All the 2016 Presidential Candidates have education visions and education policy reform ideas. It’s just that these ideas have gotten lost in the self-immolation and squabbling that have dominated the media sphere during the 2016 Election Campaign. Compared to this stuff, education, normally an incendiary issue, isn’t that newsworthy. Education doesn’t get you millions of click throughs or shares and it certainly won’t sell newspapers.
I want to know what the Candidates are saying directly to voters—parents, teachers, college faulty and students of all ages. So I collected (from the education sections of newspapers, YouTube videos, websites etc.) some of what the Candidates have been saying about education. I’ve looked at Bernie, Clinton and Trump (in alphabetical order. I swear). Sometimes, I quote and other times I summarize. To organize things, I looked at education policy making itself, higher education, and K-12 education. I provide links so that you can form your own ideas about what might happen to the noble industry in the US after February 2017.
Bernie
Weeks ago, Sanders told a crowd in Michigan, “We need to make public colleges and universities tuition free.” And he plans to raise the money to pay for it by taxing the “nation’s wealthy.” Sanders has come under much criticism for these types of ideas that are aimed at relieving the social and financial burdens of poor and working class people. Some critics claim that such policies are unrealistic and may be difficult to navigate in a Republican Congress. Others deem them part of a broader socialist agenda with too much government interference.
Some critics claim that [Bernie’s] policies are unrealistic and may be difficult to navigate in a Republican Congress.
Sanders plans to reduce interest on existing student loans and new student loans to below 3% and to expand work-study programs so that students can gain work-experience regardless of income.
Sanders wants universities to hire more full-time faculty.
He opposes the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, particularly its focus on testing. He plans to overhaul NCLB and he advocates for high quality, widespread early childhood education. Check out Sanders’ ideas about education here.
Clinton
Student loans have also been Clinton’s big-ticket item. She plans to make college more affordable through a plan that gives grants to states in the hope that these grants might encourage increased spending on higher education, and reduce or eliminate student loans at four-year public universities. Part of the plan, includes refinancing current student loans to ease the debt burden. Find out more about her student loan plan.
In North Carolina, Clinton talked about increasing funding for public school infrastructure and creating a teachers’ taskforce to train new teachers and give existing teachers the professional development and support they need to make students successful.
Clinton has been much criticized for not having a clear vision and for making statements that are subject to interpretation from either side of an issue.
Earlier this year, Clinton gained the support of two major teachers’ unions, The American Federation of Teachers and The National Education Association. However, it is unclear from any of her public statements where she stands on some of the most contentious issues for a Democratic forerunner, like charter schools, testing, and changing teachers contracts so that bad teachers can be fired.
Clinton has been much criticized for not having a clear education vision and for making statements that are subject to interpretation from either side of an issue. The main critique is that Clinton has excluded the concept of education reform from her campaign and that such a stance makes her appear to out of step with trends in contemporary education policy making.
Overall, with the exception of less decisive issues like student loan reform and increased funding for public schools (who could argue against change on these two issues), Clinton has avoided a definitive education vision. Her website states big ideas with little specifics. Check out Clinton’s K-12 education ideas on her campaign website here and keep checking the media sphere for details as her education vision emerges.
Trump
For the GOP’s only candidate, American education is a failure. There is a poor return on the annual investment of $154 billion (2015 spending) and the US ranks poorly on PISA, an international student assessment test.
Trump favors getting rid of the Department of Education, or at least reducing its size, and its influence on state education policies and activities.
Trump, on various occasions, cited the Common Core as evidence of Federal interference in state affairs and as evidence of the failure of the DOE. Note that states are not required to adopt the CC. He wasn’t clear on specifics, but the only GOP candidate has called the CC a “disaster” and says that if he becomes president he’ll “abolish it.” He doesn’t say what he’ll replace it with once he issues a decree to be off with the CC’s head. Here’s a video in which Trump outlines his K-12 education ideas. His campaign website doesn’t say anything about education, or anything I could find. But it’s worth checking out.
In a nutshell, critics want to know: How exactly is Trump going to do this stuff?
Just days ago, Trump accepted an endorsement from the National Rifle Association. What does that have to do with education, you wonder? Everything. Trump is against gun-free school zones and promises to abolish such zones as soon as he’s in the Oval Office. He argues that children are safer if teachers and other adults were able to carry concealed weapons in schools.
Critics of Trump’s education ideas question the feasibility of making education more local and the reduction/elimination of the DOE. In a nutshell, critics want to know: How exactly is Trump going to do this stuff? Anti-gun advocates have criticized his stance on guns in schools, saying that gun-free school zones may make schools less safe and encourage vigilantes to police schools.
Education Everywhere
Social media has made message making into a colossal … thing. This Thing (cause I don’t know what else to call it) has many mouths that are each saying something different, in different languages, some loud and others soft. Some of these mouths are talking about the Candidate’s education policies. To really hear what’s being said, I encourage you to go to the links in this article, search the Web, go on Facebook and Twitter, read the newspapers, watch your television and talk to people. Especially people who don’t share your point of view. And listen at all the Candidates. Then make up your own mind.
