Inhofe and Rice talk education

By Jennifer Pierce, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY - A few weeks ago, NEWS 9's Jennifer Pierce sat down with the two candidates running for the Oklahoma U.S. Senate seat.

In this final week, Republican incumbent Jim Inhofe and Democratic challenger Andrew Rice share their thoughts about education.

The publication "Education Week" gave Oklahoma public schools a ‘C' in educational achievement in 2007.

One of the U.S Senate candidates believes part of the problem stems from the No Child Left Behind Act, a federal law aimed at improving public schools performances.

"This was a theoretical idea of what they thought could work, could work in some districts, they applied it to the country and didn't fund it, so that's been a real disappointment," Rice said.

Republican Jim Inhofe agrees the best solutions to education don't always come from government.

"Let's don't assume like what we're hearing from Obama and most of the democrats that are running for office that government needs to come in and have the solution to education from Washington D.C.," Inhofe said.

Inhofe focused on the nation's universities during his NEWS 9 interview. To compete with the world, Inhofe would like to see more college students graduating with engineering and science degrees.

"I think the universities, the education system, not government should recognize that and start training more for the market as opposed to training for where they might be able to enhance their coffers a little bit more," Inhofe said.

But in this credit crunch, it's harder for college students to get the loans they need to stay in school. If elected into office, Rice said he would seek solutions to the problem.

"I would support, once we get our economy on track and get our budget in better fiscal health, to work towards having good student loans and higher amounts of Pell Grants to enable them to go to college," Rice said.

To watch the full sit-down interviews, click on the video links to the right.