John Kerry's position on

Education K-12: On January 8, 2002 President Bush signed "No Child Left Behind," which Kerry voted for. This act was created to reform education on the kindergarten through 12th grade level. The "No Child Left Behind" Act is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the central federal law is pre-collegiate education. The goal of this law was to make schools accountable and reduce achievement gaps between schools and students; however this law has not been fully funded at this time. Federal spending on elementary and secondary education increased from 18.5 billion in 2001 to 22.5 billion requested in 2005. Overall, funds related to No Child Left Behind increased by an average of 12.5 percent per year from 2001 to 2005. NCLB discretionary spending was 17.4 billion in 2001, and the administration requested 24.8 billion in 2005. Elementary and secondary education spending not related to NCLB or IDEA actually fell from 3.2 billion to 1.7 billion from 2001 to 2005, which suggests that a small portion of the 12.2 billion increase in combined NCLB and IDEA represents a shift in spending, rather than all new spending. link

Description of candidate's position: Kerry is supportive of the "No Child Left Behind" Act and feels that the program should be fully funded. Kerry would also like to create a $200 billion National Education Trust fund, which would be a separately funded and not at the discretion of congress. Kerry sees increasing graduation rates as a top priority. Kerry also supports the barring of school vouchers, due to the competition it has with funds for overall improvements in America's public schools. He also discussed education in his acceptance speech, which shows priority in his campaign for this topic.

Quotation from the candidate: "I will roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals who make over $200,000 a year, so we can invest in job creation, health care and education. Our education plan for a stronger America sets high standards and demands accountability from parents, teachers, and schools. It provides for smaller class sizes and treats teachers like the professionals they are. And it gives a tax credit to families for each and every year of college. When I was a prosecutor, I met young kids who were in trouble, abandoned by adults. And as President, I am determined that we stop being a nation content to spend $50,000 a year to keep a young person in prison for the rest of their life - when we could invest $10,000 to give them Head Start, Early Start, Smart Start, the best possible start in life." July 29, 2004 Kerry's Acceptance Speech Link

Assessment of the proposal:

Positive: The National Education Association (NEA), which was founded in 1857 and currently has 2.7 million members who work at every level of education, says that "No Child Left Behind presents real obstacles to helping students and strengthening public schools. They site three main reasons for this, which are because they believe that it focuses on punishments rather than assistance, mandates rather than support for effective programs, and privatization rather than teacher-led, family-oriented solutions." The NEA is also in strong support of barring school vouchers. NEA link to NCLB Act and ESEA

Negative: The Cato Institute argues that the plan purposed by Kerry puts too much power in the hands of the federal government. They suggest that the plan brings the government closer to centralization. When the Cato Institute compared both Kerry's and Bush's plans in dealing with education they supported Bush's plan

Comparison: Both Kerry and Bush see K-12 education as an issue which needs work, but disagree how best to improve education. Kerry does support the No Child Left Behind Act, but feels that the program should be fully funded. In addition Kerry would also like to create a $200 billion National Education Trust fund, which would be separately funded and as Kerry sees it, ensure that new education programs would be funded on a mandatory basis. Kerry has stated that he supports the barring of school vouchers, because he sees vouchers as taking funding away from schools which usually need it most. Bush supports the use of vouchers as a way for parents to make choices about their children's education.

Unlike Bush, Kerry wants a dedicated funding stream to achieve NCLB and IDEA goals. Federal funding for education would shift from discretionary to mandatory spending making it less likely that such funding would be cut as part of the annual battle over appropriations. Neither candidate differs greatly on the key provisions of NCL. Kerry would guarantee mandatory funding levels to states, which could help states better plan for ways to meet NCLB requirements. Creating mandatory spending stream would also protect education to some extent from future budget cuts. link

Link to Bush's issue brief

Link to Bush's education issue page