by Jennifer Gray
Contributing Writer

We can’t help but notice that the race is on—candidates’ names on bumpers, their taglines in windows. For now, it’s a five-way tie in the battle for the nomination, and there are currently no clear winners.

This tie means that the Washington State Caucus (scheduled for February 9) may hold sway in who is nominated for each party. Because of that, voters are brushing up on their political knowledge and focusing on the issues– that is, until the candidates’ views start to sound similar.

This article reviews each of the front-runners’ websites and attempts to blast through the rhetoric to get into the heart of a major issue that affects young voters everywhere: Education.

The Democrats
All three of the leading Democrats have the same focus: improving our school system. Each would create a voluntary “Universal Pre-K” program to kick-start education for underprivileged three and fouryear- olds, emphasize learning in math and science and eliminate the FAFSA application process. (Instead, applicants would just check a box on their tax return).

All three would overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act and create a system that measures an individual student’s progress rather than an entire school’s test scores. However, there are fundamental differences in the way the candidates would bring about these changes, and their purposes in doing so.

Hillary Rodham-Clinton
Clinton is most concerned with our middle and lower classes. Her focus is to achieve productivity by encouraging early financial, medical, and mentoring support systems.

This support would begin with new mothers and reach through to potential college applicants. She thinks that this goal is best achieved through voluntary early childhood pre-school, the support of summer internship programs for low-income, high-risk middle-school students and multiple high school options, including alternative high schools and programs like Running Start.

Clinton also plans to raise the Pell Grant and add a new college tax credit. She supports workforce training programs like AmeriCorps, founded by her husband in 1993, and would double federal funding to AmeriCorps to meet the rising costs of college tuition and fees.

Barack Obama
Obama’s has the most detailed plan for education. Along with utilizing early childhood education, alternative high school programs, federal incentives for proven teachers, additional federal grant funding, and elimination of the FAFSA application, Obama vows to further overhaul our “outdated” education system.

He would begin by instituting a universal pre-kindergarten program that encourages communication between parents, students, teachers and community leaders. This communication would continue throughout schooling, and parents would be asked to help create “Positive Behavior Support” requirements to impress upon students.

Obama also has a detailed layout on how to support and reward teachers, including researched incentives for those in high-risk areas, teacher-to-teacher mentoring, group planning, and new teacher training. He wants to continue this research by creating a Presidential Early Learning Counsel and doubling the Department of Education’s research funding.

The Republicans
In reviewing their presidential candidacy websites, the Republican candidates’ views on education also seem similar– and short-winded. The main difference between them is their presentation.

John McCain
McCain’s message on education is short and to the point. He is in support of school choice–including public, private, charter and home schooling–and believes that if parents are given greater opportunities to determine their child’s school, ineffective schools will likely “compete” with other schools for better teachers, innovative programs and, in the end, more students. He would use statistics from No Child Left Behind to challenge schools with lowperforming students.

Mitt Romney
Romney also supports school choice, but for different reasons: he believes that, if given the choice, all Americans will find ways to succeed. His goal is to reward good schools and students for succeeding, especially in lowincome and high-risk areas.

Like the Democrats, Romney thinks the No Child Left Behind Act should focus on student progress rather than overall school performance, and wants to include teachers in creating performance- based pay raises.

Romney would also focus attention on math and science and expand programs like the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship Program, which gives top-producing students four years of cost-free college.

Mike Huckabee
Huckabee is more concerned with art and music in our education system. He calls these the “Weapons of Mass Instruction” and notes studies showing that they improve abstract thinking, spatial reasoning and, in turn, math comprehension.

Huckabee is also concerned with poorly performing teachers, and opposed the teachers’ union in supporting the Fair Dismissal Law, which allows teachers deemed inadequate to be fired.

To support this law, Huckabee would require that teachers be tested, replaced if necessary, and required to wait a more “reasonable” amount of time for tenure. However, high-performing teachers in low-performing schools would be given bonuses and have a portion of their student loans forgiven.