Sixth in a series reviewing the major issues of the presidential campaign.
Al Gore calls it ''the education gap.''
George W. Bush calls it ''the education recession.''
Yes, there is an echo here.
Listening to the two candidates critique the failings of American education today, one gleans the same impression: Public schools desperate for money, where students' test scores in reading and math are weak, and parents questioning whether the teachers are highly skilled. Buildings need repair and families need options.
The promises that Bush and Gore have made to fix American education are, in broad terms, also similar: Spend more, test more, overhaul failing schools, and help families pay for college.
Where they differ is on funding priorities.
Gore, like President Clinton, favors billions of dollars more for teachers' salaries, school construction, Head Start, and college-tuition tax relief.
Bush's emphasis is on testing students and teachers, and tying new federal funds to how they score. He also emphasizes improving math and science education, and providing college financial aid for students who excel in those areas, as well as for undergraduates from poor families.
Congress, which carves up the federal budget, will have significant influence over the agenda presented by the next president. Bush says he will do a better job than Gore at working with both Democrats and Republicans, as he did with some success in Texas. But Gore, who served in Congress for 16 years, says he has a record of legislative success in Washington.
No education issue has caught fire in this year's campaign. But generating the most heat has been occassional sparring over vouchers, the policy of using taxpayer funds to cover all or part of tuition at private or parochial schools.
Critics of vouchers say they deprive public education of badly needed money. But supporters say that parents, especially in poorly performing school districts, need more choices and help to ensure their children get a good education.
Bush, who says he favors a bipartisan education policy, rarely utters the word vouchers, which is anathema to many voters, particularly Democrats whom Bush hopes to entice to his column.
But he essentially supports them, in limited form. He would give money to low-income parents to pay for a private-school education. He has not said how much he would spend, or guarantee that the entire private tuition would be covered.
Gore talks about vouchers all the time - and how much he opposes them. On vouchers, more than any issue, Gore has tried to cast Bush as an enemy of public education.
A voucher plan from President Bush would probably be narrowly tailored, since it would face tough going in Congress. Indeed, he has handled the issue so cautiously, it is unlikely he would propose anything as radical as Gore claims.
Gore's proposals focus federal spending on public schools, which the majority of students attend. He would spend $170 billion over 10 years to fund preschool programs for all 4-year-olds and many 3-year-olds; raise teachers' salaries; pay to hire up to 100,000 new teachers; and finance construction at 6,000 public schools.
Bush puts a big emphasis on competition and merit in his spending plans.
He would provide $3 billion on loan guarantees for new charter schools, which compete with traditional public schools for taxpayer money. He would spend $5 billion to improve students' reading skills so their abilities matched or outpaced those of children in other countries.
Above all, he would spend billions on the issue he champions the most: Testing for students and teachers, as a way of ensuring that they are learning and instructing at a rigorous level. The centerpiece of his plan calls for requiring states to annually test students in grades 3-8 in reading and math.
Gore, on the other hand, would mandate testing only in the 4th and 8th grades and in high school. He also would bar new middle- and high-school teachers from starting work until they pass a test on the subject matter they will teach - a proposal that could squeeze some states that face a shortage of teachers.
Bush would also tie academics to financial aid for college. He would provide $1,000 scholarships, costing $1 billion over five years, to low-income stduents who take college-level math and science courses in high school. He would also spend $345 million on forgiving loans for engineering, science, and math majors who become schoolteachers.
But his biggest financial aid proposal is aimed at low-income families: He would spend $5 billion to increase the need-based Pell Grant for freshmen to $5,100 from $3,300 today.
Gore has said he would increase Pell spending, but he would take a different tack than Bush.
The vice president has proposed broadening the tax relief for college tuition that the Clinton administration won in 1997. He calls for making up to $10,000 of college tuition tax deductible, or for providing a tuition tax credit worth up to $2,800. The current tuition credit is worth $1,500.
