For the Record: Where Trump, Clinton stand on education
And now for something completely different. No, we’re not going to slap your face with a fish. We’re going to talk education! (Btw, if you missed one of these weekly issue-related newsletters, you can catch up on them here.)
THE ISSUE
Education is in trouble. There’s a massive teacher shortage. Most states have cut funding for schools. And while we’re told that most everyone needs some form of post-high-school education to get a decent job, the cost of a college degree continues to skyrocket.
Yet for all these issues, and for how important we say good schools are, only 4 percent of voters in a 2015 poll said education was the country’s top issue. That may be why you know more about candidates' health than you do their education plans. (For the record: Donald Trump did unveil a new school-choice plan last week, and Democratic VP candidate Tim Kaine stumped for college affordability. So candidates are at least sort of telling their speechwriters to insert a few paragraphs here and there.)
WHERE DON AND HIL STAND
Anyway, as we alluded above, Trump is big into school choice. He proposed last week to take $20 billion in federal money and give it to states in the form of block grants, so they can decide how to best allocate the cash. Trump says the goal is to allow poor kids to get into better schools, be they district, charter or private schools.
He supports merit pay for teachers and a repeal of Common Core (it’s “a total disaster,” he says), in part because Trump believes education decisions should be made locally, not by the feds. That doesn’t look good for the future of the Department of Education.
Trump hasn’t released a detailed higher-education plan, noting only in broad terms that college students need help out of debt (but not government help to do so). He also opposes ideas to make public universities and community colleges tuition free.
Hillary Clinton’s stance is more or less the opposite of everything above. Her camp criticized Trump’s school-choice proposal as a veiled effort to take money from already struggling public schools.
Never mind that Clinton once supported some school-choice ideas. She is choosing her words carefully on the stump to avoid fights with teachers’ unions and other education interest groups that have not exactly been pleased with Obama’s emphasis on accountability. Clinton now touts universal preschool for 4-year-olds and more support – including higher pay – for teachers.
Then there’s the free college thing. Clinton moved left after the primary and now proposes free in-state public college tuition by 2021 for anyone whose family makes less than $125,000. She also wants a three-month moratorium on student-loan payments and the federal government to step in with refinancing options.
THIRD PARTY VIEWS
Libertarian Gary Johnson is Trump squared on education. He floated a plan for universal vouchers as governor of New Mexico, is against Common Core mandates and has proposed dismantling the Department of Education. And Green Party candidate Jill Stein takes the free tuition thing much farther than Clinton – she’d offer it at any university, to anyone, and absolve all student-loan debts. She’d nix Common Core and replace it with something “developed by educators, not corporations,” and she’d stop tying diplomas and teacher evaluations to standardized test performance.
WHAT IT MEANS
In oversimplified terms (because that’s what Team FTR does!), if you think the federal government is requiring and spending too much with too little to show for it, then you’re in Trump’s (or Johnson’s) camp. Both would much rather leave education to the private market and local school boards. Meanwhile, if you think the feds play a critical role in modernizing education, leveling the playing field across states and protecting students from financial ruin, you’re in Clinton’s (or Stein’s) camp.
MORE FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
- Winter is coming: Koch brothers are gathering forces after November for the battle that could decide the future of conservatism (USA TODAY)
- In the wake of bombings, Trump calls for more profiling of anyone who looks suspicious (USA TODAY)
- And Hillary Clinton does a verbal eye roll: ‘I have sat at that table in the Situation Room. I know how to do this’ (AP)
- Someone moved barricades at a Trump rally, leading to clashes, and a North Carolina city may be sued for failing to plan for that (Citizen-Times)
SILENCE THEM ALL! HERE’S HOW
Thank you, Pew Research Center, for giving us this nugget of expectation. Their analysis of Census data found that eligible Generation X and Millennial voters now outnumber those in previous generations. Which means that for the first time, we could have a greater say in politics than our parents. But note the key word there: Could. Pew estimates that more than 54 percent of eligible Gen X and Millennial voters have to actually cast ballots for this to occur – a percentage slightly higher than turned out for the 2012 election. No pressure or anything.