Education advisers to the two major U.S. presidential nominees faced off at Teachers College Tuesday night, where they discussed the merits of their candidates’ plans in the area and the issue’s role in the upcoming race.
Linda Darling-Hammond, who used to teach at TC, represented Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), and Lisa Graham Keegan represented Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.). They spoke at TC’s Cowin Conference Center to a packed house. TC President Susan Fuhrman moderated the debate, which was conducted in a back-and-forth format.
The debate highlighted the lack of coverage the media has given to the candidates’ stances on education. Keegan and Darling-Hammond both asserted,
however, that each of their candidates put heavy emphasis on education policies.
“For both gentlemen, the day after they give these really major announcements, it falls flat ... you don’t read much about what they’re saying, and it just doesn’t have a second life,” Keegan said.
But the two differed in their opinions on the effectiveness of school vouchers, as well the best way to structure teachers’ pay. While Keegan argued for the use of school vouchers and for McCain’s support for enabling parents to select from a range of possible schools for their children, Darling-Hammond said vouchers take money that should be available for schools in need. Darling-Hammond also contended that a policy to tie in teachers’ pay to their students’ achievements was not effective.
The advisers were also divided in their views of President George Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, a policy that aims to improve school performance by setting performance standards that each school must meet in order to receive funding. Obama believes in the goals of the law, Darling-Hammond said, but he still maintains that there have been problems in its implementation, especially with the way in which progress is evaluated. Keegan said that applying standards across the board helps in measuring the progress of many different kinds of schools, and that the No Child Left Behind Act still allows for creativity in the classroom.
“We’ve been stuck in a 1950s concept of standardized testing that has become more entrenched because of the requirement for every year, every child testing,” Darling-Hammond said.
Keegan shot back with a rebuttal on what she sees as the uselessness of testing. “If you’ve got schools that are just bubbling in all day, then those are just lousy schools. Great teachers do not just give their kids bubble-in tests,” she said.
Teachers College students attending the event said that the debate held special meaning because the policies discussed could very well impact the nature of their jobs in the coming years.
“All of the decisions that are going to be made in the next few years are going to affect us as teachers, so I think it’s really important,” Jessica Weinstock, TC, said after the debate. “We’re supposed to be progressive and look at education in a new way and challenge what’s historically been done, so it’s very relevant to us.”
TC student Sarah Bever said she was impressed by both advisers, but that as a former public school teacher outside of Washington, D.C., she was excited about Obama’s emphasis on teacher training.
“When the candidates were first running in the primary, they sent out articles about their education policies and there was ... very little from the John McCain campaign that was disclosed.” Bever said. “All the charts—no information, no information, no information.”
Even so, she concluded, both advisers seemed to have the nation’s best interests at heart.
“It’s obvious that they both want really what’s best for the country,” she said. “They just have very different ideals in terms of how they do it.”
