Because of the achievement gap between white and Asian students and other minority students, DiDomenico said it was important to address education issues at the elementary level.

During his time in office, he co-sponsored several amendments for early education funding.

According to Cambridge City Councillor Leland Cheung, DiDomenico has also fought shrinking budgets, large class sizes, and teacher lay-offs in schools.

For Bush, it was more important to look at other aspects of education such as the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, an annual statewide standardized exam.

Even though Bush said she has “talked to teachers who think that the MCAS system is working well,” she said that training teachers in preparation for the test costs the state.

But Bush cautioned against a sudden, drastic overhaul.

“We need to be very careful about jumping into a new approach,” Bush said.

AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

DiDomenico said he has been working on making sure that the cost of “health care was capped and anyone who wanted to increase it has to justify the reasons.”

“Health care is the highest number in our budget,” DiDomenico said.

As someone who, in her words, is “not a fan of health care as legislated by the government,” Bush said that “when people do not pay to be part of a system, then they feel entitled to use it.”

Agreeing that health care is a large cost for the state, Bush said that charging individuals for use of services would insure that money is used more wisely.

“I could not tell you a specific thing that has to be done because it’s a huge expense for the taxpayers,” Bush said.

—Staff writer Rediet T. Abebe can be reached at rtesfaye@college.harvard.edu.