by AFT President Sandra Feldman
November 2000

Voters who think
we have no
clear choice are
just plain wrong.

I'm amazed at some of the remarks I’m hearing about George W. Bush and Al Gore. Comments like, "What's the difference? They're both moderates, aren’t they?" Yet, the policy differences between the two candidates are so stark that the direction America takes will be vastly different depending on the choice we make on November 7. Look at their proposals for education.

Al Gore talks about building on the progress we've made in the past eight years. We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go before every child gets a topnotch education. Student achievement is up in urban districts where it was flat for years. The high-school completion rate is higher than ever--and, for the first time, equally high for African Americans. Gore says the federal government should continue this work with states and districts and invest in new programs that students and schools need to accelerate their progress toward meeting higher standards.

Investing in Education

Bush likes to take credit for a "Texas miracle" in education, but it turns out that most of the progress Texas made came about before Bush was governor. This past summer's RAND report also found that higher achievement, especially for minority students, is linked to investing in education and to lower class size--policies that Bush opposes and Gore supports.

We're already seeing how the thousands of qualified teachers, hired under a new federal program, have enabled schools to lower class size. Gore will fight to extend this initiative because the evidence is rock solid that children--especially poor, minority children--achieve better in smaller classes. Gore is also for tougher measures on teacher quality, including testing all new teachers, while in Texas, a Bush initiative will allow schools to hire "teachers" who take no exam to certify their competence. Consider school accountability. Everyone is for it, and Bush talks a lot about it. But the accountability he calls for is tantamount to punishment. He proposes taking money away from low-performing schools--as if they were deliberately falling short--instead of investing in measures that have been proven to turn around such schools. And where does he propose to put that money? Into vouchers that, at best, would give a few youngsters in those schools a shot at going to a very low-tuition private school. What about the rest of the kids?

Gore is in favor of accountability. But he says that you first have to give struggling schools the wherewithal to succeed and then come down hard and fast if they don’t. Under his plan, youngsters wouldn’t be left to fend for themselves because he’d close down consistently low-performing schools and immediately re-open them with a new program and new staff.

Gore and Bush hold sharply contrasting positions on other important education issues, too. Gore maintains that a good preschool program can make the difference between success and failure in school--especially for needy youngsters--and he is committed to a plan that would make high-quality preschool available for all four-year-olds. Bush is silent on this issue.

Gore says that our children should not go to schools that are overcrowded or decaying. That's why he is committed to a plan that helps communities build or renovate 6,000 schools across the country. Bush, on the other hand, scoffs at the idea of federal help to build or repair schools.

Needed Programs vs. Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

With all the programs Gore proposes, he still sets aside money from the projected budget surplus to ensure the stability of the Social Security trust fund, improve Medicare, and pay off the national debt.

By contrast, Bush puts tax cuts at the top of his agenda. He cut state funding for teachers’ pensions in order to finance a tax cut in Texas. Now, he proposes to squander a big chunk of the surplus on a tax cut that will give more to the wealthiest Americans than to all his other programs combined. If the surplus is used for a massive tax cut instead of investing it in ways that will continue to propel our nation forward-- like education--we could be in for a bad jolt.

Al Gore and George W. Bush stand for two very different views of government and of America's future. The choice is a real one; let's choose wisely.