Who's At The Head Of The Class?

The three Rs have vaulted to the top of the campaign agenda in the race for the White House.

Vice President Al Gore spends a day at school. Texas Gov. George W. Bush holds a string of school events linked with speeches touting education ideas.

"My number one priority is to bring revolutionary improvements to our schools," Gore insists.

Education "is a subject that is dear to my heart," Bush proclaims.

Each candidate is working hard to prove he's the one who can get America's kids learning again. The urgency stems in part from polls that show education ranks high among voters' concerns - and that women voters, in particular, care about it.

Naturally, Bush and Gore spend much of their time explaining how they differ from one another. But on some broad points, the two rivals for the White House agree. And their joint emphasis on the subject is unusual.

"Both candidates are seeking to be the education president in much stronger ways than we've had in the past," said Allen Odden, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

"Whichever is elected is going to give a lot of attention to public schools, and that's generally good."

Both Bush and Gore aim to have every school child able to read by the end of the third grade. Both love charter schools and would provide money or incentives to get more built. Both support the idea of "character education" - schools teaching morals and conduct. Both talk about making schools safer.

Both like the Head Start program, but in different ways. Gore wants to expand it to every four-year-old in the country and most three-year-olds. Bush wants to transfer Head Start to the Department of Education and make it a stronger instrument for improving literacy. Both want to avoid a "national curriculum" and support state-designed tests, although both would also use the National Assessment of Educational Progress "national report card" to measure progress and compare states. Both favor "local control."

And both support the vague but popular notion of "accountability," which starts with testing. The candidates differ on how often and whom they would test. But testing itself is unquestioned, although critics point out that any testing system creates the risk that teachers will simply teach what's on the test.

If a school's students consistently perform poorly on tests, Bush and Gore differ on the next step. Gore would try to reorganize or reconstitute the school, perhaps even closing it down until new structures and personnel can be put in place. The Bush crowd scoffs at that idea. Under existing law, said Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes, failing schools "could be shut down, but that has never happened."

The Texas governor would take money away from failing schools and give it to parents to spend as they like. This portable voucher is one of the most controversial aspects of his pln - and it's one Gore routinely attacks, claiming it would drain money from already shaky public schools.

Bush's education adviser, Margaret La Montagne, said that's not the goal.

"We want and hope and believe that the vast majority of public schools will succeed. But if they don't, it's the kids that are getting punished in this deal...The end game is to make sure that kids get educated, not that we have a system of public education."

But University of Florida political science professor Richard Scher, sees danger in that approach.

Scher thinks Bush and Gore are not even on the same page when it comes to education, pointing to the $115 billion over 10 years Gore would pump into the system, and his eagerness to repair or expand old schools and build new ones. Gore would spend money to encourage smaller class sizes and to broaden preschool and after-school programs. It's a traditional, money-oriented, Democratic approach, Scher said, which is "heavily aimed at fixing the existing school system."

Bush has so far proposed about $13.4 billion in new spending over five years, including the $5 billion literacy program he offered up on Tuesday and the almost $3 billion teacher-training plan he outlined last week. But his readiness to hand money over to parents who want to pull their kids out of public schools sends an ominous message, said Scher.

"The Bush approach almost gives up on schools, if it doesn't dismantle them. It makes public schools almost irrelevant." he said.

Odden, on the other hand, minimizes the differences between Bush and Gore. He thinks the voucher and accountability argument represents both candidates trying to wrestle with the issue of how to fix low-performing schools - and that's good.

"We don't have answers about what exactly we ought to do with those schools," he said - and there's no conclusive evidence that vouchers are better than reconstituting schools, or vice versa. Recognizing the problem is what matters, said Odden.

Do the two candidates have more in common than not on the education issue?

"It might sound odd for me to say so," said Odden, "but yes."