EDUCATION
AT
ISSUE:
•
Federal Aid to College Students
• Preschool Programs
• National Progress Assessment
• Charter Schools
• School Choice
• Standards and Curriculum
• Teacher Training
• Tuition Tax Credit
• Federal Education Grants
• College Opportunity Tax Cuts
• Job Corps/Work Study Programs
• Technology Subsidies
In
the Far Corners:
RIGHT
College
tuition rises due to taxpayer subsidies, abolish those subsidies.
Abolish the Department of Education and turn financial responsibility
for education over to state and local governments.
Link funding to performance.
Higher Education is already available to anyone who really wants
it and is willing to work hard to earn it.
Because Federal government should stay out of local issues such
as school prayer and teaching creationism, the Federal government
should also stay out of determining how education dollars are
spent.
LEFT
Because
education is the most effective preventative for a variety of
social ills such as crime, drug use and health problems, the
Federal government should throw as much money as possible into
schools, teacher training and other educations programs.
Every school should receive sufficient funds to connect all
students to the internet.
The government should increase funds available for loans and
grants and make the first two years of college free to all who
want higher education.
Invest in training many new teachers to reduce class sizes.
OVERVIEW:
No
major party downplays the importance of education and the majority
of candidates have taken some form of pro-education stand. The
dividing line between ideologies is primarily one of placing
financial responsibility, with conservatives citing individual
responsibility and initiative as the keys to higher education.
The
conservative approach also argues that educational budgeting
and allocation is best done at a state or local level as individual
communities are best able to assess the needs of their population.
The
moderate to liberal approach involves emphasizing education
as not only a basic human right, but as the best insurance against
future social ills. They advocate increased education spending
at the Federal level with monies being allocated to Federal
oversight of goals and standards. The liberal approach would
have grants, loans and other incentive programs dramatically
increased with special attention paid to teacher training programs,
after-school programs and internet access available to every
American student.
There
is some agreement from both sides on the benefits of tax incentive
programs, however conservatives see such programs as a replacement
for existing financial assistance structures, while the liberal
spectrum would implement them in addition to bolstering current
loan and grant programs.
STATISTICS
In the workplace, a college degree is worth some $17,000 a year
more than a high school diploma
Over
a lifetime, it comes to some $600,000 for the difference.
The
average student loan balance for undergraduates in the class
of '98 was nearly $10,000, and graduate students borrowed nearly
$23,000 each
Average
Costof College Education:
Public
University per year: $11,205
Private University per year $23,768
Estimated
Cost of a Four-Year Education at Major Universities:
Duke:$117,797
Harvard:$121,548
Rutgers:$43,742
Notre Dame:$100,849
University of Nebraska-Lincoln:$25,067
Penn State:$40,716
Stanford:$119,735
Northwestern:$102,797
University of Southern California (USC):$112,264
Yale:$123,678
Numbers
are based on actual cost data for the 1995-1996 school year,
as published by the College Board. They include tuition, fees,
room and board.
ANALYSIS
There
are a handful of fringe thinkers from both ends of the political
spectrum who want to take education out of the hands of governement
entirely and return it to the family or local community. These
are folks who want full control over the content of their kids
minds and their social environments. The ultra-conservative
religious right in particular leans that direction. Pretty much
everybody else just wants kids (and motivated adults) to get
educated in a reasonable fashion with as little risk of getting
shot at or addicted to drugs as possible.
Putting
education back in the hands of local government certainly would
solve the problem of national politicians being held accountable
for the next generation of dummies. Then again, it might produce
a new bunch of politicians who can't spell potato. Educational
standards and methods have been debated since the time of Socrates
and nobody has yet figured out a foolproof way of getting a
roomful of snot-nosed adolescents to stop throwing spitballs
and do their homework.
In
the end, which bureaucracy throws the money at the problem is
probably less important than funneling enough cash into the
school systems to lure and keep competent teachers. At present,
with college costs making higher education a pie-in-the-sky
dream for many families, the Democratic platform, with it's
goal of free or low-cost post-secondary education is most likely
to attract the votes of those whose main worry is how to get
their kids through school. The Republican platform's appeal
is limited to families who already have educational resources.
