Let's just say McCain is very lucky that Education policies hardly get covered. Some of his plans lack common sense. Even though only one question was asked in the third debate, I have gotten a lot of info from their responses. In the third debate the comment from McCain really bothered me. "We need to encourage Teach for America and Troops to Teachers where people, after served in the military, can go right into teaching and not have to take any examinations which...or certification that some are required in the states." Here is the thing. I am all for military servicemen for teaching. What bothers me is the second half of the quote, not having to take any examinations or getting a teaching certification. Seriously...um what?! The whole point of those examinations is to see whether if those high school teachers know their content and are qualified to teach. I've talked to my fellow classmates in my program and everyone was really shocked by his comments. Lets just compare this quote and replace it with other occupations. "We can have people after served in the military, can go right into the medical field. They don't have to take the mcat, pass their boards, or any other medical examiniations. In fact they don't need to have a certification in their field either." "We can have people be part of the Cleveland Orchestra. In fact they don't need to audition, they just get an automatic seat in the group." The funny thing about his statement, is that he keeps on emphasizing the point that we need to get rid of bad teachers (which I have issues with, since I know they compare Teacher's performance based on standardized test which I do not agree with). However, based on his statement, he's just replacing these bad teachers with even likely worse ones. Oh yeah, good luck trying to get rid of the "bad" math & science teachers. Unless he plans to recruit more math and science teachers...there won't be any left. Irony: What is also ironic, is that he is for these programs such as Teach for America (I definitely support Teach for America). What makes it so ironic, is that the Republican Party is so dismissive in supporting any "expansive program" for education. They label democrats as people who are these wasteful spenders in education, and how there is too much government involvement in education. Obama was called by McCain as "Throwing tons of money to schools" etc. I am ambivalent and still undecided about the "huge governmental projects" (some are good , some can be bad), but the Republican party is not consistent in their stance on education. The republican party's stance on education is like a cat having a convulsive seizure. Did they forget about George Bush's No Child Left Behind? That was the biggest education project from the government. They also forgot about the fact that Ronald Reagen doubled the size of the department of Education. Its not really that I oppose McCain's view on education. The problem I have with it, is I have no idea what is his position and what is he going to do. Vouchers: I am also neutral on Vouchers. My issue with vouchers, is that the Republican Party and McCain seem to believe that a voucher is some mystical medicine that will solve every single education problem. The problem with vouchers is that while you will have some students bail out of the "bad schools", that doesn't help the school get better. Charter Schools: What is interesting with Obama, is that he is for Charter Schools. People criticize him for being in line with the democratic party, but being for Charter schools is very very very against the democratic party. Of course since no one really takes notice about the education issue, a lot of people will think the Charter School stance doesn't mean anything. Pretty much all of the teacher organization groups (I get their magazines in the mail), are very opposed to Charter Schools (I kind of need to look up their reasoning though). Other stuff: I am somewhat disappointed that neither candidate talked about administration problems. That is actually one of the biggest reasons for "bad urban schools" doing poorly. Obama however seems to understand more about the dynamics of the school and education. He actually talked about the parent's role in a child's education. | 
