I’ve noted that I am a pro-market, pro-NCLB Republican repeatedly (here and here for example), so it should come as no great surprise that I’m aligned with the Republican candidate. Since April of 2008 I’ve been providing input to education advisor Lisa Graham Keegan that is relevant to the school improvement industry. It’s a pro bono activity for this small businessman, I am not exactly part of the inner circle of John McCain’s campaign, and I have not been commenting on the candidates.
Although I will not comment on specifics, and my views are hardly the last word on any matter of campaign policy, it’s no great leap to figure out the kind of advice I might offer. I am not your typical “education” Republican (listen here for example), but if you’ve read my “Letters From” on edbizbuzz.com starting in April of last year, listened to my weekly podcasts since 2005, subscribed to any of my firm’s information services since 2004, worked your way through my list of publications since the early 1990s, or come across me in any of my previous jobs in the k-12 policy arena, you know the issues I think about and my positions.
Since I was approached by Lisa – whom I’d met in the course of my intermittent yet long period of working on charters, I’ve avoided saying or writing anything direct about the Presidential candidates. First, I did not want to be seen by the campaign as pushing positions I might advance with them by repeating them at large, nor do I want edbizbuzz readers to see me as a shill for the campaign. Second, there wasn’t all that much I had to say about the campaign. Third, I had other things to write about.
I’m hardly in the media’s eye, but I do correspond with a lot of people in or connected to reporting on public education. So far, I have not been in a position where I’ve been asked what I think about the campaign, nor have I had reason to add my two cents as a partisan. According to the rules I live by, either would require me to explain that I have skin in this game.
I do want to start writing about campaign issues in a more direct way after my annual August hiatus. I do expect media contacts to start asking questions. Im an advsor, not a spokesperson, yet however minor my role in the development of Senator McCain’s education policy has been to date, I think it’s better for all concerned if the relationship is placed on the table at a time when it is least likely to influence or be influenced by campaign events - or be characterized as such.
