American Presidential Elections – Views about Education
Education is one of the more silent matters of the 2016 presidential election. This is in a great contrast with the 2000 election when Republican candidate George Bush had paid visits to over 100 schools during his campaign to emphasize his plan to the role of the federal government in education.
Only four years back, Republican candidate Bob Dole and the Republican platform had ordered for abolishment of the U.S. Department of Education. Previous to the 2000 Republican convention, Bush got this platform voice removed. Actually, he planned to increase the power of the Department of Education and hold schools responsible for students’ performance. This move turned education as a political issue.
In 1988, New York Times and CBS News conducted a poll in which 55% voters said that there were more chances of Democrats improving education, while 23% said Republicans would do that. A similar poll was conducted in 2000 too, in which Democrats had an edge still, but Republicans had acquired ground on the matter of improving education. Results of the poll showed that 45% voters were on the side of Democrats on the issue of education, while 33% were for Republicans. The Pew Research Center conducted a similar survey in 2015 to ask which party would do better for education policy and the survey got almost similar polls as of 2000, with 46% for Democrats and 34% for Republicans.
In 2016, the presidential election candidates are still pressing for responsibility for students’ performance and argue upon the role of the federal government in education, but the education issues having a higher profile are making college education more reasonably priced (even tuition-free) and student loan reform, for some students.
Here is an overview of candidates’ positions:
Hillary Clinton: is in opposition with linking teacher evaluations and paying to test results, justifies student loan reform.
Donald Trump: is in support of return of education policy to the states and do away with Common Core educational standards.
Jill Stein: is in support of a “student bailout” to eliminate student loan debt, opposition to high-stakes testing and making public schools private.
Gary Johnson: supports that public education should be in control of states and encourages competition between schools to make improvement in public education.
