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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > October > 03 > Entry
McCain, Obama and Education
If you are reading this blog, chances are you are already pretty interested in education issues.
I mean, I’m under no delusions here: this blog is no Celebrity Worship, or High School Sports Blog or Book Nook and not just an entertaining way to spend your coffee break.
And I spend the majority of every day thinking about education as an education reporter. And something I’ve noticed lately? Education seems to be on the back burner in this year’s presidential race between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama. Issues like the economy, the Iraq war, foreign policy and lipstick are the spotlight of ‘08.
But for those of us who care enough about education to write and/or read this blog. the policies of both candidates are out there.
First there’s the obvious and what actually prompted me to write this blog: endorsements. Several education groups have made theirs.
One of the most comprehensive of these is Education Votes by the National Education Association. I received the monthly Ohio Education Association magazine recently where Ohio’s largest teacher’s union followed suit with the NEA to endorse Obama.
Keep in mind that endorsements are opinions and therefore will be slanted toward the selected campaign. A better way to examine each candidate’s education policies would be to go straight to the source.
Obama and Sen. Joe Biden present their education plans here. There’s a lot of focus on early childhood education, increasing federal funding for education, teacher training and retention and reforming No Child Left Behind, among other things. Obama raised a few eyebrows at Stebbins High School when he presented his education plan which included a couple of points - performance pay for teachers and charter schools - typically espoused by Republican candidates.
McCain and Gov.Sarah Palin delve into their economic policies here School choice is a big theme here. He’s relatively supportive of No Child Left Behind, particularly its goals, as well as teacher recruitment through alternative certification and bonuses for teachers in the most challenging schools and expanding online and digital learning programs.
And finally the pundits and the media. The Education Writers Association launched last year a blog that would track candidate’s education policies as they stumped for the presidency. Some of the best education reporters in the state (including the Dayton Daily News’ Scott Elliott) were chosen to follow the campaign through primaries to the election and report on the education aspects.
Here’s the blog: To the right you can click on a candidates name and see all the posts on that candidate. The participating reporters have also linked to articles in mainstream media that they feel did a good job of presenting education policies in the 2008 election.
Who do you think has the best education policy?
NOTE: If two local people were interested in writing an opinion blog about the education policy (one for McCain and one for Obama), I’d like to post them to the blog. If anyone’s interested, let me know.
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