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Candidates' Positions and Views |
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for:
United States Senator, Pennsylvania |
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April 24, 2012 Pennsylvania Democratic Primary |
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Candidates positions and views on other Issues where information is available: |
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The report below lists the candidate responses to Education issue questions. The responses were provided by Joseph John Vodvarka and Bob Casey, Jr. or were obtained from their websites. The candidates select the issues and questions for which they want to provide a response. The first link is a report of all the issues and questions made available to the candidates. Many issues and questions had no responses - links are only provided where we have information. If there are many candidates for this office, you may have to scroll down to compare all responses. |
| Education |
Joseph John Vodvarka - D
Website
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Bob Casey, Jr. - D
Website
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| Education, a General Statement |
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Bob Casey will be a champion of early childhood education, school construction and technology assistance for our local schools, reform of the No Child Left Behind legislation, and greater higher educational opportunity.
Fighting for Quality Education
Bob Casey's first job out of college was working in Philadelphia as a fifth grade teacher and eighth grade basketball coach. He has great personal appreciation for what educators do and what they sacrifice for our state and nation.
As Pennsylvania's Auditor General and State Treasurer, Bob Casey has been a strong advocate for our children and public education. He conducted the first-ever performance reviews of school districts to improve efficiency and help get more dollars into the classroom. These voluntary reviews identified millions of dollars in savings for school districts. At the same time, Bob Casey has pushed for smart educational investments to reduce class sizes and recruit as well as retain quality teachers in our state.
But our current leadership in Washington has taken its eyes off the prize in education. Our nation's greatest competitive advantage has been our commitment to the ideal of high quality public education for all. In today's global economy, the quality of our education system will determine the jobs we produce, the prosperity we create, and the military we build to protect us.
But the ideological agenda in Washington over the past few years has been throwing away our educational advantage. Washington has been slapping under-funded new federal mandates on our public schools while striving to send more taxpayer dollars in the form of vouchers to private schools. At the same time, Washington has been reneging on our commitment to help more students gain college degrees.
Bob Casey's educational priorities in the U.S. Senate will include the following:
Investing in Early Childhood Education
Study after study show that investments in pre-K are vital to the future of our childr [Response was truncated to maximum response length of 2000 characters.]
Source: Candidate Website (10/07/2006) |
| No Child Left Behind Act, a General Statement |
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Reforming the No Child Left Behind Legislation
Washington's No Child Left Behind legislation is actually leaving millions of schoolchildren behind. As it stands now, No Child Left Behind is all stick and no carrot. Its combination of confusing federal mandates and gross under-funding threatens to undermine creative state and local efforts to improve our schools. In contrast, Bob Casey will work to provide our schools with the crucial assistance they need to meet high academic performance standards.
Source: Candidate Website (10/07/2006) |
| Improving Education |
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Fighting for Quality Education
Bob Casey's first job out of college was working in Philadelphia as a fifth grade teacher and eighth grade basketball coach. He has great personal appreciation for what educators do and what they sacrifice for our state and nation.
As Pennsylvania's Auditor General and State Treasurer, Bob Casey has been a strong advocate for our children and public education. He conducted the first-ever performance reviews of school districts to improve efficiency and help get more dollars into the classroom. These voluntary reviews identified millions of dollars in savings for school districts. At the same time, Bob Casey has pushed for smart educational investments to reduce class sizes and recruit as well as retain quality teachers in our state.
But our current leadership in Washington has taken its eyes off the prize in education. Our nation's greatest competitive advantage has been our commitment to the ideal of high quality public education for all. In today's global economy, the quality of our education system will determine the jobs we produce, the prosperity we create, and the military we build to protect us.
But the ideological agenda in Washington over the past few years has been throwing away our educational advantage. Washington has been slapping under-funded new federal mandates on our public schools while striving to send more taxpayer dollars in the form of vouchers to private schools. At the same time, Washington has been reneging on our commitment to help more students gain college degrees.
Source: Candidate Website (10/07/2006) |
| Higher Education |
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Enhancing Higher Educational Opportunity
Bob Casey believes our nation is ready to revive the spirit of the GI Bill. After World War II, this legislation swung open the doors of higher education and created the modern American middle class. Yet today Washington is cutting back on student loan assistance for middle class students and Pell Grant eligibility for low-income students. Bob Casey will especially work to establish new scholarship incentives to help steer more students, especially women and minorities, into the fields of math, science and engineering.
Source: Candidate Website (10/07/2006) |
| Head Start |
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Investing in Early Childhood Education
Study after study show that investments in pre-K are vital to the future of our children and our country. Leading economists as well as business leaders now recognize that quality pre-kindergarten is an essential element in developing a competitive workforce for the future. Bob Casey will be committed to enhancing Head Start and assistance for states in their efforts to establish quality pre-K programs so all children can enter our schools ready to learn.
Source: Candidate Website (10/07/2006) |
| Classroom Size |
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Assisting School Construction
School districts across the nation desperately need to make investments they cannot afford in new education infrastructure. Their needs include new school construction, repair of aging facilities, and technological modernization. Yet in the last six years, Washington has nearly zeroed out federal school construction money. Bob Casey will lead the effort to reverse this trend and re-establish a constructive role for the federal government.
Source: Candidate Website (10/07/2006) |
| Computers in Schools |
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Making Sure Our Children Are Technologically Literate
Bob Casey understands that computer skills are becoming a prerequisite in the new high-tech global economy. He knows that we must do more to ensure that all students have access to computers. He will push for additional support to provide computers in the classroom and technological instruction. He will also strongly support the successful E-Rate program to make sure all our schools - no matter how rural or remote - have broadband internet access.
Source: Candidate Website (10/07/2006) |
| These are available issue topics for which there were no responses. |
| Sex Education and Birth Control Options |
| Evolution and Intelligent Design Education |
| Gay and Lesbian Orientation Education |
| Religion in Public Schools |
| Public Schools K-12 |
| "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance |
| Local Control Over Education |
| Teacher Textbook Selection |
| Private School Vouchers |
| Charter Schools |
| Standardized Testing |
| Teacher Tenure |
| Student Loans, Scholarships and Pell Grants |
| Education Tax Credits |
| Teacher Unions |
| Department of Education |
| Pre-School |
| High Schools |
| Adult Education |
| Dropouts |
| Community Colleges |
| Extended Learning Time |
| After-School Programs |
| Parental Involvement |
| Federal Mandates |
| Federal Funding of Private Schools |
| No Child Left Behind Act Federal Funding Level |
| Teacher Pay |
| Teacher Standards |
| Student Standards |
| National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) |
| Education Global Superiority |
| Junk Food Vending Machines in Public Schools |
| Education Gap with Other Countries |
| School Choice |
| Home Schooling |
| Special Education |
| Magnet Schools |
| Rural Schools |
| Summer School |
| Boy-Girl Achievement Gap |
| Black-White Achievement Gap |
| Title IX 'Equal Opportunities for Girls' |
| Bilingual Education |
| Math and Science |
| Art and Music |
| School Safety |
| Drugs in Schools |