Hi - long time no blogging. Well as I play catch-up I will dig into a new a Huffington Post series on Presidential Candidates on Education. I was made aware of the first piece on Alexander's
This Week In Education -
Presidential Candidates on Education: The Republicans. Alexander is understandably unimpressed with current proposals by the GOP - and refers to an
EdWeek article about the GOP candidates and education.
On Monday the Huffington Post posted about the
Democratic Presidential candidates. Like with the GOP version, they scoured campaign and congressional/state legislative websites to determine each candidates stance on education issues (which is precisely what I would have done...Thanks Huffington Post!)
Barack Obama - He appears to care about educational issues - though seems a bit detached, offering policies that the education community could be skeptical of. He was not in office to vote on NCLB and furthermore makes no mention of it.
Bill Richardson - Although he has made strides in NM for public education, he makes little effort to make it a presidential priority. Richardson is in a tough position, fighting for a spot near the top of the Dems. Unfortunately, no one has won a presidential election on education issues.
Hillary Clinton - Appears to strongly support education issues - however she is also on the Senate HELP cmte which by definition requires her to be active on education issues. No big surprises - defends her NCLB vote and asserts that it has been underfunded...etc. I would like to point out that regardless of what is written on the website what matters is what she says to the American people while campaigning. And I haven't heard much about education yet.
John Edwards - As expected, he combines support for public education in his Eliminating Poverty goal. Doesn't say much on NCLB - but offers an idea of second chance schools for HS dropouts.
Dennis Kucinich - He is included in this post for speaking out the most on high-stakes testing. We appreciate his desire for critical thinking over standardized testing. However, he is barely making the polls. The opposite of the front running group - he likely won't make the nomination so he can talk about important education issues because it doesn't matter if it won't get him elected if he won't anyways. Nothing to lose.
Just a note - Chris Dodd is in favor of national standards.
How can education successfully grab hold of the presidential race? Bill Gates and the Broad Foundation are going to try -
Alexander reported that the "Strong American Schools Partnership" will officially launch next Tuesday.
Labels: 2008 Presidential Race