The following are President George W. Bush's and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry's responses to issue questions posed by The Associated Press.
Military Draft \nQ: Do you rule out a draft over the next four years?
Pres. Bush: "Yes. I am committed to keeping participation in the United States Armed Services voluntary. Recruitment and retention rates remain strong, and the military has not had any problem maintaining a capable force. We will not have a draft so long as I'm the president of the United States. In order to win the war on terror, we must ensure that our troops are highly skilled and specialized, and that they are trained and equipped to successfully complete their missions. The all-voluntary army allows us to create the strong, capable and skilled force that we need, which is why the all-voluntary army is working superbly. My pledge to our military is that they will have what they need to fight and get the job done. Our enemies need to know that we are determined, and any effort to test us will draw a strong response. We are transforming our military so that we can meet any test with all the might of this great country."
Sen. Kerry: "I oppose reinstating the draft, and I am committed to an all-volunteer military, and I'll have a foreign policy that brings allies to our side to share the burden around the world. George Bush has effectively used a backdoor draft of our National Guard and reserves and used a 'stop-loss' policy to extend tours of duty, delayed retirements and prevented enlisted personnel from leaving the service. I will fight to relieve the burden on our troops, while modernizing our military to meet new threats. I have a plan to expand the all-volunteer active duty army by 40,000 soldiers. Not by draft, and not to increase the number of soldiers in Iraq, but to add new volunteer soldiers trained and ready to meet new threats and relieve the strain on our troops. My plan will bring more of our soldiers, guardsmen and reservists back home to their families and get them time for the new training they need."
Education\nQ: Should the standards for testing students or assessing school performance under the No Child Left Behind law be changed?
Pres. Bush: "No Child Left Behind gives states the authority to create an accountability system of assessments, graduation rates and other academic indicators that best meet their needs. States not only can use indicators such as attendance or retention rates, but they may also take into account student growth through an index that calculates the percentage of students who improve to a 'basic' level of proficiency. Because of these efforts, the achievement gap has already begun to close. But I will never back away from my commitment to ensure every child is reading and doing math on grade level. My budget provides over $400 million each year to help states design and administer rigorous assessments that measure their state academic standards. I will work with states to help them develop the best possible assessments to measure student proficiency, but I will not make any changes that weaken NCLB's focus on quickly identifying students who need extra help and providing them the opportunity to improve."
Sen. Kerry: "John Edwards and I will make reform work for our schools. That means high standards and common sense. Today, many states are measuring student achievement with fill-in-the-bubble tests that limit both teaching and learning. We will make sure we are measuring the full range of skills and talents that we want students to develop. We will also ensure accurate assessments of schools' success. When the No Child Left Behind Act was signed, the Bush administration said the right things -- asking more from our schools and pledging to give them the resources to get the job done. But by now, they have underfunded No Child Left Behind by almost $27 billion, making it impossible for schools to meet the demands of the new law and literally leaving millions of children behind. We will fully fund No Child Left Behind so that we can provide our children with smaller classes, more textbooks and more after-school opportunities"
