Candidate Positions

Original source: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/issues_education.cfm

Gilmore says he supports public education and opposes school voucher programs.

“My goal has always been to make our public schools—from the elementary school classroom to the college campus—the very best choice any Virginian can make for their education or the education of their children.” (K-12 Education Amendments to the Budget, 12/7/00)

In a statement to The Virginian-Pilot, Gilmore said, “I consistently have maintained that I would not support a voucher plan if it would be detrimental to public schools.”

Original source: http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=17769078&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=6

MPT: What are your feelings about capital punishment? Gun ownership? School vouchers?

Hunter: I am in favor of all of these.

Original source: http://www.kucinichforcongress.com/issues/vouchers.php

Vouchers

Vouchers are no solution for students in poor families, no solution for education in America. School vouchers might seem a relatively benign way to increase the options poor parents have for educating their children. In fact, they pose a serious threat to values that are vital to the health of American democracy.

Vouchers represent an attempt to disestablish not only public education, but the entire public realm. Even in Cleveland and Milwaukee, where voucher programs are in place, there have been no tangible results in student achievement. Instead, the programs have diverted public money away from the vast majority of public school students. In most cases, these are the students who need it the most.

In Congress, I have voted consistently against legislation on school vouchers. I voted NO on HR 4380 to allow vouchers in Washington DC schools, and NO on HR 2746 to allow states to use certain federal funds designated for elementary and secondary education to provide vouchers to low-income families to send children to private schools. Voters, for the last 30 years, have rejected vouchers every time they’ve been proposed.

Oftentimes, funds for vouchers compete with funds for overall improvements in America’s public schools. For this reason, teachers, parents, and the general public have been long opposed to the programs. As a nation, we must fight to improve public schools and oppose alternatives that divert attention, energy, and resources from efforts to reduce class size, enhance teacher quality, and provide every student with books, computers, and safe and orderly schools.

Original source: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/06/12/senate.education/index.html

“By an 80 percent margin, Americans prefer investment in public schools to vouchers, said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, citing exit polls from last November’s election.

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.