Education-free AFT Ad
Apparently even teachers' unions believe voters aren't really thinking about education this election cycle.
The American Federation of Teachers is running a radio ad for its endorsed presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in the primary battleground of Pennsylvania. The ad doesn't mention education or schools at all, although one of three voters featured in the ad is a teacher. The others are a "retired university professor" and a former Navy careerist. One voter says she's "worried we're falling into a recession" -- more evidence of how the economy has trumped education. Another says that the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, won't represent "a change" from the Bush administration, an apparent nod to foriegn policy, terrorism, and the war in Iraq.
No one in the ad says anything about merit pay, American competitiveness, or funding for public education. There's not even a vague reference to "better schools" or "our children's future." Disappointing. But not really surprising.
