Campaigning on the Net
The campaign offices of all the 1996 presidential candidates have created “home pages” on the World Wide Web, the portion of the Internet computer network that employs graphics and allows users to maneuver by clicking a computer mouse. But finding information about education is easier on some home pages than on others.
Typically, viewers have the option of reading news releases, position papers, candidate biographies, and speeches, as well as signing on to contribute money or elbow grease.
Such candidates as former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., include position papers on education. Mr. Alexander, for example, provides statements on the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, school prayer, and the federal role in education. Mr. Lugar offers qualified support for a federal role and notes his endorsement of voucher programs.
Other candidates do not offer specific statements on education. But they usually mention some education positions in news releases, newspaper articles, and speeches. Finding the education nugget can be difficult and time consuming, but it’s there.
For example, Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Tex., calls for eliminating the Department of Education in his on-line documents. But Mr. Gramm’s statement on the issue comes in response to a question at the end of a recent speech to the National Federation of Independent Business, and is not noted in the table of contents.
The White House also has a home page in cyberspace, where viewers can find news releases and President Clinton’s speeches, many of which have recently chastised congressional Republicans for proposed education cuts.
The campaign pages can be reached at these Internet addresses:
- Lamar Alexander: http://www.Nashville.Net:80/~lamar
- Pat Buchanan: http://www.buchanan.org
- Bob Dole: http://www.dole96.com
- Steve Forbes: http://www.forbes96.com
- Phil Gramm: http://www.gramm96.org
- Richard Lugar: http://www.iquest.net/lugar
- Arlen Specter: http://www.bizserve.com/specter
- Morry Taylor: http://www.webcom.com/~morry96
- White House/Bill Clinton: http://www.whitehouse.gov
--Mark Pitsch
