The Candidates on Education: Unsatisfactory

Will President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney please report to the principal’s office?
 
This week, Education Policy Program Policy Analyst Anne Hyslop watched the candidates take a deep, wonky dive into the specifics of their education proposals on NBC News’ Education Nation summit, and graded the substance behind the rhetoric in a blog post. While she didn’t hand out letter grades, we’re guessing that neither would receive an A. 

“Romney continues to cling to the naïve idea that soft accountability – like the school report cards with A-F letter grades that Florida uses – will be sufficient to turn around underperforming schools,” Hyslop writes.

In the Governor’s words: “If we had that, then you'd see parents, if they saw their school get a C or a D or worse, those parents are going to be outraged. And they're going to want to gather together, become part of PTA organizations and talk about taking back the school.”

Hyslop’s response: “School report cards? That’s so ten years ago. Where are the hordes of parents taking back their schools (other than at the movies)? ”

President Obama got points off for his response to a question about No Child Left Behind. Today Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie asked if the decision by some states to establish lower performance goals for minorities under No Child Left Behind troubled him.

“After replying ‘of course it bothers me,’ Obama explained that his approach would be to emphasize growth and encourage continual improvement toward high standards, rather than set an absolute standard off the bat that schools could not come close to meeting,” Hyslop explains. “That’s true, but his answer felt incomplete. He failed to link the growth approach to a strong accountability and improvement system for schools with large achievement gaps. “
Hyslop also saw room for improvement in Romney’s policy initiative for early childhood education. Romney’s big plan? Engage parents – especially two-parents households where one parent can stay at home, supervising the child’s educational progress.

“In this case, Governor Romney isn’t ten years behind federal policy, he’s sixty,” Hyslop charges. “Instead of lamenting the breakdown of the 50’s-era nuclear family, Governor Romney could have elaborated more on specific federal early childhood programs with a parent involvement component but didn’t.”

Read her full post here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque