State Budget Woes Threaten to Chill Education Initiatives

Legislators react warily as national campaigns outline reform agendas.

New Orleans

While advisers for the two major parties’ presumptive presidential nominees are touting education reform ideas—from more virtual schools to expanded teacher recruitment—state legislators are grappling with harsh economic conditions that threaten to stifle such initiatives.

Campaign platforms and budget woes came head to head here this week at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual summer meeting, which provided a stage for education advisers to Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama. (See " Candidates' K-12 Views Take Shape ," this issue.)

Former Arizona state schools chief Lisa Graham Keegan, representing Sen. McCain, and Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond, representing Sen. Obama, reinforced the differences between the candidates at a July 23 forum that drew a standing-room-only crowd...