KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Friday if he is elected to the White House next year, he would work to make sure that educators are held more accountable, that teachers get performance-based rewards and that students have choices in their schools.

The Arizona senator, wrapping up a two-day campaign swing through Michigan with a stop in Kalamazoo, also said as president he would not interfere with the overall responsibility of education that resides with state and local governments.

"I would not have a federal takeover of the educational system of America," he told reporters prior to a $50-per-plate luncheon held by the Kalamazoo County Republican Party. About 400 people attended the event, an annual fundraiser for the local party.

McCain campaigned Thursday in Oakland County's West Bloomfield Township and in Holland. After his visit to Kalamazoo, known nationally for its pioneering "Kalamazoo Promise" free college tuition program, he was headed for other campaign stops Friday in Peoria, Ill., and Dubuque, Iowa.

McCain also ran for president in 2000 and pulled off an upset in Michigan's GOP presidential primary when he defeated then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

During his Michigan campaign stops this week, he spoke mostly about the war in Iraq, jobs and education, including President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind law.

The law is headed for fundamental changes as Congress rewrites it this year, including a likely softening of do-or-die deadlines.

School administrators have long complained about the annual deadlines, which punish schools that do not make adequate progress toward having all children perform at their grade levels. They also have rebelled at requirements that students with limited English ability or learning disabilities perform as well as their grade-level peers.

McCain said there's a possibility that Congress will delay in tweaking and reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, which expires in 2009. If he is elected president and the law still hasn't been reauthorized by the time he is in the White House, he would make that his top educational priority, he said.

McCain drew criticism from Democrats, however, on education.

"The problem has been that the president and McCain and the Republicans never fully funded that act," said Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party.

"His rhetoric doesn't match his record," Brewer said.

"I would do anything I could to hold teachers and schools more accountable," he said before the Kalamazoo luncheon. "I would reward teachers on the basis of performance. I would do everything I could to provide choice and competition among schools."