As the governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, Mitt Romney championed aggressive education policies later embraced by the Obama administration and by other states.
But for most of his second run at the Republican presidential nomination, voters have heard little about his education record in Massachusetts or initiatives that Mr. Romney was largely unable to sell to that state鈥檚 Democratic-controlled legislature.
Instead, in a high-profile May 23 speech on education, Mr. Romney spoke at length about school choice, pushing a bold鈥攂ut administratively tricky鈥攑lan to let disadvantaged students and those in special education take their federal aid to any campus, including a private school.
Mr. Romney, who last week secured enough delegates to clinch the 2012 GOP nomination, is pushing hard to distinguish his education policies from those President Barack Obama espouses. The former business executive has floated market-based proposals that appeal to a conservative electorate, and leveled criticism of teachers鈥� union influence on school policy鈥攁nd with the Obama administration.
At the same time, Mr. Romney continues to share some administration policy priorities, particularly Mr. Obama鈥檚 fondness for charter schools and insistence on tying teacher evaluation in part to students鈥� outcomes on standardized tests, both of which have rattled union leaders.
Mr. Romney鈥檚 decade-long evolution on education issues also has seen him move away from some of the most extreme positions taken by some in his party, including abolition of the U.S. Department of Education and repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act, which he nonetheless would like to overhaul.
The policy overlap between Mr. Romney and the man he is seeking to replace comes as no surprise to William H. Guenther, the president of MassInsight, a nonpartisan research organization in Boston that advised Mr. Romney on K-12 issues during his tenure as governor. He places Mr. Romney among a set of 鈥渓iberal and conservative education reformers鈥� focused on a combination of 鈥渆xcellent goals and no excuses.鈥�
鈥淕overnor Romney鈥檚 education reform packages were ahead of their time,鈥� said Mr. Guenther, a registered Democrat. 鈥淧utting aside the lightning-rod issue of school choice, there鈥檚 a lot of common ground between the candidates.鈥�
Gubernatorial Priorities
Although Mr. Romney鈥檚 May 23 speech, given in Washington to the Latino Coalition鈥檚 annual economic summit, touched only lightly on his Massachusetts record, he highlighted the state鈥檚 strong showing on national tests in the education chapter of his 2010 book No Apology. He noted that, by his third year in office, the state鈥檚 4th and 8th graders scored first in the nation on both math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The Romney campaign repeated those figures when President Obama鈥檚 camp questioned the former governor鈥檚 commitment to education issues after the recent speech.
But others in the Bay State say that Massachusetts was a national K-12 leader before Mr. Romney took office, and that his policies had little to do with its success.
鈥淲e were on a rising course, and he held the course during that time,鈥� said S. Paul Reville, who serves as secretary of education to Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick and has been appointed to the state board of education by both Republican and Democratic governors.
鈥淲hat proposals he had were more ideologically driven ... than any deep thinking about what it takes to close achievement gaps and improve education for all children,鈥� Mr. Reville said.
Like Mr. Obama as president, Mr. Romney as governor sought to promote rigorous academic standards. He persuaded the Massachusetts school board to add science to the list of tested subjects under the state鈥檚 accountability plan. And he vigorously defended the state鈥檚 system of high school exit exams as a graduation requirement, a policy put in place by his predecessors.
When New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang decided in 2006 to let the local high school give diplomas to all students鈥攅ven if they hadn鈥檛 passed the state-mandated exams鈥擬r. Romney threatened to withhold education aid to the district.
Mr. Lang 鈥渃ame around to my point of view,鈥� Mr. Romney later wrote.
During his primary campaign and in a recent detailed policy speech, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has offered a mixed bag of education proposals that include both market-driven, conservative initiatives and continuation of some programs and policies aligned with the Obama administration.
Title I and Special Education Vouchers
Would allow parents of low-income and special education students to take their share of federal education funding in those areas to the public, charter, or private school of their choice. 69传媒 could also use the funds for tutoring or online coursework. In all cases, students would still have to take federally mandated tests.
Funding
Has said he would like to scale back the size of the U.S. Department of Education, possibly combining it with another agency, but has stopped short of proposing to eliminate it.
Choice
Would seek to expand the $20 million D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, which allows students in the District of Columbia to attend a private school of their choice.
Race to the Top
Said on the primary campaign trail that President Barack Obama鈥檚 signature competitive-grant program had 鈥渄one some good things,鈥� though he was critical of the program in a recent campaign document, saying that it was 鈥減oorly designed鈥� and that most states are behind in delivering on their promises.
Teachers
Would make federal funding for teacher quality into a block-grant program and tie the funds to states鈥� adoption of evaluation systems that take educator effectiveness into account, elimination or overhaul of teacher tenure, and elimination of 鈥渓ast in, first out鈥� dismissal rules.
Higher Education
Has criticized the Obama administration鈥檚 decision to have all student loans originate with the U.S. Department of Education, instead of through subsidized lenders. Would beef up the role of the private sector in administering student loans and overhaul the Pell Grant program. Supports keeping interest rates on some federal student loans at 3.4 percent.
Bilingual Education
Strongly supports English-immersion programs, as opposed to bilingual education.
No Child Left Behind Act
In overhauling the current law, would require states to create report cards that would evaluate schools on an A-F grading scale and include information on the states鈥� performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. But he would no longer subject them to federal mandates when it comes to identifying and intervening in low-performing schools.
Early-Childhood Education
Has yet to sketch out details of an early-childhood-education policy as a presidential candidate, but as Massachusetts governor vetoed as too costly a bill to create a universal prekindergarten program.
SOURCES: Romney Campaign; Education Week
The governor also pushed for Massachusetts to be tested as a separate 鈥渃ountry鈥� on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, assessment in 2007, said Robert Costrell, who served as Mr. Romney鈥檚 top education adviser when he was governor and is now an adviser to his campaign. Minnesota is the only other state that took that step; both states stacked up well against international competitors.
But most of the items on Mr. Romney鈥檚 agenda fell flat in a legislature dominated by Democrats.
For instance, Mr. Romney put forth a package of proposals in 2005 and 2006 that would have offered $5,000 bonuses to teachers who were among the state鈥檚 top third of performers. New math and science teachers would have also been given extra pay, along with educators who led Advanced Placement courses in those subjects.
The governor also pushed to tie teacher evaluation in part to student performance鈥攁 policy that the Obama administration made a cornerstone of the president鈥檚 Race to the Top competitive-grant program.
And Mr. Romney鈥檚 vision for school turnaround includes many of the principles that the Obama administration incorporated into a supercharged version of the School Improvement Grant program, unveiled in 2009. For instance, Mr. Romney wanted to make it easier for superintendents to remove underperforming teachers and principals.
He also wanted to let districts convert perennially struggling schools into charters, and to offer grants to help low-performing schools partner with outside experts.
In addition, he put forward a plan to require parents in the lowest-performing districts to attend parenting classes in order to enroll their children in full-day kindergarten. That idea met with resistance from some parents, who found it to be insulting and targeted at low-income people, according to published reports.
Legislative Relations
Mr. Romney testified before the Massachusetts legislature on his package of reforms, recalled Mr. Costrell, but the appeal didn鈥檛 drum up much support. Meanwhile, some state lawmakers remember him as disengaged from the legislative process and unwilling to collaborate.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have good memories, to say the least,鈥� said Rep. Patricia Haddad, a Democrat, who chaired the Massachusetts House education committee from 2005 to 2008 and now serves as the state House鈥檚 speaker pro tempore. 鈥淚 felt like he wanted me to do what he wanted me to do. It wasn鈥檛, 鈥楲et鈥檚 talk and find a balance.鈥� 鈥�
Those views were echoed by Paul Toner, the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, an affiliate of the 3.2 million-member National Education Association.
鈥淲e would find out about his most recent education policy through press releases,鈥� said Mr. Toner. He said the governor never 鈥渃onsulted with people in the field doing the job working with children.鈥�
The team of education policy advisers assembled by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney includes some big-name veterans of President George W. Bush鈥檚 administration, as well as prominent scholars and advocates on K-12 issues.
*Bush Administration
JOHN BAILEY*
Works with education entrepreneurs, philanthropies, and private-sector investors; former U.S. Department of Education director of educational technology and member of the White House Domestic Policy Council
ROBERT M. COSTRELL
Professor of education reform and economics, University of Arkansas; education adviser to then-Gov. Romney, 2005-06
CHRISTINA CULVER*
President of CH Global Strategies; former acting assistant U.S. secretary of education and deputy assistant secretary of education for intergovernmental and interagency affairs
CAROL D鈥橝MICO*
Vice president of Project Lead the Way; former assistant U.S. secretary of education for vocational and adult education
BILL EVERS*
Research fellow, Hoover institution; former assistant U.S. secretary of education for policy; senior adviser for education, coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq (2003)
SCOTT FLEMING
President and vice chairman, Madison Education Group; former senior vice president, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Scantron; former senior education policy adviser, U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
JULIO A FUENTES
President and chief executive officer, Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Opportunities
PHIL HANDY*
(Romney campaign higher education co-chair) Chief executive officer of Strategic industries; former chairman, Florida state board of education; former member, National Board of Education Sciences
BILL HANSEN*
(Romney campaign higher education co-chair) chairman and chief executive officer, Madison Education Group; former chairman and president, Scantron/Global Scholar; former deputy U.S. secretary of education
ROD PAIGE*
U.S. secretary of education, 2001-05; former superintendent of the Houston school district
TOM LUNA*
Idaho superintendent of public instruction and president of Council of Chief State School Officers; former senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige
PAUL E. PETERSON*
Professor of government, Harvard University; senior fellow, Hoover institution; editor-in-chief, Education Next; former member, U.S. Education Department independent review panel, No Child Left Behind Act
JIM PEYSER
Managing partner, New69传媒 Venture Fund; chairman, National Association of Charter School Authorizers; former chairman, Massachusetts state board of education
NINA S. REES*
(Romney campaign K-12 co-chair) Senior vice president for strategic initiatives, Knowledge universe; former assistant deputy U.S. secretary of education for innovation and improvement
EMILY STOVER DEROCCO*
President, Manufacturing Institute; former assistant secretary for employment and training, U.S. Department of Labor
HERBERT WALBERG
Distinguished visiting fellow, Hoover Institution
MARTIN R. WEST
(Romney campaign K-12 co-chair) Assistant professor of education, Harvard Graduate School of Education; executive editor, Education Next
GROVER J. 鈥淩USS鈥� WHITEHURST*
Senior fellow and director, Brookings institution鈥檚 Brown Center on Education Policy; former director, U.S. Institute of Education Sciences; former assistant secretary of education for educational research and improvement
SOURCE: Romney Campaign
But David P. Driscoll, who served as state education commissioner during Mr. Romney鈥檚 administration, described him as a collegial executive who put a major focus on improving outcomes for students.
鈥淧ublic education was definitely a priority for him. He was very supportive of it,鈥� said Mr. Driscoll, who was named schools chief by the state board鈥攏ot by Mr. Romney鈥攁nd is a registered Democrat. He said Mr. Romney did a lot of outreach on his agenda, including joining Mr. Driscoll in a series of forums across the state on education issues.
鈥淚 found him very good to work with,鈥� added Mr. Driscoll, who is now largely retired and does some consulting work.
Scholarships, Immersion
In a heartfelt moment in his education speech last month, Mr. Romney touted the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship program, which he started in Massachusetts and which gives students who score in the top 25 percent of their districts on state exams free tuition at the state鈥檚 public universities. The scholarships do not cover other costs, such as fees and room and board.
鈥淚 got more hugs on Adams Scholarship day than I did at Christmas,鈥� Mr. Romney said.
But the program wasn鈥檛 without its critics. A disproportionately small number of the state鈥檚 minority students or students from disadvantaged families qualified for the grants, according to a March 2006 study of the program, done on behalf of the Civil Rights Project, then at Harvard University, by Donald E. Heller, who at the time was the director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.
Mr. Costrell disputed the premise of the study, saying that it examined only students who were eligible for the scholarships鈥攏ot those who actually took advantage of the funding. He noted that only a handful of students from the state鈥檚 wealthiest school districts actually enroll in the program, compared with other districts with higher levels of poverty.
As governor, Mr. Romney also fought vehemently against bilingual education鈥攁 stance he reiterated time and again on the campaign trail this year, including in a series of debates with his rivals for the GOP nomination, though not in his speech in front of the Latino Coalition.
When Mr. Romney ran for governor in 2002, Massachusetts was considering a ballot initiative to put a stop to bilingual education, one of a number of such measures around the country backed by Ron Unz, a former businessman and a political activist. Support for the initiative became a major part of Mr. Romney鈥檚 campaign. He used it to draw distinctions between himself and his Democratic opponent, Shannon O鈥橞rien, who, like the state鈥檚 GOP acting governor at the time, Jane Swift, opposed the initiative.
Mr. Romney 鈥渞eally found this was a good wedge issue,鈥� said Roger Rice, the executive director of Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy, of Somerville, Mass. 鈥淚t was all about Mitt advancing his career.鈥�
But Mr. Romney, who writes in his book that he helped speed the implementation of Question 2, the ballot initiative, which voters adopted, believes he made the right move.
鈥淭ime and again, I heard from parents in the immigrant community who applauded the decision to scrap bilingual education in favor of English,鈥� he wrote.
Changing Views
Like many in his party鈥攚hose members in Congress overwhelmingly backed the NCLB law championed by President George W. Bush in 2001鈥擬r. Romney鈥檚 views on education have gone through an evolution.
As a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1994, running against Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Mr. Romney said he wanted to eliminate the Education Department. He also advocated policies that are still big parts of his K-12 agenda, including expanding vouchers and charter schools.
But, as a contender for the Republican nomination in 2008, Mr. Romney said he had been on the wrong track as a Senate candidate. He counted himself a supporter of the NCLB law鈥攁nd during a May 15, 2007, debate even identified the law as an area in which his own views differed sharply from those of the GOP base, which by then had begun to clamor for a more limited federal role in K-12 policy.
During the 2012 campaign, Mr. Romney has been much quieter on No Child Left Behind, praising its focus on testing and accountability while calling for turning back most decisionmaking to states.
He hasn鈥檛 yet unveiled a comprehensive proposal for reauthorization of the law, the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. But the bare-bones plan he sketched out last month is consistent with the general direction of some Republicans in Congress, such as Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, the chairman of the House education committee鈥攁nd amounts to a major rollback of the accountability system at the heart of the law.
The Romney plan would rely chiefly on transparency as the lever for school improvement, calling on states to craft A-F grading systems to gauge schools鈥� performance, as well as create 鈥渞eport cards鈥� that would include information such as state results on NAEP.
Mr. Romney鈥檚 position on the law shouldn鈥檛 be taken as an indication that he doesn鈥檛 think low-performing schools need to be turned around, said Martin West, the K-12 co-chair of his education advisory team, in a May 29 interview on the 鈥淥n Point鈥� public-radio program.
Instead, the candidate believes 鈥渢he federal government is poorly positioned to specify what needs to be done at the local level,鈥� said Mr. West, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The shift isn鈥檛 surprising, said Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.
鈥淚t completely reflects the center of gravity in the Republican Party,鈥� said Mr. Hess, who writes a blog for Education Week鈥榮 website. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no way to tell if Romney鈥檚 heart is where it was in 鈥�08. The balance of forces has shifted on this issue, and he has clearly followed suit.鈥�
In many ways, Mr. Romney has a challenge on education similar to one he has on health care, said Andrew J. Rotherham, a co-founder of Bellwether Education Partners, a Washington nonprofit group that works to improve outcomes for low-income students.
Mr. Romney won enactment of a health-care plan in Massachusetts that was seen as a model for President Obama鈥檚 2010 health-care law.
But he can鈥檛 talk about his past priorities, said Mr. Rotherham, who served as an education aide under President Bill Clinton, because such measures would smack of overreach at a time when the GOP wants to see a slimmer federal government.
School Choice, Teachers
Mr. Romney鈥檚 marquee proposal this time around would allow parents to use federal aid from the $14.5 billion Title I grant program for disadvantaged students and the $11.6 billion in state grants for special education at other public schools in their districts or states, at charter or private schools, or for online courses and tutoring.
The proposal raises a lot of tricky implementation questions, said Michael Griffith, a senior policy analyst with the Education Commission of the States, in Denver. For one thing, he said, the federal funds would likely only cover a fraction of the cost of educating a child at a private school, so local officials would have to elect to direct state and district dollars as well.
Meanwhile, Mr. Romney, like the president, calls for expanding high-quality charter schools. And, like Mr. Obama, he wants to combine a myriad of teacher-quality programs into a single funding stream.
Mr. Romney is seeking to scrap the requirement that all teachers must be highly qualified as defined under the NCLB law and to prod states to revise their teacher-evaluation policies鈥攕omething that Mr. Obama is also pushing in a plan offering states waivers of key NCLB mandates.
Mr. Romney wants to expand the $20 million D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program for students in Washington, a program whose funding Mr. Obama has proposed killing.
On higher education, the GOP candidate favors bolstering the role of the private sector, which he contends has been hurt by the administration鈥檚 decision to end the Federal Family Education Loan Program and to ensure that all loans originate through the Education Department.
Advising the Candidate
Mr. Romney鈥檚 long roster of education advisers reads like an invitation to a reunion of President George W. Bush鈥檚 appointees on K-12 issues. Eleven of Mr. Romney鈥檚 18 education advisers鈥攎ost notably, former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige鈥攕erved in the Bush administration in some capacity or were appointed to education panels by Mr. Bush.
President Barack Obama has used cash and executive authority to make a deep impact on national education policy鈥攁nd earned critics on both sides of the political aisle. Check back next week for an Education Week story on Obama鈥檚 Education record.
But the person most closely associated with the 43rd president鈥檚 NCLB law鈥擬argaret Spellings鈥攊s missing from the list. Ms. Spellings, who helped craft the law as White House domestic-policy adviser and then served as education secretary in Mr. Bush鈥檚 second term, had been part of the Romney team earlier this year. She bowed out because she felt the work conflicted with her role as a top education adviser to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
But Ms. Spellings continues to have warm feelings about Mr. Romney鈥檚 education policies, particularly his record in Massachusetts.
鈥淗e was one of the best governors in the country on education,鈥� she said in an interview.
