By Akeem Mellis
With costs for college steadily rising every year, young voters are looking for a presidential candidate with a plan to reduce the burden. All major 2008 presidential candidates have released plans to solve the problem, and now New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has joined the fray with a $60 billion plan to improve education in the United States.
Richardson plans to target a lack of early education and the "achievement gap" by instituting a universal pre-kindergarten program for 4-year-olds and funding Head Start. But the centerpiece of his plan is to abolish the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, President Bush's signature education law that went into effect May 2001.
"Now some say fix it; others say tweak it. Senator Clinton says reform it. I have two words for No Child Left Behind: scrap it," Richardson said in his speech introducing the plan in Manchester, New Hampshire. "The key to a good education is not narrow testing or Washington wisdom. The key is a good teacher in every classroom."
Democratic frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton also called for a universal pre-kindergarten plan, however they differ on the issue of the NCLB program, Clinton-as well as Illinois Sen. Barack Obama-wants to change the law as part of an $18 billion education plan, leaving Richardson as the only candidate willing to go as far as to end the program altogether.
For young Americans getting ready to attend college, Richardson's plan ties paying for college with a national service program. This would enable students to pay two years worth of college costs in return for a year of serving the country, though the plan did not specify where young Americans should serve out this year of service.
"We need more college graduates, and we need more men and women who are willing to serve their fellow citizens," Richardson said. "The spirit of service that fought the Nazis in the '40s and sustained the Peace Corps in the '60s is still alive and well in America today."
Richardson added that he would pay for the plan by cutting billions of dollars in loan subsidies from private banks and lenders.
For the most part, students on campus are receptive to such a plan, or just about any plan to cut tuition costs.
"It would be a good plan," Kevin Ristway, a sophomore business economics major, said. "College is so expensive, even here at Hofstra, but anything to give people the opportunity to go to college would be a good thing."
Beverly Scholnich, a freshman liberal arts and languages major, was originally interested in the Peace Corps and indicated her support for a similar plan like Richardson's. "I would be open for that. If there were more options like Peace Corps and if it wouldn't be necessary to fight on the front lines, I'd be interested," she said.
Some students feel that more needs to be done to lower the cost of attending college. "It would be like a bribe. I feel that it's not incentive enough," Claudia Rodriguez, a sophomore political science major, said. "We should be entitled to a higher degree of help from the government. [Richardson's plan] is a recruiting tool, period."
The 2008 Presidential candidate, Bill Richardson, plans to abolish the No Child Left Behind program. (montereycountydemocrats.org)