Candidate Positions

Original source: http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Bill_Richardson_Education.htm#7
Provide parents with vouchers to send their children to any participating school: public, private or religious.

Original source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-0410270128oct27,1,3506733.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Responding to questions about education policy, Keyes took a shot at Obama after the Democrat said he opposes vouchers for private schools, because they would undermine public schools. Asked about where he sends his two daughters to school, Obama acknowledged that they attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in Hyde Park.

Obama said he sends his daughters there because both he and his wife have jobs with the university, and they get a break on tuition.

“I do not see the day when every American family is going to be able to be employed by the University of Chicago so they, too, can have a choice,” Keyes countered.

Original source: http://mccain.senate.gov/press_office/view_article.cfm?id=653

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) plans to offer an amendment to the Education bill on Wednesday to provide educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged children in the District of Columbia through a four-year school choice voucher program paid for by eliminating pork barrel projects and wasteful spending in the federal budget.

“We need to demonstrate through a successful voucher program in the District of Columbia, where per-pupil-spending is among the nation’s highest yet students score well-below average, that we can implement a successful voucher program nationwide,” McCain said. “This program would expand educational opportunities for low-income children in the District by providing parents and students the freedom to choose the best school for their unique academic needs, while encouraging schools to be creative and responsive to the needs of all students.”

The “Educational Choices for Disadvantaged Children” amendment will authorize $25 million for fiscal years 2002 through 2005, with $24 million going to the scholarships and the remainder being used for expenses including a Comptroller General study.

Under this amendment, the District of Columbia Board of Education would determine which schools would be eligible for scholarships, targeted at the schools with the lowest academic performance in the District. They would then establish a lottery for determining which qualifying students in the identified schools would receive the scholarship.

Each eligible child would receive $2,000 per year for four years, to be used for public, private or religious school tuition and transportation costs, or supplementary educational assistance while attending either a private, public or religious school. Finally, at the end of the demonstration, the Comptroller General would prepare a comprehensive report on the results of the program.

Original source: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushill224636775feb22,0,1447657.story

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton slammed private-school voucher proposals yesterday, predicting that vouchers would eventually lead to the creation of taxpayer-financed white supremacist academies - or even a government-funded “School of the Jihad.”
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“First family that comes and says ‘I want to send my daughter to St. Peter’s Roman Catholic School’ and you say ‘Great, wonderful school, here’s your voucher,’” Clinton said. “Next parent that comes and says, ‘I want to send my child to the school of the Church of the White Supremacist …’ The parent says, ‘The way that I read Genesis, Cain was marked, therefore I believe in white supremacy. … You gave it to a Catholic parent, you gave it to a Jewish parent, under the Constitution, you can’t discriminate against me.’”
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The former first lady said that vouchers would also accentuate divisions, singling out government-financed Protestant and Catholic schools in Northern Ireland and similar arrangements in the Netherlands as examples of poorly functioning systems.

Original source: http://www.tommy2008.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=8161&mname=Article

Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson rejects the idea that more stringent gun control standards would have stopped the massacre that took place at Virginia Tech this week. The former Wisconsin Governor and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary talked about the gun control issue with University of Iowa College Republicans today

“Instead of pointing the finger at guns, what you have to do is point at the finger at how do you spot individuals with mental problems, emotional problems that may go off and do a terrible thing like they did at Virginia Tech,” Thompson said. According to Thompson, the emphasis should be on the better monitoring students who show signs they could commit violent acts.

Original source: http://johnedwardspresident08.blogspot.com/2007/04/on-gun-control.html

Lawmaker from the district that includes Columbine High School voted to shield gun-makers and dealers from civil suits, to lift restrictions on gun ownership in the District of Columbia and to ease restrictions at gun shows.

Original source: http://www.brownback.com/s/Issues/tabid/60/Default.aspx

Gun Rights/Second Amendment
At the heart of the Bill of Rights is the Second Amendment. This Amendment guarantees an individual the right to keep and bear arms, which is essential, as the Amendment itself affirms, to “the security of a free state.” Restrictive gun control laws aimed at weakening this constitutional right are not the answer. Instead, it is important for the government to enforce criminal gun laws already on the books, for communities to stand against gun violence, and for parents to teach children about gun safety.

Original source: http://johnrlott.tripod.com/2007/02/rudy-giuliani-has-some-still-to-be.html

I understand the Second Amendment. I support it. People have the right to bear arms. When I was mayor of New York, I took over at a very, very difficult time. We were averaging about 2,000 murders a year, 10,000…
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So if you’re talking about a city like New York, a densely populated area like New York, I think it’s appropriate. You might have different laws other places, and maybe a lot of this gets resolved based on different states, different communities making decisions. After all, we do have a federal system of government in which you have the ability to accomplish that.
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GIULIANI: Yes, I mean, a place like New York that is densely populated, or maybe a place that is experiencing a serious crime problem, like a few cities are now, kind of coming back, thank goodness not New York, but some other cities, maybe you have one solution there and in another place, more rural, more suburban, other issues, you have a different set of rules.
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it’s part of the Constitution. People have the right to bear arms. Then the restrictions of it have to be reasonable and sensible. You can’t just remove that right. You’ve got to regulate, consistent with the Second Amendment.
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I was in favor of that as part of the crime bill. I was in favor of it because I thought that it was necessary both to get the crime bill passed and also necessary with the 2,000 murders or so that we were looking at, 1,800, 1,900, to 2,000 murders, that I could use that in a tactical way to reduce crime. And I did.

Original source: http://edrington.blogspot.com/2007/05/ron-paul-for-president-2008.html

He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.

Original source:http://freedompointnews.blogspot.com/2007/04/who-is-mitt-romney.html

Romney ‘94 embraced the Brady Bill, which imposed a 5-day waiting-period for handgun sales and a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons (called “assault weapons” by gun control advocates).
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Romney now “believes Americans have the right to own and possess firearms as guaranteed under the US Constitution,” according to a campaign spokesman. Furthermore, he’s a proud (there’s that word again) member of the organization he refused to be a hero to in 1994. He even designated May 7, 2005 as “The Right To Bear Arms Day,” in Massachusetts — a right to which he never alluded in 1994 or 2002.