The White Paper : A Chance for Every
Child - Mitt Romney’s Educational Reform Plan
Overview:
Republican
presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, released on May 23, 2012, a 35 page
proposal plan that addresses the need for
educational reform for America’s educational system.
Romney's proposal of educational reform for
the future of this country, mirrors President George
Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. In
terms of Romney’s educational platform called, A
Chance for Every Child, Romney is adamant
when he states that the education system in
America today is abysmal and fails to
provide the foundations and growth potential for
educational opportunities for our future
generations of Americans. In order to get America’s
educational priorities set on the right
track, Romney states that he endorses the idea that every
child deserves a quality and individualized
education, noting the importance of under served
populations including minority students
when it comes to their educational training and
opportunities for being prepared to enter
higher education, job training, and staying competitive
in a global market in our world today. Some
of the nontraditional families that are considered to
be a minority population also include
grandparents raising grandchildren due to absent parents,
homosexual couples with children, or
teenage parents raising a child, etc. Other minorities of
various races and ethnicities included
African American, Latino, Asian etc.
Due to this educational phenomenon,
Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has vowed as part
of his campaign platform to address this
dire situation for the American people now and in the
future. As a result and commitment to
bringing about a positive change, Romney created the
educational reform plan called, A Chance
for Every Child, in his word to "remediate what
Romney calls mistakes by current President
Barack Obama." In his document, A Chance for
Every Child, Romney outlined a vision for
restoring the promise of America’s education system
and guaranteeing every student the
opportunity to succeed in this country no matter what your
background. The educational reform, A
Chance for Every Child, proposed by Mitt Romney,
looks at the following issues that Romney
asserts have led to an overall decline in the American
education system.
The
paper will also address some of the major pro's and con's that are
associated with
Romney’s educational reform plan include
the following issues:
* High School Graduation Rate /Student
Performance/Parent Empowerment/ Recruitment & Accountability of
Schools and Employees –
Statistics currently state that
roughly 25% of high school students in the US do not graduate;
or are not adequately prepared for college
or post-secondary education and as a result drop out or
fail out of high school. In response to
this current trend in education of high school drop out or
students not completing a high school
diploma program, Romney’s educational reform includes
presenting the following initiative called
K-12: Promoting Choice And Innovation to be able to
give students trapped in declining schools
productive alternatives other than not graduating high
school. It looks at strengthening the home
and school bond by empowering parents and students
with the help of school employees.
Specifically, Romney advocates increasing the following in
order to combat the high school dropout
rate including: parents must receive clear information
about the performance of their current
school, students must be allowed to move to a new school,
and students must bring funding with them
so that new schools can afford to serve them.
Romney’s plan also addresses
the need for schools in this country to best meet the needs
of students with disabilities and their
parents. In a Chance for Every Child, Romney proposes to
allow low income and special needs students
to choose which school to attend by making Title I
and IDEA funds transferable so that
eligible students can choose which school to attend and
bring funding with them. This will be huge
and dramatic undertaking for districts, communities,
and educational staff because it will allow
the student to choose from any district or public
charter school, or a private school where
permitted by state law, or to use funds toward a tutoring
provider or digital course. Along those
lines, Romney proposes to provide incentives for states
to increase choices for parents and develop
quality alternatives to meet the needs of the
individual student. He would also propose
to require states to adopt open-enrollment policies for
students receiving Title I and IDEA funds,
and to eliminate caps on charter and digital schools.
Romney also is a proponent of building on
the success of effective charter schools and plans to
do so by amending the federal Charter
School Program so that successful school management
organizations can receive funding to
replicate their efforts, serve more students, and take their
programs to scale. He also would like to
expand and reinstate the DC Opportunity Scholarship
Program to serve as a model for the
nation’s resurgence in education. Ideally, this would hope
to reverse President Obama’s efforts to
eliminate this popular and effective program.
Romney is also very adamant in
providing a solid K-12 educational programing ensuring
high standards and responsibility for
results. Currently, there is little data for parents about their
children’s schools. Romney believes that
providing better information for parents will empower
them to hold districts and states
responsible for results and, when combined with increased
parental choice, give them more control
over their children’s education. Romney’s reforms will
improve transparency and give parents the
information they need to be informed about their
child’s education. He also hopes to
accomplish this task with the help of the reforming of No
Child Left Behind by emphasizing
accountability and responsibility for results. Finally, Romney
highlights in his educational reform the
need to replace federally-mandated school interventions
with a requirement that states create
straightforward public report cards that evaluate each school
on its contribution to student learning.
Romney’s educational reform, A Chance for Every Child,
will have comparable overtones to George
Bush’s The NCLB act, which is applicable to all
school districts, to ensure that every
parent is empowered with the right to send their child or
children to the school they choose.
In his educational reform plan,
Romney firmly believes in the idea for every child to be
educated as a matter of individual right
offers parents the chance to tap federal legislation to
further the interests of outcome and
standards based education. NCLB helps the parent
community to set high standards for
academic excellence alongside the school management team
and address methods for improving and
developing school assessment patterns. What Romney
does point out in his educational reform
plan, he believes that the exclusion of a national
achievement standard makes room for
individual state authorities and school principals to
collaborate under the specifications of the
10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It has
provisions for every school to make public
names and contact details of all the enrolled students
to institutions that deliver higher
education and the military recruitment team. Romney endorses
the idea of focusing on effective
instruction for better student learning, systematic testing,
increased federal funding for education and
listing of 'failing' schools that could be opted out of.
Romney also speaks of the critical
need in his educational proposal for America to recruit
and reward great teachers in K – 12
settings. His belief is that a school is only as strong as its
teachers, but the most promising teachers
often find it difficult to reach the classroom door or
receive recognition for their efforts once
inside. Romney’s reforms smooth the path for talented
individuals to join the profession and
shape the next generation. He hopes to attract and reward
great teachers through increased
flexibility and block grants. Specifically, Romney hopes to
consolidate the numerous and overlapping
federal teacher quality programs. His proposal also
offers states flexible block grants if they
adopt policies to advance and reward teacher quality,
such as eliminating or reforming teacher
tenure and establishing evaluation systems that focus on
effectiveness in advancing student
achievement. Finally, Romney’s educational reform looks to
eliminate unnecessary certification
requirements that discourage new teachers. For instance, the
federal “highly qualified teacher”
requirement, while well-intentioned, only serves to reinforce
hurdles that prevent talented individuals
from entering the teaching profession in the first place.
**Need for Global Competitive in
Education and the Economy -
The second major issue of Romney
places a lot of emphasis in his educational reform, A
Chance for Every Child, to point out that
many other progressive countries are sending their
students to college and graduating and
entering the work force immediately. When looking at
this same trend in terms of enrollment,
progression, and graduation into the workforce, in the
educational reform, A Chance for Every
Child, Romney states USA does not even come close to
some countries college preparation,
entrance, and graduation that include China, Japan, India,
Korea, etc. In order reverse this negative
trend for Americans, Romney plans to replace
burdensome education regulation with
innovation and competition. He further plans to
encourage market entry by innovative new
education models, emphasize skill attainment instead
of time spent in the classroom, and support
research and development. He also would like to
repeal confusing and unnecessary
regulations that primarily serve to drive costs higher, and
replace them with common-sense reforms that
ensure appropriate student outcomes.
***Student Preparation, Graduation
and Access to Higher Education/Competitiveness in Attaining Jobs and
Careers in a Global Economy -
In his third major issue in his
educational reform plan, A Chance for Every CHild, Romney
asserts that the lack of advancement or
financial opportunity for minority or economically
disadvantaged young people and families to
be competitive in the American and global job
market by attending higher education,
graduating, and then finding employment in a globally
infused economy is critical for our country
moving forward. Romney also thinks that we need to
take of our young people and citizens to
make our nation a great and productive world power and
that starts with access to education.
Romney talks quite adamantly about issues with higher
education in terms of both affordability
and applicable learning to an increasingly competitive
job market globally in our society today.
America’s traditional community and four-year
colleges are the heart of our nation’s
higher education system. However, Romney points out the
dire issue that a flood of federal dollars
is driving up tuition and burdening too many young
Americans with substantial debt and too few
opportunities to use their training and degrees.
Meanwhile, other models of advanced skills
training are becoming ever more important to
success in the American economy, and new
educational institutions will be required to fill those
roles. Romney’s reforms help to bring about
change for the American public in the access,
affordability, innovation, and
accountability needed to address all of these challenges related to
higher education that include:
Romney’s plan looks at consolidating
duplicative a complex programs within the Department
of Education. In terms of student loans,
Romney look to focus on the Department on giving
students and families with financial need
the appropriate information about completion and
persistence, loan repayment rates, future
earnings, and other indicators to intelligently weigh the
risks and benefits of the many options
available to them, rather than limiting choices through
punitive regulations. Romney also talks
about embracing the private sector participation instead
of pushing it away; specifically looking to
reverse President Obama’s nationalization of the
student loan market and welcome private
sector participation in providing information,
financing, and the education itself.
Finally, Romney hopes to restructure
the American job market entry by implementing
innovative new education models, that look
to emphasize skill attainment instead of time spent in
the classroom, and support research and
development. He addresses the need to repeal confusing
and unnecessary regulations that primarily
serve to drive costs higher, and replace them with
common-sense reforms that ensure
appropriate student outcomes.
****Pro’s & Con’s of Romney’s
Educational Reform, A Chance for Every Child to Take Into Consideration
While Romney's educational platform, A
Chance for Every Child, seems very promising in
bringing and restoring hope for Americans
now and in the future in terms of the American
education system and the propensity for job
openings in our world today, there are substantial
issues that are related; which an
individual may find either negative or positive depending on
individuals’ views. The following points
are a list of potential pro's and con's specifics that are
connected to Presidential Republican
nominee, Mitt Romney's, White Pages: A Chance for Every
Child, the specifics include:
Pros:
* Proposed state-wise standardized tests
have resulted in a higher enrollment for courses in mathematics than
ever before
* Targeted academic improvement in all
subject categories
*Legislation encouraged accountability in
public schools to provide additional educational options
* Hope to eliminate negligible achievement
gap between white students and the minorities
* Look to provide measurement based
performance assessment for student against the student esp. special ed
students
- Continue w detailed report cards explaining AYP (annual yearly progress) performance, recommended para-professional or parental involvement and preferred line of curriculum and instruction practice for each child
* Place a special focus on students from
low-income groups and disabilities for their education
*Increased responsibility towards ethnic
subgroups by awarding schools adequate rating and recognition for
measured school performance
* Target improved instruction and classroom
practices and scope for more parent involvement
*Provide funding for school technology used
in classrooms as part of NCLB, is administered by the Enhancing
Education Through Technology Program (EETT) funding for technology used
within classrooms, professional teacher training and development of
online assessment interfaces
Cons:
*Lack of desired federal intervention to
address random subject choice for teachers
*Inadequate oversight in the case of
special education - how can determine if a child is really making
progress if only looking at that child and not his peers?
*Manipulated test records and results and
test driven preparation for teachers and students
*Lowered official state standards to earn
incentives from improvement via standardized tests along with impetus
from district leaders to teach to the test
*Choice of select skills subsets to
increase test performances leading to misinterpretation of educational
outcome. Are we just asking kids to spit back what teachers tell them or
are we encouraging to become divergent and creative thinkers?
*Inherent cultural disparity since each
culture is naturally gifted with certain skills - not looking at each
person’s talents, gifts, and backgrounds
*Lack of sensitivity towards Disabilities
Education for the visually impaired, hearing impaired, physically
impaired, cognitively impaired, and hearing and audio-logically
impairments
*Inappropriate dispossession of students
who fail to meet the desired performance levels for the school to earn
incentive to want to do better.
*Forced mandatory curriculum in reading,
writing, and arithmetic, impairing grade advancement not looking for
kids and teachers to be creative thinkers and learners
*Restricted and almost absent non-English
test assessments - huge implications for students with ESL issues -
vastly growing in USA schools; need for ESL teachers certified to
educate these students
References:
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