Background on Education

Education Buzzwords

Social Promotion: Candidates debate whether students should advance a grade merely to keep up with their peer group. 90% of K-12 students are promoted (10% per year are retained).
Teacher Pay: K-12 Teachers’ salaries average $34,200; college instructors average $63,000; compared to $50,700 for similarly educated non-teachers. Public school teachers earn 25% to 100% more than private school teachers. Generally, any reference to ‘increasing teacher pay’ implies opposition to vouchers while negative references to teacher’s unions implies support of vouchers.
Teacher Testing: Current law is that states certify teachers and decide what their requirements are; there are currently no national standards nor testing. Liberals favor raising teacher pay and oppose teacher testing on the grounds of treating teachers more ‘professionally’.
Student Testing: Many conservatives advocate for national testing standard or other forms of ‘standards-based education’. Generally, any reference to ‘standards,’ or especially to dealing with ‘failing schools’, implies support of school vouchers.
Smaller Class Size: Many liberals advocate for smaller class sizes, and/or building more schools to achieve them. Generally, any reference to ‘smaller classrooms,’ or especially to ‘building public schools’, implies opposition to funding private schools.
School Prayer: Current law is that schools allow religious groups to organize on school grounds as if they are any club. Schools are not allowed to conduct prayers at the beginning of school, but neither are they allowed to stop a student from praying.
Bilingual Education: Schools may conduct classes in Spanish or other languages using federal ‘Title VII’ funds, which totaled $380 million last year (1% of total spending). 13% of K-12 students speak a language other than English at home. Generally, liberals favor bilingual education while conservatives favor ‘official English.’
DOE: The Department of Education spent $38 billion last year (2% of the federal budget). But federal spending only accounts for 9% of education spending; most of the annual $600 billion comes from state & local sources. Hard-core conservatives favor abolishing the Department of Education, which was a Republican Party platform plank in the 1980s.
Phonics: Phonics is a method of teaching children to read by sounding out phonemes (groups of letters that represent sounds). Generally, a favorable reference to ‘phonics’ implies a conservative viewpoint on all the other education issues listed here.

College Education & Cost Statistics

61% of high school graduates continue on to some post-secondary education.
43% enroll at 4-year colleges; 33% graduate college.
Race strongly determines the percentage enrolling at college
(49% for Asians; 38% for Blacks; 28% for Hispanics).
Socioeconomic status even more strongly determines percentage enrolling at college
(19% from the poorest Ľ of families vs. 70% from the richest Ľ of families).
Tuition plus room and board at public colleges averages $6,700, and at private college $18,500.
Public college costs 15% of the average family’s income, and the percentage is holding steady (tuition rises are keeping pace with median income rises).
Private college costs 42% of the average family’s income, and the percentage is also holding steady.
K-12 Statistics are detailed on the ‘School Choice’ page.

Background documents
Against Social Promotion, opinion by Am.Fed.of Teachers Pro & Con of Social Promotion, opinions by NPR's 'NewsHour' Pro & Con of Teacher Testing, Fordham Foundation report Straight A's Act, 1999 Academic Achievement for All Act Issues Library from Policy.com	Teacher Testing, background by FairTest. School Prayer, background by U. Texas. Bilingual Education, background by DOE DOE Budget, FY 2000 Goals 2000, education reform legislation

Related issues:

School Choice
Families & Children
Juvenile Crime

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Background on Education

Education Buzzwords

College Education & Cost Statistics

Background documents

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