John McCain: Town Hall 6/13/08

John McCain
Town Hall
Pemberton, NJ 06/13/08

TRANSCRIPT:
QUESTIONER: "When you become President do you plan to improve schools in financially disadvantaged areas?"

JOHN MCCAIN: "Yes and let me say education hasn't been discussed as much as some would want it to be in this campaign. Obviously when we have economic difficulties such as we have, sometimes those gain higher priorities. But education obviously in the long term is the ultimate answer to so many of the challenges that we face. Worldwide competition, we have to have a trained and educated workforce, all those things you know about. But let me just say to you, that the fundamental principle that we have to govern education in America is choice and competition, choice and competition. Because we need every American, I want every American to have the same choice that Cindy and I did and that was to send our children to the school of our choice, because we could afford to do so. And the charter schools work and home schooling where dedicated parents do it works. Let me give you one small example because it's easy to utter platitudes. But the city of New Orleans, which as you all know, suffered one of the great natural catastrophes of American history, exasperated by our failure to address it with any efficiency. Basically they had to go back to square one. We now have 30 charter schools in the city of New Orleans and guess what? The educational standard and quality is going up dramatically in the city of New Orleans. This is because they are giving parents choice and competition and rewarding good teachers and finding another line of work for bad teachers and doing the things that are necessary to provide [. . .] And with respect I say to those that say just throw more money at the problem, I will spend more money but it has to be done wisely and efficiently. Some of the highest, some of the most expensive, as far as taxpayer contributions school systems in America, guess what, are the least productive. So it's not so much money as it is that we need to change education in America based on the fundamental principle that we reward good teachers, that we reward good schools, and we provide choice and competition."

LABEL: JM NJ 6-13 (GR#89) XYKFCS - Clip H

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Category:

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