Election Notebook

Washington

The country's two major political parties go into the fall presidential campaign after national conventions that both sought to make education a defining theme.

Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, vowed to make education the "nation's No. 1 priority" at his party's meeting, held Aug. 14-17 in Los Angeles.

Two weeks earlier, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the Republican nominee, emphasized the need to provide "every child" with the opportunity to learn during his speech to the GOP convention in Philadelphia, held...