With just 17 days left before the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, many are still wondering where presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton stand on the nation's educational needs. Recently, the political rivals bare their plans about the country's education system and it appears that Clinton is not buying what Trump is going for.
Just a week ago, the Republican presidential hopeful presented his new school-choice plan that involves giving states block grants out of federal money amounting to $20 billion. Trump maintained his plan aims to allow destitute kids to land better school choices, which would include private schools, as per USA Today.
Trump is also pushing for merit pays for school teachers and to repeal the Common Core that is basically implemented to set the bar higher for students to do well in Mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). Trump has yet to lay down the blueprint for his plans for the nation's higher education that continues to be a nightmarish struggle for college students who are well aware of the debts they have to pay post-graduation.
Trump may see his plans as doable and beneficial but his Democratic competitor thinks otherwise. Clinton's camp has since criticized Trump's educational plans and even went as far as asserting that what the latter has in mind is to actually take money from the despondently struggling public schools.
For her part, Clinton is looking into supporting universal preschool for 4-year-olds and better, if not higher, pay for school teachers. Clinton is also going ambitious when it comes to higher education as she projects free in-state public college tuition for students in five years time. The plan, however, will only be beneficial to students from families with less than $125,000 earnings.
Speaking with PBS on why she is pushing for preschool education, Clinton said that the United States would become even more competitive if education is already provided at such a young age. She stressed that the plan would be helpful to families because kids would get a good start in life.
Explaining why she's targeting free college by 2021, Clinton simply said that public college should be free for working families. Furthermore, she stated that her educational plans would also extend beyond college because her administration would move to help graduates pay back their student loans by taking a percentage of their income.
