Over at the Des Moines Register they’re noting how education — usually a mainstay of campaign stump speeches and debates — seems to have gotten the short shrift in this election cycle with health care, the war in Iraq, and the economic downturn dominating the coverage. Nobody expected that education policy would be the issue around which the 2008 presidential contest would revolve but it still seems awfully quiet out there. From the article:
Education usually doesn’t dominate presidential race issues, but researchers say it’s unusual for schools to slip off the radar as they seemingly have in the face-off between John McCain and Barack Obama.
“This is the first time in 20 years in my experience that education has been almost marginal in the presidential race,” said Chester Finn, who heads the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a nonprofit education policy group in Washington, D.C.
And it’s not as though the candidates don’t have plenty to disagree about. The article goes on to enumerate the differces between Obama and McCain on things like school vouchers, reforms to NCLB, and federal funding for better early childhood education.
However, education did get center stage at a slightly lower profile event yesterday evening. The chief education advisors for Barack Obama and John McCain, Linda Darling-Hammond and Lisa Graham Keegan, met at Columbia University to lay out their candidates’ respective positions on education policy. And they spoke before a full house, perhaps a sign that there’s hunger out there for more coverage of this issue. From the Columbia Spectator:
Teachers College students attending the event said that the debate held special meaning because the policies discussed could very well impact the nature of their jobs in the coming years.
“All of the decisions that are going to be made in the next few years are going to affect us as teachers, so I think it’s really important,” Jessica Weinstock, TC, said after the debate. “We’re supposed to be progressive and look at education in a new way and challenge what’s historically been done, so it’s very relevant to us.”
TC student Sarah Bever said she was impressed by both advisers, but that as a former public school teacher outside of Washington, D.C., she was excited about Obama’s emphasis on teacher training.
“When the candidates were first running in the primary, they sent out articles about their education policies and there was … very little from the John McCain campaign that was disclosed.” Bever said. “All the charts—no information, no information, no information.”
Even so, she concluded, both advisers seemed to have the nation’s best interests at heart.
“It’s obvious that they both want really what’s best for the country,” she said. “They just have very different ideals in terms of how they do it.”
Over at the Des Moines Register they’re noting how education — usually a mainstay of campaign stump speeches and debates — seems to have gotten the short shrift in this election cycle with health care, the war in Iraq, and the economic downturn dominating the coverage. Nobody expected that education policy would be the issue around which the 2008 presidential contest would revolve but it still seems awfully quiet out there. From the article:
Education usually doesn’t dominate presidential race issues, but researchers say it’s unusual for schools to slip off the radar as they seemingly have in the face-off between John McCain and Barack Obama.
“This is the first time in 20 years in my experience that education has been almost marginal in the presidential race,” said Chester Finn, who heads the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a nonprofit education policy group in Washington, D.C.
And it’s not as though the candidates don’t have plenty to disagree about. The article goes on to enumerate the differces between Obama and McCain on things like school vouchers, reforms to NCLB, and federal funding for better early childhood education.
However, education did get center stage at a slightly lower profile event yesterday evening. The chief education advisors for Barack Obama and John McCain, Linda Darling-Hammond and Lisa Graham Keegan, met at Columbia University to lay out their candidates’ respective positions on education policy. And they spoke before a full house, perhaps a sign that there’s hunger out there for more coverage of this issue. From the Columbia Spectator:
Teachers College students attending the event said that the debate held special meaning because the policies discussed could very well impact the nature of their jobs in the coming years.
“All of the decisions that are going to be made in the next few years are going to affect us as teachers, so I think it’s really important,” Jessica Weinstock, TC, said after the debate. “We’re supposed to be progressive and look at education in a new way and challenge what’s historically been done, so it’s very relevant to us.”
TC student Sarah Bever said she was impressed by both advisers, but that as a former public school teacher outside of Washington, D.C., she was excited about Obama’s emphasis on teacher training.
“When the candidates were first running in the primary, they sent out articles about their education policies and there was … very little from the John McCain campaign that was disclosed.” Bever said. “All the charts—no information, no information, no information.”
Even so, she concluded, both advisers seemed to have the nation’s best interests at heart.
“It’s obvious that they both want really what’s best for the country,” she said. “They just have very different ideals in terms of how they do it.”