With educational reform and Common Core being top issues in the 2016 election, several GOP presidential candidates attended a summit in New Hampshire on Wednesday where they stressed different options for how they plan to improve the educational system across America.
The American Federation for Children, an organization that promotes school choice and advocates for school vouchers, partnered with The Seventy Four, a non-profit and non-partisan website that covers news about education, to host the 2015 New Hampshire Education Summit where experts in education reform and GOP presidential candidates spoke about reforming the educational system.
“Today’s education summit is an unprecedented opportunity to have a serious, dedicated conversation on the issues impacting America’s 74 million children,” said co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The SeventyFour, Campbell Brown.
Several GOP presidential candidates spoke one-on-one with Brown on the topic of education reform, who appeared to forcefully and repetitively question the rejection of Common Core.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush stressed accountability in the educational system.
Bush – who has gone against most Republicans in supporting Common Core – stressed accountability during his discussion with Brown. Bush said what is most important in his opinion is, “a simple requirement of accountability … a test to measure student learning.”
“If you don’t measure, you basically don’t care,” Bush explained, arguing there must be some basis of measuring a student’s success. He said he supports two bills – one in the Senate and one in the House – because both have testing as a measure. On tests for students, Bush said they “should be based on learning games.”
Bush left stressing accountability in terms of testing measurements, and discussed the importance of skilled teachers. He said the best tool for a classroom is a “capable teacher in a classroom that is well trained.”
Bush stated that aspects of education are “state by state issues, the federal government can be a partner in reform.” He said unions don’t support education reform because they don’t want teachers measured by student success.
Brown asked Bush whom he looks to on guidance and advice in terms of education reform, and if he would name who he would choose as Secretary of Education if he is elected President.
“Researchers who do extraordinary work,” Bush responded, not directly saying who he would choose as Secretary of State, but brought up “Mitch Daniels” who he said told him he took what Bush did in Florida and made it better in Indiana. Bush said Indiana’s success on improving education has been extraordinary, calling Daniels a “wonderful guy.”
On the topic of what future classrooms should look like, Bush said “more hands on, more exciting for kids.” He added that he believes future classrooms should be “more creative.”
“I think it is … I can envision … a system where a child starts with a cohort of kids – all are unique, all are different…and that you use technology, you have a trained teacher that is harnessing the technology that is available today to make sure every child reaches their maximum ability.”
“I think we need to reform higher education as well,” Bush said. “When a third of our kids…are only college and career ready…these are huge challenges.”
Carly Fiorina encouraged more creativity in the classroom.
Fellow GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina spoke with Brown next on the topic of secondary education where she stressed that children need the ability to be creative.
As former CEO of Hewlett Packard, Fiorina was asked if she would say education right now prepares someone to enter the workforce. Fiorina answered, “Not uniformly.”
“We know that every child has vast potential…and the goal of this nation is to allow every single American regardless of their circumstances to find and use their God given gifts,” Fiorina stated, saying that is the first step in the process for education.
Fiorina explained that if children live in a poor community, they are far less likely to get a quality education. She referenced a program, which existed at Hewlett-Packard, where the company reached into underprivileged communities to get involved with children who were interested in science, technology, engineering and math
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