Bachrach also offered a proposal for educationreform quite different from that of his Democraticopponents, who have worked together on educationalissues in the state legislature.

Roosevelt and Barrett support a plan toincrease Massachusett's educational standards asmeasured by higher scores on standardized tests.The two candidates also advocate school choice forstudents.

"It's a moving thing to watch students get on abus at 5:30 in the morning in search of bettereducation," said Roosevelt, who sponsored a 1993education reform bill in the House ofRepresentatives.

Bachrach, however, opposes unlimited schoolchoice, which he said in the debate will harmurban schools.

He also prefers focusing on students'creativity to increasing their test scores.Sustained funding for sports and arts programs, hesaid, are integral to improving Massachusetts'schools.

"Unless we can instill intellectual curiosity,"Bachrach said, "We will raise the wrong kind ofstudents.