Elizabeth Hartline Green

Where do the candidates stand on education? John McCain on education.

This is the ninth installment in an ongoing series on where the candidates stand on education.

Senator John McCain, come on down!

Sen. McCain actually does not discuss his education positions on his website, and he actually never came out with an education platform the last time he ran for president, but we have votes and statements to draw upon to see where he stands on education

Sen. McCain believes that most educational decisions should not be made at the federal level. This manifests itself in aspects ranging from giving school districts the ability to decide whether to teach evolution to support for unrestricted educational block grants. However, Sen. McCain supports No Child Left Behind, as well as nationwide merit pay. He also voted for a $75 million abstinence education allocation.

Sen. McCain is a staunch supporter of both charter schools and vouchers. However, he thinks that funding for both should come from other sources, such as reallocating current subsidies to oil and ethanol. He also thinks that states should decide whether or not they want to use vouchers.

Sen. McCain, like many of his Republican colleagues, does not like teachers unions at all, and is in favor of merit pay. However, despite his strong-right leanings on illegal immigration, he was a cosponsor of a bill (which never actually went anywhere) that would make it easier for undocumented students to pursue higher education. http://edelection.blogspot.com/2007/08/mccain-on-immigration-and-higher.html

Perhaps Sen. McCain’s most unique ideas is to create a voluntary pool of older Americans (retirees, veterans, etc.) to tutor children in core subjects. Logistics for this plan have never been laid out (it was first proposed by McCain in 1999), but it would be interesting to see how such a system would play out.

This is an exceptionally short post for me, as Sen. McCain’s campaign has not been focused on education policy. Overall, though, it seems that he is in favor of staying the course of the current administration on educational policy, though he may still come out with an education proposal.

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Posted at 8:45 AM, Aug 27, 2007 in Candidates on Education | Education
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