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February 27, 2008
The one presidential debate that's not happeningBoardBuzz agrees wholeheartedly with this op-ed in today's edition of USA Today, which points out that public education has become "an afterthought" in presidential debates. The author, Wendy Puriefoy, CEO of the Public Education Network asserts, "Nearly 50 million of our nation's children attend public schools, yet the men and women who aspire to lead us have spent less time debating how these children are being educated than it takes to get a haircut or a facial." Strong (but true) words.
On the rare occasion that the presidential candidates have managed to get in a few words about education, they've often recycled such buzz words as No Child Left Behind and unfunded mandate, with little substance or meaning attached. We are hearing the same repetitive statistics on students' poor graduation rates and their lackluster performance in math and science compared with other countries, but rarely are any concrete solutions offered to tackle these challenges.
There is no reason why education should not be debated as feverishly as healthcare, the economy, the Iraq war, and immigration. There are plenty of substantive issues to debate that affect our kids' education every day. Most of all, there is NCLB, which is now driving the activities in many of our schools.
Public education advocates need to hear from our presidential candidates on exactly how they will improve NCLB and address other challenges in our schools, and not just as an afterthought. How exactly, for example, should student performance be accurately measured and how to build the capacity of local schools and school districts to help student achieve? The list goes on and on.
Posted February 27, 2008 4:45 PM | Advocacy & Legislation
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Comments(1)
Posted by: Carolyn F. on February 28, 2008 10:10 AM
I agree.
In fact, I wrote a blog post to the presidential candidates trying to get some other issues on the table.
I think NCLB has dominated the conversation so the response is what the candidates are for/against, rather than all the other many substantive issues ALSO facing 21st century educators.
Thanks for pointing this editorial out.
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