Editor’s Note: The candidates for the U.S. Sixth Congressional district are incumbent Democrat James Clyburn and Republican challenger Jim Pratt. We posed these questions to the candidates and below are their answers.

What three steps would you take to help improve high school graduation rates?

James Clyburn: Unlike state and local governments, Congress has no definitive jurisdiction over issues that directly impact high school graduation rates.  However, as a former public school teacher, I know that students are affected by their surroundings and circumstances, and these are areas where Congress can act. I would take the following three steps:
#1.  Expand Jr. ROTC by eliminating the 14 years-old age requirement and allow school districts to set grade-level eligibility. My bill to do so passed the House but the Senate said NO. 
#2. Make grants available to incentivize the use of school uniforms, and;
#3. To incentivize the awarding of school letters for academics and fine arts achievements in the same manner as we do athletics.
Failing schools are usually a reflection of struggling communities. Schools cannot be successful if safety and stability are foreign to their students and parents and a visit to a doctor or dentist is a considered a luxury they cannot afford. We must do more as a nation to empower communities that have been historically left behind, which is why I championed efforts to designate American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for underserved communities.

Because SC continues to deny level funding for its rural schools, I acted in the Recovery Act to address the needs of rural and neglected school districts.  The Act provided nearly $23.5 million in a 4-percent, 40-year loan to replace J.V. Martin Junior High School, which became symbolic of inferior schools.  Another $4 million USDA Recovery Act grant will help construct a new cafeteria at J.V. Martin.  Dillon School District 2, in which J.V. Martin is located, only graduates 48% of its 9th grade students within four years.
Finally, I believe Congress should invest in the recruitment and retention of quality teachers. I know firsthand that teachers can make a difference. 

I would propose that we adopt a better way to fund our schools. We should allocate our educational funding to each child, instead of allocating funding to each political district. Parents, not politicians, should decide what is in the best interest of their children. An equal distribution of funding would allow every child in the state to have an equal allocation of that state’s educational funding. For South Carolina, that number would be around $11,000 per child, and let the parent choose between a public school and any other school that meets basic educational standards. The state of Florida is a model for successful education reform.

What specific changes would you make to amend No Child Left Behind? Why?

James Clyburn: I support renaming and fully funding NCLB. In addition, I support modifying its provisions that penalize under-performing schools. These are the schools in most need of our support and our resources, and we should look for ways that provide more of a carrot than a stick to improve their performance. 

Jim Pratt: I would abandon NCLB. Passed in 2002, No Child Left Behind offered the most sweeping changes to federal education policy in a generation. The 1,100-page bill increased federal spending on K-12 education programs by 26 percent and created new rules and regulations governing the 96,000 public schools across the country. Most importantly, the law required states to test students annually and show consistent growth in academic achievement. It set a national goal that all children perform at grade-level in reading and math by 2014, when, thus, no child will be failing.

However, after 8 years, how should parents and taxpayers grade NCLB? Consider the following report card: 

Constraining federal spending: F. Democrats in Congress continue to argue that NCLB is grossly under-funded, but the truth is that federal spending on education programs has grown by 35 percent since President Clinton signed his last education budget. Federal spending on NCLB totaled $23.5 billion in 2007, compared to just $17.4 billion in 2001.

Streamlining bureaucracy and red tape: F. Speaking of strings, NCLB has significantly increased bureaucracy and regulation.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, NCLB has increased the annual paperwork burden on state and local communities by 7 million hours, or $140 million. Funds that could be going to the classroom are being used to pay bureaucrats to fill out paperwork.

Maintaining meaningful state testing: C. NCLB has required states to focus a lot more on testing. In some states that weren’t very serious about their testing before 2001, NCLB has called attention to low-performing public schools.

But states that already had quality testing systems have been forced to waste time and resources trying to comply with new federal rules. What’s worse, there is good reason to believe that many states are lowering testing standards to show more students passing and to avoid federal sanctions.

Giving parents information and choices: D. NCLB was supposed to give parents better information about their children’s schools, while offering parents with kids trapped in failing schools the opportunity to choose something better. Unfortunately, these goals have not been realized. School report cards are often hard to understand and many parents are not informed by their school district of their school choice options.

Restoring state and local control: F. Congress and federal bureaucrats now control decisions that were once left to state and local officials, such as what qualifications teachers must have and what academic subjects should be included in state tests.

Improving academic achievement: Incomplete. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which provides a cross-section of educational achievement data based on a sample of students across the country, there is no evidence of significant improvement in American schools since 2002. If history is any guide, however, this "incomplete" is likely to become an "F" before long.

For more than forty years, politicians in Washington, D.C. have been trying to improve America’s schools by spending more money and creating new programs and regulations. But long-term measures of students’ academic achievement show that little progress has been made.

By now, one thing should be clear: When it comes to fixing America’s public schools, Washington doesn’t have the answer.

James Clyburn: To build a 21st century economy, we must create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, and put people to work cleaning up our air, water and land. Investments in infrastructure and green energy are homegrown, American owned jobs that cannot be shipped overseas. That is why I sponsored the Rural Star legislation that recently passed the House that the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina estimates will create 7,000 jobs in our state alone. I also support passing the Highway bill and paying for it with a .25 percent fee on all securities transactions. Repairing our aging roads and bridges will create construction and manufacturing jobs here at home. Lastly, I believe in providing incentives to companies that innovate especially in the area of alternative energy. The federal government has awarded Clemson a $45 million to develop wind turbine technology at the old Charleston Navy Base. That project has the potential to make South Carolina a hub for this new technology and create as many as 20,000 jobs in the long term. 

2) Advocate reform of our burdensome tax code, specifically advocating the adoption of the Fair Tax (HR-25) which would untax virtually all aspects of taxing wages, income, wealth, capital gains and assets, and replace those complex taxes with a flat simple sales tax on new goods and services. This change would make the U.S. the world’s tax haven and lure back all those jobs and businesses that have fled for off shore destinations. The Fair Tax would also attract foreign industry to our shores.

3) Phasing in a Chilean/Galveston style Social Security system for those younger than 35 years old. That one change would do for the U.S., what it has done for Chile where the poverty rate has plummeted from over 40 percent in the 1970s to less than 5 percent today. According to Forbes Magazine, Chile is one of the most economically stable countries on the planet mainly due to the high savings and investment rate of the individual citizens via ownership of their social security system.

What do you see as the three most important issues facing residents of the Sixth Congressional District and of Daniel Island in particular?

James Clyburn: While Daniel Island may be demographically different from the majority of the Sixth Congressional District, I believe all Americans share the same dreams and aspirations – a quality education for our children, a vibrant economy for our nation, and safe and secure homes and communities. I have addressed the education and job creation piece in previous questions, but I would like to address the issue of family/personal security. We all want to feel safe and secure in our homes and to know that we will not be the victims of malfeasance. I am proud of the work this Congress has done to protect homeowners, and to ensure the greed that led to the housing collapse, and our economy as a whole, don’t occur again. 
Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, this Congress addressed secure homes and safe communities by saving numerous public safety jobs, and we have invested millions in COPS grants to enhance local law enforcement agencies. 
Finally, one of the most important things we can do to ensure our nation’s security is to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. That is why I support investing in a variety of alternative energy sources from nuclear and solar to wind and biofuels.