Instruction has not exactly been at the forefront of the presidential campaign. It received far less than even 15 minutes of fame during the first contend, but stand up-ins for President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney explored information technology in depth terminal night in a argue that revealed  sharp philosophical and policy differences betwixt the ii candidates.

Presidential candidates' education surrogates. Left to right: Phil Handy, Jon Schnur and moderator Susan Fuhrman. Photo past Justin Lam. (Click to enlarge)

Jon Schnur, President Obama'due south surrogate, co-founded America Achieves and New Leaders for New Schools. Phil Handy, Gov. Romney'due south stand-in, is onetime chairman of the Florida Land Board of Education and CEO of Strategic Industries. Susan Fuhrman, president of Teachers College, Columbia Academy, moderated the 90-infinitesimal debate, which was webcast.

Although much has been made of their similar positions on charter schools and instructor evaluations, mainly because the president has, on those issues, broken with the Democrats' traditional alignment with teachers' unions, their disagreements far outweigh their agreements.

From the offset, the fence focused on those differences, beginning with schoolhouse choice, a euphemism for vouchers. Romney would brand school choice a cornerstone of his teaching policy, said Handy. "We believe that no child should be obligated to become to a failing school just because they were born in a certain zip code," he said.

In a white newspaper , Romney has proposed a voucher arrangement that would disburse the $25 billion in federal Title I funds for low-income students and IDEA funds for students with disabilities directly to the students' families to spend at the school of their choosing, including other public schools, charters, and private schools. "We think there needs to be some disruption in the system and choice is part of that," said Handy.

Schnur responded that the program isn't a meaningful option because poor families would merely receive a few chiliad dollars at all-time. He said it would exist like telling a "a low-income child in a Title I schoolhouse in the Bronx that that you can become to school in the suburbs," but not provide enough coin to pay for transportation.

"If yous have pick without the accountability and funding, it's not real," said Schnur. Instead, he said the Obama Assistants would require that low-performing Championship I schools brand dramatic efforts to plow around.

Handy also said that Romney doesn't support the Obama administration'southward waivers from some requirements and penalties under No Child Left Behind. The waiver program releases states from what education officials say is an unreachable goal of having 100 percent of students testing in the proficient range or ameliorate in math and English language arts by 2014. In substitution, united states must present plans for raising accomplishment among depression-income students, students with disabilities, English learners, and indigenous and racial minorities. Thirty three states take already received waivers, and 11 are pending, including one from California.

Handy said that letting states set their own accountability standards had led to "racially defining proficiency," and is setting teaching back to what former President George Westward. Bush called the "soft discrimination of low expectations." An analysis by Educational activity Week of state goals nether waivers found a number of them have set "unlike expectations for different subgroups of students." For example, Minnesota is requiring 82 percent proficiency in eleventh grade math for white students, simply only 62 percentage proficiency for black students.

Schnur argued that standards under NCLB were always inconsistent from country to country and that'due south why Common Core state standards are then important. He said the "low standards we've set for our kids accept led us to be lying to our kids. Kids around the land were existence told that they were practiced based on a mediocre examination."

Not the federal government's purview

Handy said Romney considers Mutual Core an opt-in program led past the governors of the 46 states that have agreed to adopt them, and disagreed that the federal regime has a responsibility to aid fund Common Core curriculum and tests. "I don't think the federal government should be involved in that," said Handy.

It was a line of reasoning he used throughout the debate in i course or another, particularly when money was involved. "Nosotros don't think, frankly, economic incentives are the purview of the federal government," he said regarding the president'southward multibillion-dollar stimulus packet that included funds to pay teachers during the summit of the recession. On the subject of early childhood education he said, "We think pre-kindergarten is a good idea," but information technology'due south non a role for the federal government.

Schnur flipped the argument. He said President Obama's passion for teaching and commitment to invest in it, even in tough economic times, demonstrates his "core behavior and priorities," and that'southward what drives a president's policies.

He said that Romney's education policy is "imprisoned" by the upkeep policy championed by his running mate, Paul Ryan, a budget that calls for a 22 pct cutting in non-defense force discretionary funding, which could cost states and local governments $28 billion in 2014. About a third of that goes to education, co-ordinate to the Center on Upkeep and Policy Priorities.

Although Romney wouldn't cut the education upkeep, he wouldn't add to it either, said Handy, but he was hard-pressed to square that with the Ryan upkeep cuts.  However, the teaching counselor did single out Pell Grants and argued that the federal authorities can't afford to continue funding President Obama'southward expansion of the program, which at present provides financial aid to ten million college students, upward from 6 million.  It may exist awarding more coin to more kids, simply it's accumulating tens of billions of unfunded liabilities, said Handy.

Some of the other bug covered in the argue include:

  • Teachers:  Schnur said the president wants to recruit more top quality people into pedagogy and retain with incentives such as paying off student loans and providing teachers more than options for advancement in the pedagogy profession.  Handy said Romney would give Title 2 funds to states in block grants to employ for recruiting whatsoever groups into pedagogy that they experience are qualified, such as Teach For America alumni.
  • Student Loans: In 2010, President Obama overhauled the student loan industry cutting out the private lenders who worked every bit middlemen, brokering loans between students and the federal government, and taking a cutting. The alter will relieve an estimated $61 billion over 10 years. Handy said Romney would reverse that policy.  "We would recommend, given our attitude toward competition, that private lenders be put dorsum into the process."  That spurred Schnur to reply, "Having a selection among unaffordable loan is non a selection."
  • Head Start:  Handy said Romney wants it to be more of an educational plan than a social program. Schnur said the President'due south goal is to make better employ of existing Head Start funds in part by ending contracts with low-performing Head Start programs.
  • Social-emotional wellbeing:  Handy said all children can learn regardless of their home lives and social environments every bit long as their teachers and schools are good.  Schnur pointed out that research shows kids living in poverty tin can succeed in school, but the schools need to address their social and economic challenges and focus on nutrition, health intendance and social services.

Toward the end of the discussion, Handy repeated Mitt Romney's refrain from the first presidential debate regarding the strength and success of Massachusetts' school system when Mitt Romney was governor.  That gave Schnur an opening for the best express joy of the nighttime; "I might vote for Mitt Romney for governor," he quipped, but I don't retrieve that's a basis for electing him as president.

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