McCain's Education Plan is Scary as Hell

Reforming America's inadequate public school system--a crucial priority for our country's future-- should not be undertaken with a failed ideology. The centerpiece of John McCain's education plan is to apply the epically failed deregulated free market economic principles to our schools. Very bad idea. Last week, even Alan Greenspan conceded, "the whole intellectual edifice [the modern risk-management, free market paradigm] collapsed in the summer of last year."

The thrust of McCain's education plan on his campaign website reads:

John McCain believes parents should be empowered with school choice to send their children to the school that can best educate them just as many members of Congress do with their own children. He finds it beyond hypocritical that many of those who would refuse to allow public school parents to choose their child's school would never agree to force their own children into a school that did not work or was unsafe. They can make another choice.

John McCain will place parents and children at the center of the education process, empowering parents by greatly expanding the ability of parents to choose among schools for their children. He believes all federal financial support must be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing school [sic].

McCain's deification of choice offers an empty reshuffling of a failed deck, not meaningful, raise-all-boats reform that takes into account the on-the-ground realities for students and teachers. His plan, which leans heavily on privatization, would abet a host of nightmare scenarios, as articulated on the NEA blog and in an email to 2.5 million members titled, "The Real Halloween Horror: John McCain's 'Free' Market School System":

Teachers will disappear.
Federal funding for teacher training, class size reduction, and other teacher hiring will disappear - and, as a result, so will your children's teachers... [Turnover will increase, which] means there will be fewer [experienced] teachers who truly know your kids and understand their needs... [we will see] larger class sizes, and more and more students will slip through the cracks.

And this doesn't even include the "spending freeze" that McCain relentlessly champions.

Subjects will disappear.
Under McCain's risky "free" market scheme, which ties school and teacher rewards and sanctions to standardized test scores in reading and math, students will spend hundreds of hours on mindless, multiple-choice tests - and lose the opportunity for an enriching, well-rounded education... Subjects like science, social studies, writing, physical education, art, and music will disappear.

Since the 2002 implementation of No Child Left Behind, serious curriculum-narrowing to meet the onerous bureaucratic demands of NCLB's testing regime has struck many schools.

School services will disappear.
Children rely on a wealth of school services to keep them safe, healthy and focused, so they can learn and grow. McCain's plan slashes funding for everything from school safety to textbooks, building maintenance, afterschool programs, childcare services, Head Start, and guidance counselors...The only increases McCain proposes are for private school vouchers that will further drain money from public schools.

Public school critics might say that investing in programs like students' mental health, building maintenance, etc. would be akin to "throwing money" at a hopeless problem. The reality is that well-spent dollars can provide resources and support that make or break many students' educational experiences. For example, at my first teaching job in the Bronx, only two guidance counselors were on staff to serve nearly 1,100 students. The lack of access to a counselor hurt many at-risk students incalculably.

Teachers will compete, students will lose.
McCain's plan will inject Wall Street-style, "free" market competition into our schools. Teachers will receive pay raises based on nothing other than the standardized test scores of their students. Teachers whose classes score higher get higher pay - pitting teachers against each other in a relentless competition for limited salaries.

Accountability is welcome, but not when the word is used as code for limitless obsession with standardized testing. Senator Obama too has welcomed a discussion on performance pay, but he has also made it clear that it will work only with teacher buy-in, which means a far more flexible model than McCain's Faustian cash-for-stats bargain.

There are many reasons why McCain's policies are wrong for America. His out-of-touch education plan is icing on a baked cake.

Dan Brown is a teacher and the author of The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle.

Comments

[Liberoservative]

The biggest flaw... perhaps the fatal flaw in the voucher program is the fact that there is a finite number of these "so called" good schools.... Most of them are already filled to capacity. Therefore only the "best" students will be able to compete for entrance and leave out millions of other students.

The public school system needs to be fixed so that all children will have great schools. Why should a school's budget be tied to the amount of taxes generated in its district? All public schools should be funded to a certain level of excellence. Magnet and Charter schools will still exist but there will be less drive to funnel all kids into these schools if they are getting a high quality education from their local district school.

[greguva]

Don't forget McCain's idea to allow military personnel who have completed their service to qualify as teachers without any background in education, or any need for certification. Not just an insane idea, but an incredible slap in the face to all of those teachers who have put years into achieving their teaching credentials.

[onenvrnos]

The problems with education are more than just the policies--problems seethe in the entire "system" of education and educators are just part of a failed system. One fundamental flaw is at the elementary level--teachers are not content-specialized, and many elementary teachers aren't qualified to teach math, science, etc., because they have received "general" teaching certificates. Teachers who dislike certain content just avoid it or teach to the test, ignoring/not understanding the fundmentals of the subject. The whole paradigm must be changed. Second, the school organization itself belittles teachers to no more significance than that provided to secretaries. The pay is horrific, considering the education (and subsequent education mandates) that are required. The retirement system is the worst of all retirement systems in our state--again, secretaries in public agencies receive better state retirements than do teachers. Third, many teachers have had no other careers OTHER than teaching. That provides a very narrow focus in a world that demands much greater diversity. Additionally, the principals and superintendents climb up in that same system, just reguritating the same 'ol stuff. Fourth, the funding formulas are archaic and generally include very limited input from teachers or the community--despite the surface-level "budget forums" provided to the public. Fifth, giving vouchers is absurd and costly--usually only robbing or undermining the public school systems in the poorest regions. Finally, the whole education system is like the Republican party: "If you don't like it, there's the door."

[tom12010]

Why am I not surprised??
McPalin and the Republicans only want to destroy our country while they get rich.

[carrieanna]

HuffPost's Pick

I agree with your points but I also want to point out a couple other things that bother me about his plan:

1. They decry that our education pales in comparison with other industrialized nations yet they refuse to consider teaching proper sex education, still fight over evolution and countless other ridiculous fights over subjects. Even if our students test out at 100% on standardized testing, US kids would still probably be only at a lower knowledge level with other countries.

2. How does transportation tie into this? How would parents pay for their kids to travel farther for school? And how terrible for the environment would this be to add the extra mileage in driving or busing kids to far-away schools?

[GonzoFactor]

Tying teacher pay to test scores is an abominably stupid idea. It can only work fairly when all teachers are given the same level of students to work with, which rarely happens. In many schools, teachers are not given batches of students with matching abilities. Often the worst students are given to the toughest and best teachers in the hope that they will get them to make more progress than a weaker teacher could. Other times, privileged teachers get more than the lion's share of the best students. Penalizing the teachers who are working their hearts out with slower students because their aggregate scores are lower is unfair, short-sighted, and stupid, not to mention demoralizing.

Students with linguistic problems will not do as well as students who speak and read English fluently. Special-needs students will not, in general, do well. Penalizing their teachers because their students don't do as well is unfair.

Standardized testing has become the tail that wags the dog. Teachers are in such fear that their students will not do well that their focuses have been narrowed to test topics. Administrators push test success relentlessly. Teachers are leaving the field in droves, fewer teachers are getting into the field, and young teachers are not staying as long on average. Shortages are cropping up everywhere. Veteran teachers are taking early retirement or getting hit early with burnout. Standardized testing as the be-all and end-all of education is the main culprit.

[MajorKong]

Mr. Brown,

When you say "McCain" the "Scary as Hell" part is pretty much assumed. Just trying to save you a few keystrokes.

[mxxmo]

HuffPost's Pick

i also want to add that tying teacher pay to student performance is patently stupid and unworkable. teachers can only control what goes on in their classroom when they have students. teachers cannot follow the student home, make parents parent, or instill a love of learning. too many students come to school lacking basic skills, social graces, underfed, poor, homeless, parents on drugs, in jail, ad infinitum. how do teachers handle all of this? some parents even have the nerve to want to curse and fight with administration, not about why their little angel is failing, but why did you take his darling's cell phone, i pod etc. when they were trying to use them in class. imagine that!

[lisakaz2]

This sounds like mc-samey's health care "plan" where you get a pittance of credit which won't cover some area privatized school. The public schools will lose a lot in terms of faculty and resources while a few people will get ahead, esp. by not contributing to a public school system. This will ensure the rich get richer and the ripple effect will be that I get students who can't think much less understand what they read. The capabilities of college students have declined so much in the last decade or so it isn't funny. The university system as well as public secondary schools will collapse.

[AHockeyMom]

HuffPost's Pick

As long as McCain and Palin make fun of and sneer at educated people, I'm not at all surprised they have no good plan about education. Neither of them has shown any interest in education -whether it's their own or anyone else's. And I have no faith that they'll do anything to improve education for anyone.

But education is power. We need to support our schools - public and private, kindergarten through college.

And I'm proud to vote for a president who I know is waaaaaaaaaay smarter than I am. Obama in '08.

[anachoret]

Thank you for this analysis, Mr. Brown.
I hope to read a lot more of your perspectives.