Bush vs. Bush: Two Approaches to K-12 Policy

By Erik W. Robelen

Washington

When Vice President George Bush ran for the White House in 1988, he vowed to become the "education president." Now, 12 years later, his eldest son is pursuing the same office and is making education a centerpiece of his own campaign.

The parallel invites analysis into how the two Bushes approach education, and how Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the Republican nominee this time around, would follow in his father's footsteps and where he would likely part company. While it is difficult to overgeneralize, it seems clear that the younger Mr. Bush, if he is elected president in November, would offer a contrast of style and—in some, but not all ways—substance with his father on school issues.

"It's a question of the kind of experience the two of them had," said Bruno V. Manno, who was the Department of Education's assistant secretary for policy and planning under President Bush from 1991 to 1993. "This is an issue [Gov. Bush] sleeps, he eats, he breathes. ... The issue is much more part of his blood in ways it never could have...