Candidates’ views diverge on education
WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney agree that improving schools and providing more training are crucial to restoring the United States’ economic prowess. But they diverge over what’s holding the country back. Obama says it’s inadequate investment. Romney says it’s teachers unions and cumbersome bureaucracy.
In their stump speeches, both include education in their five- point plans to turn around the economy. Obama spends more time talking about Pell grants and student assistance.
Romney emphasizes conservative themes of school choice to rally his base.
But the issue rarely has been addressed directly in a full- fledged debate— either between the candidates or inside their parties. Unlike some big- city mayors, such as Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel and Los Angeles’ Antonio Villaraigosa, Obama has not been pushed hard on the question of teachers unions. Romney has not talked much about his differences with former president GeorgeW. Bush, who advocated a bigger federal role in education than most conservatives favor.
Here are the positions Obama and Romney have taken on education, broken down by subject:
VOUCHERS
Obama
The president opposes vouchers— the use of public tax money to pay tuition at private schools. He points to studies that show that children attending private schools with vouchers do not perform better academically than their peers in public schools. His administration has said that giving tax money to private schools drains resources from public schools.
Romney
Romney supports the use of tax money to pay for tuition at private schools, including parochial schools. He has endorsed voucher programs that have recently taken root in several states, including Indiana and Louisiana, and said he supports such programs wherever they are allowed by state law.
Romney wants to reroute the federal money that is now sent to public schools to help educate poor and disabled children. Instead, he would send that money to private schools if the children choose to attend them.
Under Romney’s plan, money for the vouchers would come from two federal programs: Title I, for economically disadvantaged students, and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, for students with special needs. The money for both programs, which was distributed to states and school districts according to federal formulas, totaled about $ 27 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Obama
Obama engineered an overhaul of the studentloan industry in 2010, teaming up with Democrats in Congress to end a program that subsidized banks and other institutions to issue governmentbacked college loans.
Cutting out the middleman saved an estimated $ 61 billion over 10 years. The change expanded the government’s direct lending to students.
About $ 36 billion of the savings from that switch was channeled into federal Pell grants for needy students. This year, students are eligible for awards of up to $ 5,550 apiece. Annual funding for Pell grants has grown from $ 16 billion when Obama took office to $ 41 billion.
The president also pushed this year to maintain a key federal student loan interest rate at 3.4 percent. The rate had been scheduled to double. Congress voted in June to avert a higher rate.
As a regulator, Obama has sought to tighten federal oversight of for- profit colleges, contending that too many students graduate with debt they can’t repay.
Romney
Romney contends that “a flood of federal dollars” is driving up the cost of higher education. He pledges, in an education white paper, that he would not “write a blank check to universities to reward their tuition increases.”
Romney says federal Pell grants should be refocused on students who most need them. That implies a restructuring of a need- based program that is a cornerstone of financial aid for colleges nationwide. But advisers say the candidate would not seek to reduce the maximum Pell grant award of $ 5,550 a year.
The Republican would re- evaluate Obama’s 2010 student- loan overhaul, which expanded direct government lending and cut out private lenders. Romney contends that the private sector is better equipped than the government to help ensure that students are clearly informed about their obligations when they apply for loans. The Republican candidate would scrap the Obama administration’s “gainful employment” rules that target for- profit colleges.
He also would seek to ease regulation of higher education to spur innovation in areas such as online learning.
Some of Romney’s positions reflect bipartisan consensus on higher education. Like Obama, he supported congressional action this past summer to extend a 3.4 percent rate on federal student loans. Romney also has voiced support for federal funding of research at universities.