US Presidential Candidates On Education: Rudy Giuliani

This post is taken directly from USA Today's on-line segment that shows where the candidates stand on various issues.

Rudy Giuliani on education:

On No Child Left Behind law
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has not explicitly criticized the education standards law known as No Child Left Behind. Signed by President Bush in 2002, the law requires every state to test students annually. Schools failing to make academic progress over several years could be closed or have their faculty replaced.

Giuliani talks about giving parents more control over decisions affecting their children’s education, instead of giving it all to the federal and state agencies that are central to the law’s structure. “My mother did a much better job with my education than a government bureaucrat could do,” he said on his campaign website.

On making college affordable
Giuliani doesn’t offer many specifics, except to say he wants the competitive marketplace to sort things out. “Give people more of the decision-making about education and schools will become more competitive,” he told Scholastic News Online in September 2007 during a stop in Houston.

Other education priorities
Giuliani’s mantra on the campaign trail is to talk about school choice, such as more charter schools and vouchers for low-income families to pay for tuition at private schools. He has said repeatedly that the federal government should not be telling local schools what to do.

(Note: I wrote USA Today for permission to use their content, yet they never returned my message. Therefore, I will link back to the original on-line article. To see the original article go to: http://asp.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/issues.aspx?i=8&c=6)

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

Today, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan after returning from self-imposed exile in London just a few short months ago. When hearing of her return, I thought to myself, she is not long for this world. Today's New York Times obituary said of her:

A deeply polarizing figure, Ms. Bhutto, the “daughter of Pakistan,” was twice elected prime minister and twice expelled from office in a swirl of corruption charges that propelled her into self-imposed exile in London for much of the past decade. She returned home this fall, billing herself as a bulwark against Islamic extremism and a tribune of democracy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28bhuttocnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin



As we head into another United States presidential electoral cycle, may we teach the children well about how the electoral process can lead to peaceful and meaningful change.