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Education

Another two bite the dust

By Alyson Klein — January 30, 2008 1 min read
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The field is narrowing. John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, and former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are expected to drop out of the presidential contest today.

Edwards had, arguably, been the most critical of NCLB of the three Democrats left, even suggesting at one point that lawmakers might want to consider “ditching” the law, a six-year-old reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. His rivals, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York, and Barack Obama of Illinois, both advocate for “fixing” the measure, but neither has suggested scrapping it entirely.

UPDATE: Read the remarks John Edwards made today from New Orleans, where he said that the two remaining Democrats have pledged to make ending poverty central to their campaigns.

Giuliani never developed an education platform much beyond his call to expand school choice. Of the three Republicans left in the race, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is perhaps the least prone to discussing education. It’ll be interesting to see whether his former governor rivals, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, try to use their experience overseeing their state education systems to prove that they’re better equipped to lead on this issue than McCain. If they don’t? It might be further proof that education is a backburner issue in this race – at least for many Republican primary voters.