Obama's Ad Lies: McCain on Education

Democrats attempting to denigrate the McCain campaign for playing fast and loose with the facts should remember that they are living in a glass house. Obama's new ad on McCain and education tosses facts right out the window of that little glass house.

The ad lists five votes in which McCain is said to have "voted to cut education funding." However, well-beknownst to the Obama campaign, one of those votes increased funding, while three others (1, 2, 3) were merely votes against supplemental spending (quite different from funding cuts). The single vote for a funding decrease was part of the sweeping 1995 GOP reduction in all budgetary appropriations - a promise upon which Republicans heavily campaigned and which won them majorities in both houses.

Secondly, Obama claims, "McCain's economic plan gives $200 billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools." The truth is that McCain has proposed a $200 billion tax reduction on all businesses. Obama thus titles all business in America (particularly small, family-owned shops) as "special interest" groups. McCain's budgetary plan also proposes a one-year freeze (i.e., no increase or decrease) on all government discretionary spending - education is not specifically targeted, and a maintenance of the status quo cannot be classified as a funding cut.

The final falsity is Obama's claim that McCain would abolish the Department of Education. While nothing could improve the state of national education more than the elimination of this over-burdensome bureaucracy, and while McCain noted in 1994 the probable efficacy of such a course of action, he has never proposed or sought the implementation of such a policy.

In truth, McCain has voted in favor of allowing parents to open tax-free savings accounts for their children's educational expenses and for merit pay as an incentive to draw more qualified teachers and reward successful schools. McCain also opposed President Bush's nationally imposed standards and federal funding strings. But, most importantly, McCain supports the silver bullet of school choice and vouchers, the only viable path to educational reform.

Obama cannot support this obvious opportunity to improve our schools because . . . the special interest teachers' union lobby in Washington, D.C. opposes vouchers (which would expose them to the harsh realities of market competition and pay-based-on-results). Obama might raise taxes to futilely pour more money into a failing educational system, but he will not oppose his cash-cow NEA lobbyists and support "change." The more educated people become, the more education will become a failing message for the Democrats - Obama would do well to mind his precarious surroundings before casting stones.