Strengthening Our Schools

"There is nothing more important to our future than our country's schools. We all pay a price when young people who could someday find the cure for AIDS or make a fuel cell work are sitting on a stoop because they didn't get the education they needed." -- John Edwards

As the product of public schools in a small rural town and the father of four children who attended public schools, John Edwards understands the importance of education. He believes every child should have the same chance to get a great education—a commitment that is at the core of his plan to build One America where everyone has a chance to succeed. But more than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, we still have two school systems that are separate and unequal. No longer legally separated by race, our children are divided by economics, often with a racial or ethnic dimension. Edwards' vision for excellent American schools is based on three principles:

Preparing Every Child to Succeed

Quality preschool education should be as common as kindergarten. As president, Edwards will lead the way toward universal preschool by providing resources to states to help them offer "Great Promise" universal high-quality programs for four-year-olds. Great Promise programs will develop early academic skills, as well as helping emotional and healthy development, through parental involvement and lead teachers with four-year college degrees. He will also help other states duplicate North Carolina's innovative Smart Start program that links together health care, child care, education, and family support services for children under five, prioritizing children who are not served by other pre-K programs.

An Excellent Teacher in Every Classroom

Nothing is more important in a school than the relationship between a teacher and a child. Edwards will raise pay for teachers in successful high-poverty schools by as much as $15,000 more a year, including up $5,000 for all teachers in successful high-poverty schools, $5,000 for teachers with a national certification for excellence, and $5,000 for veteran teachers who serve as mentors. He will create a national teachers' university—a West Point for teachers—to train excellent teachers for our worst schools. He will also improve working conditions and increase time for teacher collaboration and planning, address barriers for teachers moving between states, help teachers with extra support in their early years and dedicate federal resources to reducing class sizes.

Make Every School an Outstanding School

Every child in America should have the chance to attend an outstanding public school that has high expectations for every child. Edwards will radically overhaul No Child Left Behind to live up to its goal of helping all children learn at high levels. The law today judges children based on cheap standardized tests, forces schools to narrow the curriculum, fails to accurately identify struggling schools, and imposes unproven cookie-cutter reforms. Edwards supports better tests, broader measures of school success such as measuring students' progress, and giving states more resources and flexibility to identify and reform underperforming schools. To build on current successes, he will help 1,000 'great' schools a year expand or start new branches. Edwards will also invest more resources for low-income children, put us on a path to fully funding special education, and raise graduation rates by creating multiple paths to graduation such as Second Chance schools for former dropouts.

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Expanding Opportunity Through College for Everyone

Jan 20, 2009

Restoring the Promise of America's Schools

Jan 20, 2009

Senator John Edwards delivered a major education policy speech at Brody Middle School in Des Moines where he unveiled his plan to radically overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act and ensure that every child in America gets the quality education they deserve.