The Gore plan also holds schools accountable for reducing dropout rates. He expects schools to develop aggressive strategies to reduce dropout rates. Gore's plan offers bonuses to school districts and schools that make significant progress. Gore also supports matching grants for states that raise the compulsory school age from 16 to 18. Vouchers are at the heart of Bush's school accountability plan.
Parents can use that money to send their child to another school, including private schools.
The benefits of using vouchers to improve education for at-risk and minority students continues to be debated, even among academics who study the issue. However, Bush says, vouchers work. As a result of these commonsense reforms, test scores are up for all students in all grades, particularly African American and Hispanic children. Gore opposes school vouchers. Although he agrees that parents need to have more school choice, he says, the way to accomplish that is by tripling the current number of public charter schools.