Al Gore to Raise Educational Standards for Every Child, Promote Choices for Every Family

"I will bring about major change in education by fighting to raise standards for every child and provide new choices for every family." -- Al Gore

Al Gore would raise educational standards for every child by creating smaller, more disciplined classrooms with highly qualified teachers. He would promote choices for every family with expanded pre-school, more charter schools and tax-deductible college tuition. George W. Bush offers families a hollow educational plan that fails to put any new teachers in the classroom and drains needed money from public schools by forcing states to offer vouchers for private schools.

Gore would use the nation's resources to invest in our children's education. He would offer $500 billion in tax cuts to help working and middle-class Americans afford higher education, child and after-school care and long-term care expenses. This responsible tax strategy would leave enough resources to invest our nation's public schools, raising the educational standard for every child. Bush has a narrow education agenda because his massive $1.6 trillion tax cut -- which mainly benefits the wealthy -- leaves few resources to invest in education.

AL GORE WILL RAISE EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS FOR EVERY CHILD

• Gore would raise standards for every child with smaller classes and better teachers. He would work to finish hiring 100,000 new teachers nationwide to meet rising demand and reduce class size. Gore's plan would reduce class size to an average of 18 students in the early grades to help children learn to read and master the basics for future academic success.

• Gore would test students with real tests for real accountability. He would require testing to measure achievement and attach real consequences to the results of those tests.

• Gore would create safer, more disciplined classrooms. He would expand character and citizenship education to make it easier for parents to pass on values. Gore would work to ensure safe, educational after-school activities for millions of young people and strengthen and reform the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program to keep guns and drugs out of the nation's schools.

AL GORE WILL PROMOTE CHOICES FOR EVERY FAMILY

• Gore would offer choice of high-caliber pre-school. He would make high-quality, voluntary pre-school available to all 4-year-olds, so that every family can have a choice in pre-school.

• Gore would offer choice of an excellent public school. His comprehensive education plan would promote school choice by tripling funding for charter schools and fostering competition and universal public school choice. He would also offer schools-within-schools to allow parents to choose specialized high schools for their children.

• Gore would offer higher education choices. Gore would make all college tuition tax deductible up to $10,000.

BUSH'S HOLLOW EDUCATION PLAN ALL TALK, NO ACTION

Bush's narrow education plan fails to:

• Finish the job of hiring 100,000 new teachers to reduce class size;

• Make most college tuition tax deductible. His proposed Pell grant increase only provides financial assistance during a student's freshman year;

• Test new teachers to help raise educational standards; and

• Add a single pre-school slot or place an additional child in Head Start.

BUSH'S VOUCHER PLAN GIVES UP ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Bush's voucher plan would:

• Help one out of every 20 students -- 95 percent of public school students would get nothing;

• Pay less than half of the average private school's tuition;

• Do nothing to help fix failing schools for those left behind; and

• Require states to offer private school vouchers -- whether they want to or not.

• There are "serious questions" about whether Texas' claimed educational gains are overstated;

• The evidence shows that "the gap in average scores between whites and students of color" is not "closing," as Bush claims, but is actually "very large and increasing." Rand called claims that the gap was closing "false;" and

• "Large discrepancies between TAAS [the Texas test] and NAEP [the national standardized test] results raises serious question about the validity of TAAS scores".

Gore worked within the current administration to promote standards and accountability and reduce class sizes by hiring new teachers. Gore also fought to make higher education and lifelong learning accessible to all Americans. As part of the current administration, Gore fought to provide HOPE Scholarship tax credits to nearly 7 million students and Pell Grants to nearly 4 million students and to implement the Lifelong Learning tax credit.