Political reporter Colin Benedict has been asking voters what they look for in a president candidate -- on the economy, education, health care and national security -- and if they are better off than they were four years ago.

Take a close look at your child's classroom. Is it better than it was four years ago? Colin Benedict continues his look at 2004 presidential race with a look at education in Part II of this special series. Education will always be a top issue in elections, especially for parents. Big changes have come in the last four years, all from four words, "No Child Left Behind."

Peg Walker is teaching things she never has before in her 31 years. After No Child Left Behind legislation, she's made some improvements at Sandhill School in Stoughton, but there's a catch.

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"One of the things they say all children should learn is data in graphs, and I never taught that before," Walker said. "But I have a lot of concerns. The big thing is the emphasis of the law is to take a snapshot of a kid only to do a standardized testing on a given day. It is important, but you don't need to test the kid on the standardized test -- third grade, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and again in 10th."

Walker is worried about what the test doesn't measure -- leadership, creativity and working well with others.

Oregon parent Dolly Ledin has those same concerns for her daughters Grace, 11, and Emma, 8.

"T here are so many things that are important to learn that can't be measured by pencil and paper," Ledin said.

Since No Child Left Behind, she's seen a culture of testing and stress. Ledin said what standardized tests don't account for are differences, such as Grace and Emma have very different learning styles.

"I don't necessarily see them receiving adequate instruction to meet their individual needs," Ledin said. "I would like to see a lot more emphasis on that."

Madison school superintendent Art Rainwater said his district has tried to simplify mandates.

"Education is a very, very complex task," he said. "What No Child Left Behind has done has tried to reduce it to a very, very simple solution."

Rainwater said testing the 25,000 kids in his district isn't bad -- it's what you do with the numbers.

"The very negative side of No Child Left Behind are the sanctions that apply if you don't make the kind of progress that's kind of arbitrarily assigned," he said.

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Walker said that schools should also get more funding when they are identified with low-test scores.

"What resources do they need to become great schools? Is it up to date books? Is it more reading teachers? Is it math support?" she said.

Rainwater and parent Ledin agree education is worse off than four years ago. Teacher Walker said she's a little better off.

How Do Candidates Compare On Education?

Sens. John Edwards and John Kerry voted for No Child Left Behind, but all the Democratic candidates for president say they want to change it.

Gov. Howard Dean would reduce the emphasis on standardized testing but add money to the program overall. He would also fully fund special education. To help students pay off loans, he would make it law you'd never have to pay more than 10 percent of your income.

Edwards voted for the president's education bill, but wants more funding for it. He'd invest $3 billion more to train teachers. On higher education, Edwards would give students one free year of tuition, if they provide community service 10 hours a week.

Kerry wants to de-emphasize standardized tests and reward states that have higher standards. He also supports a national education trust fund that would automatically fund mandates from Washington. Kerry supports up to a $4,000 yearly tax credit for college students.

Gen. Wes Clark, who dropped out of the race Wednesday, calls No Child Left Behind a "failure."

All candidates oppose private school vouchers.

News 3 and UPN14 are your source for complete election coverage next Tuesday night. Tune to UPN14 starting at 9 p.m. Then join Channel 3 beginning at 10 p.m. for live reports from candidate headquarters and expert analysis. Channel 3000 will have up-to-the-minute returns throughout the night.