Clinton's and Trump's plans to help education differ sharply

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Washington. Hillary Clinton has spent decades talking about the needs of children and touting the benefits of early education. It’s a new subject for Donald Trump. The Republican presidential nominee

Hillary Clinton has spent decades talking about the needs of children and touting the benefits of early education. It's a new subject for Donald Trump.

The Republican presidential nominee added plans for education to his still relatively thin roster of policy proposals this past week, unveiling an effort to spend $20 billion during his first year in office to help states expand school choice programs. Trump wasn't shy about his intentions, debuting his ideas at an inner-city charter school in Cleveland as part of his new outreach to minority voters.

"There's no failed policy more in need of urgent change than our government-run education monopoly," Trump said at the school, blaming the Democratic Party for having "trapped millions of African-American and Hispanic youth in failing government schools that deny them the opportunity to join the ladder of American success."

"It's time to break up that monopoly," he said.

But like many of his policy plans, this was one was vague, with few specifics.

Trump argued his approach would create "a massive education market," one that produces better outcomes than the nation's existing public education system. Beyond his $20 billion in federal money, he wants states to divert another $110 billion of their own education budgets to support school choice efforts, providing $12,000 to every elementary school student living in poverty to attend the school of their choice.

Clinton's much more detailed education plans, meanwhile, are firmly rooted in improving the country's public schools. The Democratic nominee has called for new spending to improve classrooms, improve teacher salaries and add computer science programs.

"We're going to invest in education and skills, from early childhood education to giving our teachers the tools and flexibility they need to succeed in the classroom, without a lot of top-down strings all over them from Washington," she said on Monday.

On education, the two candidates are as far apart as they are on any issue at stake in the 2016 election.

Source:AP