McCain Backed Abolishing The Department Of Education

Barack Obama's campaign is reminding voters today that John McCain, during the heady days of the "Republican Revolution," once declared that he favored abolishing the Department of Education.

"I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education," the Senator said on CNN's Late Edition in December 1994. "I would favor doing away with it as well."

Linking McCain to "ideologues," Obama declared in his speech Tuesday, "you certainly don't reform our education system by calling to close the Department of Education. That would just make it harder for us to give out financial aid, harder for us to keep track of how our schools are doing, and lead to widening inequality in who gets a college degree."

Republican officials and McCain staffers, meanwhile, are in full-out counter-attack mode, criticizing Obama for his education policies and claiming that the Senator is misrepresenting McCain's proposals on the matter.

"Senator Barack Obama's new campaign attack ad on education," wrote spokesman Tucker Bounds this morning, "claims that John McCain's economic plan will divert money from public education without any factual citation or basis." The campaign provided a list of resolutions increasing funding for federal education efforts that McCain supported.

But Bounds' statement made no mention of McCain's previous support for doing away with the Department of Education. Neither did two counter-attack emails blasted out by the Republican National Committee.

The matter clearly complicates McCain's criticism of Obama's plan and raises questions as to what, exactly, the Republican nominee's education policy would be if he ascends to the White House. Bounds, in his statement, said that "nothing that John McCain has proposed would reduce funding for public schools." But McCain also has not been the steadfast champion of funding No Child Left Behind, as his campaign purports.

While the idea of eliminating the Department of Education certainly is not the Senator's policy as it stands in this campaign -- despite support for the idea among many conservatives -- it remains far-fetched for the McCain campaign to argue that there is no "factual basis" to the Obama camp's attacks over education policy.

Comments

[TheDudesBlog]

12:00 PM on 09/10/2008

We should get rid of the Dept. of Education. It employs 4,00 bureaucrats, none of which, teach one thing to kids. Why don't we abolish it and give the money to local school districts? That's where Education actually takes place. Remember, the Constitution calls for a limited Federal Gov't. Education should be a local issue. Sending money to Washington is like borrowing from the mob. You get the money, but in the end, the mob always gets its cut.

[Gabino]

11:01 AM on 09/10/2008

Am I the only one who think John McCain is handsome and a cutie! He does not get credit for it.

[jmcaul]

01:13 PM on 09/10/2008

Oh my goodness yes - I've thought so for awhile myself! John McCain's a frickin' STUD!!! I'm a 49 yo wmw :-)

[reggie1298]

10:43 AM on 09/10/2008

As an adherent to Federalism and a former teacher I feel the federal government has no business wasting tax dollars on a department of education. Where in the Constitution is it authorized? That's right - nowhere. That means it's the responsibility of the states. For those who think the Constitution is an evolving document, where's the Constitutional "seed" for a department of education?

[protagonia]

11:02 AM on 09/10/2008

Then ALL children should be "Home Schooled"?

[TheDudesBlog]

12:01 PM on 09/10/2008

Exactly! The Feds just want their cut.

[protagonia]

10:22 AM on 09/10/2008

Of course he did. How else can they manufacture more neo-cons? They are made up of our stupid and dishonest.

[rollingdivision]

09:50 AM on 09/10/2008

There has been no improvement in education results since the establishment of the US department of education, none. $50 Billion a year which could be going directly to local schools wasted.

[xhibi]

09:37 AM on 09/10/2008

If you read McCain's lips carefully, he keeps saying "4 more years"

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/3076/misw08gi6.gif

[Whinger]

08:52 AM on 09/10/2008

Well John didn't need a decent education, why should anybody else!

Why waste money on education when we could spend it on wars!

[notbitterjustpissed]

08:36 AM on 09/10/2008

This article said it best: http://atheism.about.com/od/churchstate101/a/what.htm

Separation of church and state is a two-way street. It isn’t just about restricting what the government can do with religion, but also what religious bodies can do with the government. Religious groups cannot dictate to or control the government. They cannot cause the government to adopt their particular doctrines as policy for everyone, they cannot cause the government to restrict other groups, etc.

[Paladin2]

02:17 AM on 09/10/2008

Boy oh boy, it has really opened my eyes reading all these 'comments'. I never realized that all the problems in the U.S. are exclusively the fault of Republicans. I always thought (silly me) that the Vietnam War was started by a Democratic administration. As well as numerous other immoral and downright evil policies. 'Liberal' Democrats supporting and funding right wing death squads right here in Central America, protecting terrorists, attacking Socialist and Communist countries (Bay of Pigs etc.) And all this time it's the Republicans and they are responsible for global warming too! Yikes, have I been blind to the "Truth" of Occidental Al Gore, the rum running gangster fortune of the Kennedy family and the fantastic "Contract with America" administration of NAFTA Bill Clinton. And all this time it was all the Republicans fault. Silly me. Here I thought that they were two wings of the same party. And all that hand holding kissy kissy between them after a hard day at the capitol ranting about each other ruining the country with flag burning, gay issues and how much ritlin should be dispensed at school to keep all those hyperactive kids in their seats. Quite a show for people that together give us basically the same ruinous policies and still convince so many fools that there's really any basic difference between them. That's a lot of hard work! They'll probably agree and decide they need another raise to make up for all their sacrifices.

[Df7702]

12:41 PM on 09/10/2008

I notice you didnt include the last eight years in that rant . hmmm

[Paladin2]

05:49 AM on 09/11/2008

I figured that your knowledge of history can still remember that. Again, silly me.

[krasicki]

01:15 AM on 09/10/2008

Eliminating the Department of Education would be a god-send and personally I wish Obama would take that stand. Whatever this Department was intended to do it clearly no longer does.

Instead it is used as a blunt instrument to withhold tax monies from states who refuse to play along with the state-sponsored education terrorism called NCLB.

I am saddened that McCain has retreated from this position. Individuals who mistake the Department with anything having to do with education need to take a deep breath. I'm a liberal and this tops my wish list for 2009.

[CTmom13]

10:13 PM on 09/09/2008

It appears based on McCain's new ad he's also PRO CHILD MOLESTER

[Dooley50]

09:27 PM on 09/09/2008

Ejukashun???? I do fine w/o ejukashun, heeeeeeeah. 88% of skool kidz cant read nor rite in DC. Thatz neer the atlantick lake.
It really doesn't surprise me. Most of the republican voters prefer spoon feeding than actually researching their next president. Like sheep, they just move as a herd. Someone once said it's easy to control an ignorant people. Apparently after voting in Bush for a second term, he was right.

[KarenJW]

08:28 PM on 09/09/2008

What would this dummy and his VP know about a good education? LOL :)

[basementfrog]

08:21 PM on 09/09/2008

"I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education," the Senator said on CNN's Late Edition in December 1994. "I would favor doing away with it as well."

He said as much in his acceptance speech and elsewhere. He told the NAACP to push African Americans toward vouchers as a way to get a better education.

So the average child for private elementry school for a year is $8,000. How much of a voucher will that cover that bill? How much is the government will to pay? For a family with 3 kids that is annually $24,000. Most families should have no problem paying this, right?

Now lets add health insurance costs to that. Annually a family of 5 - 3 kids under 10 years old and two parents under 35 years old - is about $6,500. If your over fifty and the kids are in college, health insurance will be about $20,000. And we all know those cheap tuition costs for colleget that most families are glad to pay.

So do way with the Dept of Education and get McCain's health insurance program because the American people should be more than happy to take those cost off the back of the US govt. and American corporations.

Personnally, I would love to add and additional $25,000 to $80,000 per year to bills.

[Colmore]

07:27 PM on 09/09/2008

What is wrong with his left eye? I noticed it was watering during one interview, and it was blinking while on stage with Palin. He was not facing her, so he wasn't winking. He is not a healthy man, so Palin could be closer to the WH than she thinks. God help us all.

[KarenJW]

08:30 PM on 09/09/2008

We need to help ourselves! We need to get as many people out to vote so that the lying Re"thugs" are HISTORY!