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Fred Thompson on Education
Schools continue to fail our children and endanger America's future competitiveness. Increasing amounts of federal funding and government mandates have not resulted in real improvement.
Candidacy announcement speech Sep 6, 2007
Between 1970 and 2005, federal spending on education increased nearly 150% without results to match. The No Child Left Behind law itself increased federal funding by some 26%, while imposing more than $140 million in compliance time and costs.
Campaign website, www.Fred08.com, "Principles" Sep 1, 2007
"We've been spending increasing amounts of federal money for decades, with increasing rules, increasing mandates, increasing regulations," Thompson said. "It's not working."
Voted NO on ending special funding for minority & women-owned business. This legislation would have abolished a program that helps businesses owned by women or minorities compete for federally funded transportation. Status: Cloture Motion Rejected Y)48; N)52
Motion to invoke cloture; Bill S.1173 ; vote number 1997-275 on Oct 23, 1997
Voted NO on setting aside 10% of highway funds for minorities & women. Vote to table, or kill, an amendment to repeal the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise [DBE] Program, which requires no less than 10% of highway construction projects funded by the federal government to be contracted to 'disadvantaged business enterprises'.
Bill S.1173 ; vote number 1998-23 on Mar 6, 1998
In 1995, Thompson voted against Senate amendment 1825 to H.R. 1854 (the "Gramm Amendment") which would have banned affirmative action in the awarding of federal contracts.
Mr. Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee, has at times voted in support of affirmative action, at other times against it.
I am committed to:Giving parents more choices in education and schools less bureaucracy. Reviewing federal programs for cost-effectiveness, reducing federal mandates, returning education money to the states, and empowering parents by promoting voucher programs, charter schools, and other innovations that enhance education excellence through competition and choice.
Campaign website, www.Fred08.com, "Issues" Sep 20, 2007
[Thompson] promised that, as president, he would provide federal school funding with fewer strings attached.
The federal government should be providing block grants as long as states set up objective testing programs.
Voted NO on funding smaller classes instead of private tutors. Voted NO to authorize a federal program aimed at reducing class size. The plan would assist states and local education agencies in recruiting, hiring and training 100,000 new teachers, with $2.4 billion in fiscal 2002. This amendment would replace an amendment allowing parents with children at under-performing schools to use public funding for private tutors. [Supports schoool choice as a means of improving public education and less federal invlovment in how States allocate education resources.]
Bill S1 ; vote number 2001-103 on May 15, 2001
Promote voucher programs & charter schools. The federal role in education is too intrusive and too bureaucratic, and has become part of the problem. State and local governments are closest to the parents, the kids, and the schools, and best situated to implement changes and innovations that best educate children. I am committed to: Giving parents more choices in education and schools less bureaucracy. Reviewing federal programs for cost-effectiveness, reducing federal mandates, returning education money to the states, and empowering parents by promoting voucher programs, charter schools, and other innovations that enhance education excellence through competition and choice.
Campaign website, www.Fred08.com, "Issues" Sep 20, 2007
A little more federalist confidence in the wisdom of state and local governments might go a long way toward improving America's public schools. The most encouraging reforms in education are occurring at the local level, with options like charter schools.
Campaign website, www.Fred08.com, "Principles" Sep 1, 2007
The federal government can assist state and localities through grants with fewer strings and less bureaucracy but should not take schools out of the hands of parents and local officials. We should encourage the rights of parents to choose the school and what's best for their child's education.
Candidacy announcement speech Sep 6, 2007
Promote voucher programs & charter schools. The federal role in education is too intrusive and too bureaucratic, and has become part of the problem. State and local governments are closest to the parents, the kids, and the schools, and best situated to implement changes and innovations that best educate children. I am committed to: I am committed to: Giving parents more choices in education and schools less bureaucracy. Reviewing federal programs for cost-effectiveness, reducing federal mandates, returning education money to the states, and empowering parents by promoting voucher programs, charter schools, and other innovations that enhance education excellence through competition and choice.
Campaign website, www.Fred08.com, "Issues" Sep 20, 2007
Voted YES on allowing more flexibility in federal school rules. Voted YES a motion to invoke cloture on a bill aimed at allowing states to waive certain federal rules normally required in order to use federal school aid. [A YES vote implies support of charter schools and vouchers]. Status: Cloture Motion Rejected Y)55; N)39; NV)6
Motion to Invoke cloture on Jeffords Amdt #31; Bill S. 280 ; vote number 1999-35 on Mar 9, 1999
The federal government can assist state and localities through grants with fewer strings and less bureaucracy but should not take schools out of the hands of parents and local officials. We should encourage the rights of parents to choose the school and what's best for their child's education.
Candidacy announcement speech Sep 6, 2007
No Child Left Behind--good concept, I'm all for testing--but it seems like now some of these states are teaching to the test and kind of making it so that everybody does well on the test. You can't really tell that everybody's doing that well, and it's not objective.
Thompson said his message to the states would be: "We expect you to get objective testing done and publicize those tests for the local parents and for the local citizens and suffer the political ramifications locally if things don't work out right."
The federal government should be providing block grants as long as states set up objective testing programs.
"A little more federalist confidence in the wisdom of state and local governments might go a long way toward improving America's public schools. The most encouraging reforms in education are occurring at the local level, with options like charter schools. And often the best thing Washington can do is let the states, school districts, teachers and parents set their own policies and run their own schools." [Supports leaving the decision of how much and how to pay teachers to the States and school districts.]
Campaign website, www.Fred08.com, "Issues" Sep 20, 2007
He supports President Bush's blueprint for education, which consolidates over 50 existing federal programs into just seven flexible categories to provide much-needed flexibility to parents and teachers. This legislation would build on the Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999 ("Ed-Flex") to further move decision-making about our student's education to the parents and teachers who know best. [Supports leaving the decision of how to allocate education resources to the State and localities. This would include allowing States and localities to decide how much and a in what way to pay teachers.]
He supports President Bush's blueprint for education, which consolidates over 50 existing federal programs into just seven flexible categories to provide much-needed flexibility to parents and teachers. This legislation would build on the Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999 ("Ed-Flex") to further move decision-making about our student's education to the parents and teachers who know best. [Supports leaving the decision of how to allocate education resources to the State and localities. This would include allowing States and localities to decide how much and a in what way to pay teachers.]
A little more federalist confidence in the wisdom of state and local governments might go a long way toward improving America's public schools. The most encouraging reforms in education are occurring at the local level, with options like charter schools. And often the best thing Washington can do is let the states, school districts, teachers and parents set their own policies and run their own schools. [Supports leaving the decision of how much and how to pay teachers to the States and school districts.]
Campaign website, www.Fred08.com, "Issues" Sep 20, 2007
He supports President Bush's blueprint for education, which consolidates over 50 existing federal programs into just seven flexible categories to provide much-needed flexibility to parents and teachers. This legislation would build on the Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999 ("Ed-Flex") to further move decision-making about our student's education to the parents and teachers who know best. [Supports leaving the decision of how to allocate education resources to the State and localities. This would include allowing States and localities to decide how much and a in what way to pay teachers.]
He wrote that "Many federal judges seem intent on eliminating God from the public schools and the public square in ways that would astound our founding fathers. They ignore the fact that the founders were protecting the church from the state and not the other way around."
Thompson has criticized the judiciary for overstepping its bounds and attempting to set "social policy." He wrote that "Many federal judges seem intent on eliminating God from the public schools and the public square in ways that would astound our founding fathers. They ignore the fact that the founders were protecting the church from the state and not the other way around."
Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Fred Thompson (R-TN) introduced the Homeland Security Federal Workforce Act [which]provides loan forgiveness, fellowships and employee exchange programs in support of the federal national security workforce. The Homeland Security Education Act strengthens federal support of educational programs -- especially in math, science, and certain languages -- deemed important to the national security workforce. [The act encourages voluntary commitments to jobs in the field of public service by providing incentives such as loan forgiveness.]