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

[jacktech]

The department of education is about as useful as the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We were doing a better job of educating kids without it, and everyone knows it. Why were graduates of pre-DOE days able to read, compute and reason far better than students today? Was the water supply better? Had "global warming" not had a chance to affect them? What was the dropout rate then and now? What was the percentage of students performing at or above their grade level in math and reading? Today, the average college senior knows less than Jr high school students did in years gone by. Ask most grads who the president was when WW II ended, and you'll get a blank stare. DOE hasn't educated a soul, and never will. Employers these days are screaming about how ill-prepared new hires are to do simple jobs. Many even have remedial programs to help these recent "graduates" cope with such herculean tasks as creating a one-paragraph summary of a longer report. DOE has doomed a whole generation to dimwittedness. They should have been be de-funded years ago.

[BabsfromKansas]

you are comparing apples to oranges

[Spesabsquemetu]

Jack,

Try reading this and watch Sarah and John claim the same thing, while you watch their noses grow beyond belief.

4th graders who scored below basic math level:

Arizona: 26%
Alaska: 21%

4th graders who scored below basic reading level:

Arizona: 44%
Alaska: 38%

4th graders who scored below basic science level:

Arizona: 47%
Alaska: *information NOT available.

4th graders who scored below basic writing level:

Arizona: 24%
Alaska: *information NOT available.

Teens who are drop outs from high school:

Arizona: 9%
Alaska: 7%

It is not Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden who plan on eliminating the department of education.
It's the McCain-Palin anti-education candidates.

[FiLoLi]

Your stats only prove the point he was trying to make. Students learned better before the DOE.

[benne]

You're exactly right. Let the local schools decide what they want to do, and stop relying on testing, as if it means anything. We're testing ourselves into mediocrity.

[figa30]

I'm not sure this a smart strategy. Most Republicans, Libertarians, and many Democrats are not in favor of the Department of Education. As a parent, I've seen them do more harm than good when it comes to my kids education. Most feel the states should be in charged with the education of their kids and ALL tax dollars should stay with the states. Unless Obama is trying to get McCain to piss off his base by saying he is for the DOE, I don't see this hurting McCain at all.

[BabsfromKansas]

the feds must be a bully pulpit for the importance of education - it is not valued at local, state, or federal levels More funding must go into professional development, certification requirements, and extended day programs to combat the dropout issue Early childhood education MUST be a significant investment as most children enter school 2-3 language delayed

[benne]

This kind of logic is the reason why many people support getting rid of the DOE. It's the belief that somehow the bureaucrats in Washington know better about how to educate our kids than we do. Sorry, the school system worked better before testing, before the ballooning of the school administration, and even before computers. We need to stop allowing all these administrators and bureaucrats control everything and give the teachers more power.

[WVUCavalier]

The DOE might suck but how would college students receive financial aid. This might not be a completely bad line of attack for Obama because basically if you wipe out the DOE, then you wipe out the opportunity for many people to receive much needed loans and aid to receive higher education.

[benne]

This is silly. You can give out student loans -- and more importantly grants -- through any department.

[Spesabsquemetu]

Sen. Obama states that he will listen to all sides of the issues concerning parents, teachers, communities interested in having good schools to educate their children, and he (Obama) will work in addressing the concerns that we all have about our educational system. Obama promotes an educational system that will accountable to the voters, not a continuation of cut and run tactics of those in Washington who look the other way, cut funding for children, and then blame this national disgrace on the democrats. The democrats have not been the party of the majority of time in our American history.

If federal aide is granted to public schools, then there needs to be measures of accountability to oversee the fiscally responsible and accountable use of federal dollars. This is but one function that a dept. of education can serve in providing to our children, amidst many others. Accountability, responsibility...in the truest sense, not this balogna by McCain-Palin where their solution is: "Let's get government out of the way of the people."... ( meaning, Let's eliminate the Dept. of Education and leave 90% of America's children fending for themselves, the way McCain's health care "policy" will leave 95% of America fending for itself.)

Sen. Obama seeks to bring all parties to the table so that our children can finally have the kind of educational system they need and deserve.

[linzy]

A lot of parents today have only seen the inadequacies of the Bush administration's Department of Education. If you are really old, like me, you'd have seen what it was like to have a system wherein we were first in science, math, history and geography. We learned and we studied, like it or not. In the recent administration the push for "no child left behind" became a shambles, they dumbed down the standards (check out what Bush did to the educational system in Texas!!) Hate to harp on "remember when" but we do need an overall policy reviewer/legislative input Department or..... Guess who makes the rules then? At least with the bureaucracy we have some modicum of oversight.

Just dawned on me: WE NEED ANOTHER ANN RICHARDS!

[OhioJan]

Ha, ha, ha!!!

"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."

Oh, so NOW those repubrats are concerned with "Misrepresenting...proposals" on the candidate's "matters"! What a flippin' hypocritical joke these fools are!!! I guess their mommies never taught them that "what goes around, COMES around", and usually 10 fold!!!
Yet, all this proves is why we NEED better educational institutions for our children: So they don't wind up being as ignorant as republiC0Ns!!!!!

[SailFree]

Hey, even a maverick hits upon a good idea sometimes!

[BabsfromKansas]

Obama's fact sheet from this morning's speech REFORMING AND STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S SCHOOLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY http://obama.3cdn.net/3297d77a034ada10f5_hpdhmvj1s.pdf

[Pogopaws]

Republicans realize the only way they can win elections is by dumbing down the electorate.
Then they can celebrate the fact that any mediocre ideologue can run for president. The rest of the world must/should be laughing their a#*es off at us about now.

[BabsfromKansas]

idahospud44 See Profile I'm a Fan of idahospud44 permalink

I agree! Let's a ttack her for the right wing n ut case she is and her lack of education. See my screen name? This woman graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism. She has no other advanced degrees. There is no record of her writing for the school newspaper or working on the student radio station. The head of the journalism department does not remember her. A journalism degree from this university which is most famous for leading the nation in per capita be er drinking is not too difficult. Nearly any one, seriously, could graduate from this nice little land grant college if they just went to class.

Posted 09:25 PM on 08/29/2008

[SailawayJane]

Do we even know for sure Palin has a degree from UI?

[SShaw490]

It's not just winning elections - it's staffing wars without end. If you're going to start war after war after war, you need a lot of young people who have few options in life.

[mnyobpres]

OMG! - This is too GOOD! - And, EXTREMELY SCARY!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c

John McCain you ROCK...This is how he really believe and will take us.

[BabsfromKansas]

the feds must be a bully pulpit for the importance of education - it is not valued at local, state, or federal levels More funding must go into professional development, certification requirements, and extended day programs to combat the dropout issue Early childhood education MUST be a significant investment as most children enter school 2-3 language delayed

[BabsfromKansas]

The value of education in terms of lifetime income will only increase over time. The increasing sophistication of our economy requires workers with ever increasing skill levels. The low-skill jobs are going overseas and unionized labor can no longer keep wages for unskilled work high (or else the US economy looses competitiveness and inflation goes up). The solution is to improve the lifetime earnings potential of the poor and low income workers. INVEST IN EDUCATION!! IT’S GOOD FOR THE NATION AND IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR POCKETBOOK!

[leiatcolo]

We won't need the depart of ed...we won't be able to fund it...all our funds are going to go for a war that we are financing, while the country is banking all their money. How any American can even think that this idiot will make a good President, does not have a clue what is going on with America. He is starting to look like Bush, his body language is the same as Bush or maybe Nixson? Not sure which....

[BabsfromKansas]

“It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."

[nccp1870]

Democracy depends on an educated citizenry. Worker bee education is all these folks want for the masses. They'll keep the tony private schools and world class public universities for themselves, thank you.

No need for a Department of Education which might give out grants, loans and scholarships to just ordinary folks.

[drewtom]

I'd like to see where Palin scored on those tests? We'll never know since they are now securing her grades from the 6 colleges she went to, her boyfirends divorce records, the information relating to her attemp to fire her broather in-law. This is what the Republicans call transparency....from the Cheney playbook.

John McCain's econimic plan: cut out anything frivilous, which means not relating to war. Give tax breaks to rich people and corporations; fu-- everyone else.

[BabsfromKansas]

"The real story behind all those times I changed schools" http://sarahpalin.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/the-real-story.html

[NamelessGenXer]

Hilarious - especially the Comments from the dumbed-down sheeple :-)

[Rudderman]

I always thought the dream of most Americans was to see their kids graduate from college. And yet the Republicans treat this significant accomplishment with seeming disdain. (Bush cut millions from numerous national college aid programs in his last budget. ) The hippocracy of course is that all the blowhards in the elephant party will kill to get their own kids into Ivy League schools. How dare they attack Obama's education. But then what else can they do? Palin was on the six-year plan at so many schools it's hard to remember their names and McCain graduated very near the bottom of his class.

[donaldw6]

In his now-famous "Better Know A District" interview with Stephen Colbert, Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (of Obama name-calling reknown) announced that the first thing he would cut from the government would be the Department of Education. It's a conservative pet project, folks.

They want to keep you stupid. They just want obedient workers. Can't you see that?

[OlderBudWeiser]

Don't remember if it was GWB or Cheney said "if you drop out of school, you end up in Iraq" then had to back peddle to our troops that he didn't mean they were all high school dropouts.

Obama is so right about education.

[CTmom13]

If asked he will just LIE and the MSM won't call him on it.....TheMSM hasn't called him on any of his lies and there are a lot

He is no change, he is WORSE then BUSH