Today, during his speech to the NAACP, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain released
his education plan. And, for a man who only last week was
learning to go online (sorry, couldn't resist), it's a strong start.
John McCain Supports Expanding Virtual Learning By Reforming The "Enhancing Education Through Technology Program." John McCain will target $500 million in current federal funds to build new virtual schools and support the development of online course offerings for students. These courses may be for regular coursework, for enhancement, or for dual enrollment into college.
John McCain Will Allocate $250 Million Through A Competitive Grant Program To Support States That Commit To Expanding Online Education Opportunities. States can use these funds to build virtual math and science academies to help expand the availability of AP Math, Science, and Computer Sciences courses, online tutoring support for students in traditional schools, and foreign language courses.
John McCain Will Offer $250 Million For Digital Passport Scholarships To Help Students Pay For Online Tutors Or Enroll In Virtual Schools. Low-income students will be eligible to receive up to $4,000 to enroll in an online course, SAT/ACT prep course, credit recovery or tutoring services offered by a virtual provider. Providers could range from other public schools, virtual charter schools, home school parents utilizing virtual schooling resources or district or state sponsored virtual schools. The Department of Education would competitively award the funds to a national scholarship administrator who would manage the student applications, monitoring, and evaluation of providers.
I'm pleased to see Senator McCain up the ante on the
$120 million virtual schooling innovation fund that I proposed last year. One important emphasis that is missing from Senator McCain's plan is a focus on innovation. While his fund as proposed would likely spur the development of more virtual learning experiences, it would not capitalize on digital learning's unique potential for rapid innovation and improvement. I guess it's ok for the federal government to provide scholarships, but a much more highly leveraged federal role would research how digital learning could improve instruction and then, importantly, rapidly spread these improvements. As I recommended in my report
Virtual High Schools and Innovation in Public Education:
Each grantee would have to develop a plan to pilot test, evaluate, and replicate a project in one or more virtual school programs within two years. Over time, grantees with the strongest records of having their innovations adopted by others would get preference for additional funding. All materials, methods, technologies, and data developed through the fund would be available for adoption via a public and freely available open source model.
Senator Obama, who has leveraged the Internet extensively in his campaign, is largely silent on these issues. Perhaps he will consider enhancing
his education plan.
3 comments:
McCain has served in the U.S. Senate for many years. What is his track record on proposing or moving any of these education ideas?
Obama, to his credit, has proposed or signed onto legislation many of the teacher quality proposals contained in his platform.
He doesn't have one (note the link above to the Video Professor). That doesn't make it a bad proposal. It does call into question the seriousness with which implementation will be pursued and the idea will be developed.
Bill -- You're right, virtual learning in and of itself won't be enough. The point of it is that it is a conduit to improve the educational experience by customizing to a child's unique needs, being dynamic, and so forth. Sadly it seems Senator Obama has not adopted the idea as well. From an EdWeek article: "The Obama campaign contends that it might be difficult for states and districts to provide oversight of virtual schools.
"Many online schools are for-profit ventures and may siphon money away from public schools," the Obama campaign memo said."
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