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Senator John Edwards calls for the ?Great Promise??universal pre-school for four-year olds, and calls for teachers with four-year degrees to head these classrooms. Considering the shortage of teachers in traditional classrooms, however, it?s unclear where this surge of quality, college-educated instructors will come from. The Senator lauds North Carolina?s Smart Start program as a template for federal action, and would combine comprehensive social services with the provision of traditional pre-K instruction.

To recruit teachers to lead classrooms, he would boost teacher pay by up to $15,000 in high poverty schools ($5K for all teachers in a high poverty school; $5K for teachers with a national certification for excellence; and $5K for veteran teachers serving as mentors). An extra $5,000 for a college graduate (all a new teacher would be qualified for under the plan) would doubtfully be enough to bring the best and the brightest into the most difficult classrooms. Recent graduates will likely have the option of teaching in suburban school districts that offer higher pay than most urban schools, have lower costs of living, and have greater support systems in place. I am an advocate of increased teacher pay for those educators who are willing to teach in schools where most aren?t willing to work?but the reality is that five thousand dollars simply is not enough of an incentive. The Senator would also create a ?West Point? for teachers to train excellent teachers for our worst schools, and would devote federal resources to reducing class sizes.

Edwards would ?radically overhaul? NCLB: he would provide better tests, broader measures of success, and include more flexibility in reforming underperforming schools. I?m not sure why he characterizes his reforms as ?radical??he subscribes to NCLB?s basic tenets; he only wants to make it ?better.? He would attempt to raise graduation rates in the short term by creating multiple paths to graduation.

To increase access to college, he would pay one year of public-college tuition if a student works part time, takes college prep in high school, and ?stays out of trouble.? Interestingly, he would permit students to borrow directly from the Department of Education. None of the other candidates call for such a reform. I can?t speak to the legality of such a lending program, but it could serve to save students money by eliminating the profits banks make on the loans. However, it?s not clear that private banking institutions will always charge higher rates than the government?the competition between banks and the efficiencies of the private sector may ultimately make the private sector more cost-effective.

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