October 4, 2007
Posted: 04:15 PM ET
DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — Vowing that he would be "the" education president "unlike any president has in American history," Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, offered up his ideas for education reform Thursday, which include plans to overhaul the No Child Left Behind law, but, he says, not until he's in the Oval Office. "I would prefer the Democrats not try to fix No Child Left Behind…until I'm president," the Democratic hopeful said. "I'm not being facetious. I mean that seriously." Biden said he believes in waiting because he says NCLB couldn't be completely fixed during the current administration. Instead, he'd rather see it "tinkered with" for now so that he can be a part of a "wholesale re-do from the White House."
In remarks delivered to an audience of mostly students and reporters at a Des Moines high school, Biden praised one of the premises of NCLB–measuring success–but said the plan should also "promote success." He also criticized it for being poorly funded. In addition to NCLB reform, Biden's $30 billion plan would also include provisions to raise teacher pay to at least $45,000 a year and reduce class sizes by hiring 100,000 new teachers. He also said he would turn the current 12-year school system into one with 16 years by adding two years of pre-school and "making sure students can afford at least two years of higher education." Biden says he'd pay for the plan by eliminating tax cuts on the wealthiest one percent of Americans and by ending the war in order to use the money the nation is currently spending in Iraq. -CNN Iowa Producer Chris Welch
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