Americans ranked education as first or second on the national priority list leading up to the 2000 presidential election. Now it appears to be a marginal issue for presidential candidates, who are spending more time pushing their views on the war in Iraq, health care, immigration, and energy issues.
While few of the candidates have spent much time articulating their positions on education, the topic is crucial to other issues that dominate the presidential debates, Arthur Levine writes in this Education Week Commentary.
The national media and the private sector are important catalysts for getting candidates to address education in their campaigns, Mr. Levine argues. Several projects are under way to bring the issue to the forefront. But if education continues its slide from the national agenda, says Mr. Levine, weak and inequitable schools will result.
What do you think can be done to ensure that education remains on the top of the political agenda?
