Both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama discussed some of their key education plans — offering sharply different opinions of the merits of school vouchers — in speeches delivered this week at the 99th annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Senator McCain’s speech, delivered today at the association’s gathering in Cincinnati, focused on school choice, school vouchers, and alternative teacher certification as ways to improve the education of black children.
Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said “the worst problems of our public-school system are often found in black communities,” and solving such problems would require “a willingness to break from conventional thinking.” If elected president, he said, he would promote “school choice for all who want it,” and would expand a scholarship program that enables low-income families in Washington, D.C., to send their children to private schools.
He said he also would direct federal funds toward efforts to recruit high-performing college students into teaching and toward alternative teacher-recruitment programs such as Teach for America and the American Board for Teacher Excellence.
“We can also help more children and young adults to study outside of school by expanding support for virtual learning,” Mr. McCain said. He proposed directing $500-million in federal funds toward the establishment of “virtual schools” and the development of online courses. He said he also would seek to offer $250-million in competitive grants to the states to expand online access to education offerings such as Advanced Placement classes in mathematics, science, and computer science.
Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, anticipated Mr. McCain’s voucher proposals in his own speech, delivered to the NAACP on Monday. Denouncing “the same tired rhetoric about vouchers,” he said, “we need to fix and improve our public schools, not throw our hands up and walk away from them.”
Among the education proposals Mr. Obama discussed was a plan to offer a $4,000 tax credit “to make college affordable for anyone who wants to go.” He also called for more spending on early childhood education and for comprehensive efforts to recruit high-quality teachers into public schools.
