Meet the Joneses Part III: Education

Aug. 27, 2008 — -- As the administration of George W. Bush comes to an end, across the nation schools are living in the shadows of the controversial "No Child Left Behind" initiative.

With education issues in mind, "Good Morning America" met another family of Joneses to see how the current system is working for them and to find out how they hope the next president will be able to change things for the better.

Adele and Stephen Jones live in Pennsylvania. Adele, a nurse, and Stephen, a university administrator, are worried about the education of their two children, Stephanie, 12, and Stephen, 17.

"Everyone wants the best education they possibly can for their children," Stephen said.

So when their kids were zoned to a failing public school, the Joneses said the only way to find a better school was to move.

"We're really interested in having our children go to college," Stephen said. "And we didn't see that a lot of those children were able to make it into college."

According to Adele, every private high school in the area with a good reputation costs more than $25,000 per year.

"[It's] very sad," she said.

Even finding a new public high school would not solve all the Jones' problems.

Stephen, a straight-A student, would likely be attractive to many colleges, but his parents do not know if they can afford it.

Obama on Education

According to the Barack Obama camp, the presumptive Democratic nominee's plan does support public charter schools, but it opposes vouchers to help parents send their kids to private school.

Melody Barnes, domestic policy advisor for the Obama campaign, suggests that families, like the Joneses, look at "charter schools and magnet schools available to them as well."

"We want to make an investment in our public schools," Barnes said in an interview with "Good Morning America."

As far as getting Stephen to college, the Obama plan would offer a $4,000 tax credit for higher education for families making up to $110,000.

But the credit would not be enough, according to the nonpartisan Urban Institute.

"It will come nowhere near the needs of individuals going on to higher education," said Jane Hannaway of the Urban Institute. "It should cover most community colleges, unless of course community colleges raise their tuition."

According to Barnes, Obama plans to help by working to lower the tuition of many colleges through government spending.

"We have seen a lot of innovative initiatives out there to try and make college more affordable," she said. "So you combine that with the kind of resources Senator Obama is putting into grants, and that's the way to address it from the other end.

"The first thing I'll say is how can we afford not to do it?" Barnes said. "The way [Obama] plans to do that -- first, there's the savings from Iraq. That's about $90 billion a year. He's also talking about dealing with the issue of earmarks. And the issue around student loan savings."

She added, "He's proposing a system that's less expensive to everyone."

"Good Morning America" will be examining McCain's plans on various topics in relation to the average American family next week.