promoting parental choice. Forty-three percent think Obama is the candidate who will best promote parental choice, compared to 32 percent for McCain. Either Sen. McCain needs to do a much better job telling people that parental choice is one of his core educational values, or people are so enthralled with Obama that they want to give him high marks on everything.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Minnesota Public Radio had a nearly hour-long conversation yesterday with education advisers for Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, which you can listen to through the station's web site. Former Arizona schools' chief Lisa Graham Keegan for McCain and Steve Robinson, a former science teacher who joined Obama's staff in 2006, discuss teacher quality, No Child Left Behind, and federal K-12 funding. (There's an interesting, pointed exchange that begins around the 46th minute of the broadcast about school choice, and Obama's decision to send his daughters to private school in Chicago while he opposes voucher programs like the one in Washington D.C.)

If you're wondering just how influential these campaign advisers are, check out Alyson Klein's new story about the role of advisers. And in this story, David Hoff explores the influence of Teach for America in the Obama campaign.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

USA Today editorial writer Richard Whitmire makes that case in an EdWeek commentary you can read here.

The gist of Whitmire's piece? John McCain will do more to gut NCLB then will Barack Obama.

What do you think?

Flypaper thinks his idea isn't so far-fetched. This Week in Education thinks it's true.

I'll weigh in on one minor point. Whitmire says that teachers' unions don't need to worry about McCain's support of school choice because vouchers are dead. "Period," he writes. While the idea of federally funded vouchers may be dead, for now, I do think it's too early to write off this movement at the state level.

In Georgia, for example, a school-voucher group called All Children Matter spent more on legislative races this year than any other independent committee, according to this story. In Florida, the same voucher group has raised $2.1 million to help elect like-minded candidates to the legislature. That state is also considering a constitutional amendment that would help restore a hallmark voucher program created under then-Gov. Jeb Bush but later struck down by the Florida Supreme court.

And as another sign this movement isn't dead, the wealthy Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, who was one of the chief supporters of a failed voucher initiative in Utah, has joined the Friedman Foundation, a school-choice advocacy group, as one of its co-chairs.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

...from American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. I think it goes without saying that she doesn't like it. I can practically hear the sarcasm when she refers to Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein as McCain's "new best friends."

Read Alyson's detailed post about what sparked Weingarten's reaction—McCain's endorsement of the Education Equality Project and his criticism of Obama—here.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Alexander Russo heard that Marc Dean Millot is advising, in some capacity, the McCain campaign.

And, indeed, it's true!

But the edbizbuzz blogger is not spilling the beans on what he's been asked about, or what he told McCain's folks. (UPDATE: Read Millot's own blog post about his advising.) Here's what Millot said in an email to me when I asked him about his role with the McCain campaign:

I want to be polite, but direct: I'm not planning to discuss anything about my input or advice with anyone outside the campaign, on or off the record.

I am hardly the campaign insider, but that's irrelevant. I am very much "old school" on this. Given my background as a lawyer and consultant, and my days working classified programs at RAND, I think of this as a client relationship (albeit a nonpaying, nonlegal client), so [it] is up to others to make decisions about disclosure on what I say, write, read or hear in the course of the relationship.

There are two reasons the relationship is now public.

* I want to start writing more directly about the candidates and campaign, and I feel obligated to show my cards first. I'm now obviously on the record as for McCain.

* I talk to a lot of reporters about a lot of things and pretty soon they are going to start asking me about the election. Better to disclose now, than have an awkward moment later.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sen. John McCain will be filling in the blanks in his education plan in a "little bit" with proposals on prekindergarten, college access and affordability, and special education, top education adviser Lisa Graham Keegan told the National Conference of State Legislators today in New Orleans.

While my colleague was covering an Obama event, I'm was here in the Big Easy listening to a forum on the education ideas of the presidential candidates, starring Keegan and Linda Darling-Hammond (on behalf of Obama).

There was very little that hasn't been said before, either by the candidates themselves, or their advisers. But I'll hit on the highlights:

* Keegan wouldn't address questions about early education or college, saying McCain was getting ready to talk in more details about his plans for such programs.

* I heard more than I have ever heard before about special education from the two advisers. Keegan, who noted that McCain's wife, Cindy, was a special education teacher, said the Arizona senator was going to address the issues of the federal special education law (IDEA) and its funding in upcoming remarks. She said he's very supportive of it, but also realizes that if schools did a better job of teaching reading, then fewer students would be referred to special education, thus saving those dollars for those students who really need it. She reiterated McCain's support for research into autism-spectrum disorders. Darling-Hammond said Obama wants to quadruple the number of Head Start slots to help address this issue, and fully fund IDEA.

*To the question of what, exactly, Obama means when he dabbles in supporting merit-pay programs—a touchy subject for Democrats—Darling-Hammond was evasive about whether he would use test scores. She was evasive until Keegan stepped in and asked her point-blank if he opposes using any test score whatsoever. Darling-Hammond hemmed and hawed, but ended up saying he would support using test scores as part of multiple measures to gauge teacher performance.

*Legislators got a chance to ask several questions, and were most curious about their stances on additional funding for NCLB and for special education. Obama is all for spending more money on NCLB and special education (Darling-Hammond noted that his $18 billion education price tag is less than the cost of one month in Iraq). But Keegan said money is not the answer—that the federal government has increased its spending nearly 50 percent over pre-NCLB levels, yet students, especially poor and minority, are still failing in alarming numbers.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by David J. Hoff, edweek.org at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Because respondents in a new Associated Press poll list it as the most significant problem facing their child's school.

Forty-seven percent think getting and keeping good teachers is a "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problem. Teachers are a bigger issue than overcrowding, lack of student discipline (which came in second), and school violence. Teacher quality also outranks the condition of school buildings, outdated textbooks, placing emphasis on the wrong subjects, low expectations of students, students not spending enough time in school, and thankfully, availability of athletic fields (26 percent think this is a serious problem!)

A good chunk of Barack Obama's education plan revolves around teachers—recruiting them, paying them better, and giving them mentors. We'll have to wait until the fall to hear what Sen. John McCain's plans are for improving the teaching ranks.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

No, this isn't a merit-pay plan to reward teachers for performance. But, it's along those same lines—and I'm thinking this might be a good idea.

John McCain is offering a $300 million prize to someone who develops a car battery that will "leapfrog" the current technology that powers our traditional cars and even newer hybrids. The goal, of course, is to drive down oil prices. In his remarks yesterday, McCain pointed out that many advancements—such as the mapping of the human genome—can be traced back to American inventors, and "often to the foresighted aid of the United States government."

Money is a grand motivator—including in education. After all, some schools are using money to encourage students to do better on state tests. Other schools use money as incentives for teachers. The $1 million Broad Prize rewards success in urban districts. Could McCain's plan work?

Many people ask: If the country can turn out brilliant minds who could develop a nuclear bomb, and send a man to the moon, why can't we develop a better, cheaper technology for powering cars and then sell that technology all over the world?

Perhaps McCain can turn some of our country's great minds—and research universities—to this task, if he does, indeed, come up with this $300 million prize. Or, perhaps as important, McCain could extend his reasoning to education, and put aside his no-more-money-for-education mantra and come up with a similar prize for improving public schools.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)