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McCain, Obama Camps Make Education Pitch

Obama's deputy National Policy Director says an Obama administration would give college students a tax credit equal to community college tuition, would strengthen federal investment in early childhood education and provide incentives to public school districts willing to take on salary reform. Danielle Gray says these proposals aren't just pie-in-the-sky

GRAY: Well one of the things the Obama Biden campaign prides itself on is that in every one of our proposals we've identified a way to pay for them and a commitment to fiscal discipline...I think Senator Obama's view is that short changing education just can't be an option.

On behalf of the McCain Palin ticket, Ohio campaign co-chair John Husted says while he may agree with some of those proposals, money to pay for them simply won't be available.

HUSTED: Look, the last time I saw, we had a 9.7 trillion dollar deficit and the only way you're going to get new money is with bonds.

And bonds would mean adding to the deficit. Husted says a McCain administration would use existing funds to provide more choice for families and set higher, more stringent standards on public schools. He stressed that if schools don't meet those standards, the federal government won't micro-manage them. Instead, it would reconstitute them, which means they would be shut down and re-opened with new staff.

Both campaign surrogates talked about the flaws in federal No Child Left Behind legislation, which will likely be re-authorized under the next administration, but neither detailed how their candidate would fix it.