The average voter could be forgiven for having no idea where the Republican presidential candidates stand on education. K-12 education has hardly been in the spotlight in a cycle dominated by Donald Trump, and my colleague Andrew Kelly recently penned a piece on how and why K-12 education has taken a backseat to higher education on the national stage.
But on Saturday, at the Kemp Forum on Expanding Opportunity, six candidates got the chance to discuss their priorities for reform, and the broad brushstrokes of a heretofore off-the-radar Republican education agenda emerged.
1) Success should be measured in learning outcomes, not inputs. Gov. Jeb Bush remarked that the country yearns for an accountability system based on “outcome measures.” Ben Carson followed, stating that the next administration will need to figure out a way to promote the rewarding of good teachers based on students’ learning outcomes. Senator Marco Rubio adamantly articulated the case for promoting students based purely on performance, not on attendance.
2) Our educational system is outdated, and needs a healthy dose of innovation. Gov. Chris Christie called the American educational system a “19th century system,” while Gov. Bush insisted that we have a funding model that needs to be changed because it is based on getting kids in seats rather than rewarding performance. Bush favored a “competency-based model” of funding, while Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, although not a presidential candidate, touted the South Carolina legislature’s reform of education funding state-wide as a huge victory for education in the Palmetto State.
3) Apprenticeship and vocational training are not inferior to other secondary or postsecondary forms of education and should be promoted. Dr. Carson emphasized the fact that soon 44% of jobs will require “middle skills,” trades that won’t require a bachelor’s degree. Both he and Sen. Rubio spoke enthusiastically about introducing apprenticeship programs, Rubio going so far as to say that he can envision programs that grant high school diplomas and trades credentials simultaneously. Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) proudly shared Ohio’s record of including vocational training within public schools beginning in seventh grade.
4) Education is a major part of the conservative fight against poverty. Gov. Bush released a plan days before the Kemp Forum that detailed four indispensable pillars for opportunity. Not surprisingly, education was one. Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) also spoke about marriage, work, and education as the three pillars that uphold the “American idea.” Rubio may have made education a pet project, clearly bringing the more outlandish ideas among the candidates about how to think about reforming the credentialing system.
These ideas deserve more scrutiny and debate. For Carson’s and Rubio’s talk about de-stigmatizing apprenticeships, neither explained exactly how they’d do so. Nor did they address the fact that Hillary Clinton has a plan to give a tax credit to businesses that take on apprentices. Would they endorse such an approach? Or if not, what might they offer instead?
For all the ambitious talk about school innovation and making policy on outcomes, the candidates didn’t address how they’d promulgate those principles now that the recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act has restored significant policy power to the states.
Republican candidates often talk about making America into an opportunity society. But talk of opportunity will ring hollow if it’s not matched by serious thinking on education. It was heartening to see a window into the candidates’ thinking and the contours of an agenda. It would be more heartening still to see it fleshed out further and spoken about on the stump.
Watch footage from the Kemp Forum by clicking here.
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