Tuesday, February 19, 2008

McCain on Education: Where Art Thou?

In the latest Education Week Campaign '08 story, my colleague, David Hoff, unearthed everything he possibly could, within deadline constraints, on Sen. John McCain's views on education.

The conclusion: There's not much to find. Education just isn't his issue. At least, not right now.

This quote from Hoff's story pretty much says it all:
“I don’t think he has a strong track record of putting education at the top of his priorities,” said Frank Davidson, the superintendent of the 8,000-student Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Ariz.

It doesn't help that McCain's campaign office won't respond to requests for information either (as Hoff's story explains).

While Hoff's story notes that a federal hands-off approach may be appealing to some education advocates, it would still be nice if McCain would offer some more details on, at a minimum, what he would do with No Child Left Behind. Like it or not, if elected, McCain would have to deal with the law.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Touches to the heart of the matter. As a teacher, I need to know tat our government intends to do something positive about the state of education (dare I mention NCLB?).

The issue is complicated further when certain teacher unions support one candidate, but individual members support another.

Anonymous said...

Education is obviously a very important matter in today's society but it doesnt seem to be the issue that will flip voters one way or another. There just doesn't seem to be much controversy over the issue, therefore not much coverage.

KidzArt