Dennis Kucinich (D) On Education
Ledyard King / USA Today
On No Child Left Behind law
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, doesn’t hide his contempt for the education law known as No Child Left Behind and its reliance on test scores to judge performance. He voted for the bill in 2001. Kucinich told the National Education Association in July 2007 that he wants to reduce the amount of testing and give schools greater flexibility to use other ways of measuring student achievement. “We need to make sure children can read, but we do not want to defeat the learning experience and make it all about testing, because then all you have is a generation of test takers,” he said.
On making college affordable
Kucinich says he wants to make public college tuition-free and would pay for it by cutting the defense budget by 15%, or $75 billion. He voted for a bill that would cut the interest rate on student loans by half, to 3.4%, and increase Pell grantsfrom $4,310 in 2007 to $5,400 by 2012. President Bush signed the bill into law Sept. 27, 2007.
Other education priorities
Kucinich wants to establish pre-kindergarten programs for all 4-year-olds. He said this and other education initiatives can be paid for by cutting defense spending.
