Campaign K-12

ED in '08 has come out with an in-your-face public-service announcement in these days before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.

The ad, which ED in '08 says will start running soon in key battleground states, portrays several teenagers who declare that they are the future. But the future is bleak: "I will steal your car," one student says. "I will use drugs to escape," another says. "You will support me because I can't get a job." You get the idea.

ED in '08, whose goal is to make education a top priority in the presidential campaign, still has a long road ahead of it. And not everyone agrees with the group's tactics. The most recent Washington Post national poll from Dec. 9 shows that just 1 percent of the 1,136 adults asked identified education as the single most important issue in their choice for president. That's down from 2 percent in November.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

While the topic of education may be taking a backseat to other important issues on the presidential campaign trail, it's getting some prominent attention in candidates' television ads. Here are a couple of the latest:

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who recently got the endorsement of the New Hampshire affiliate of the National Education Association in this early-voting state, talks of a "new beginning" and bashes the No Child Left Behind Act as an "unfunded mandate" that's been "difficult for so many." The ad started running yesterday in Iowa and New Hampshire.

And in this one, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, who nabbed the Republican endorsement of the New Hampshire-NEA, talks about giving children a "better America." The ad features a screen-shot listing "better schools" and "higher test scores" (I'm guessing he's referring to results from his time as Arkansas governor). The ad started airing today in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

That's the opening line of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's new television ad that's running in Iowa. I question the "only" and the "bold" part of his claim.

His "bold plan," if elected president: getting rid of the No Child Left Behind Act, expanding prekindergarten, paying teachers more, and expanding math and science academies. Hardly original ideas, since most of those proposals are shared by every other Democratic candidate in the race. Webster's dictionary defines bold as "readiness to take risks, daring, fearless," and although he goes a step further than other candidates by calling for an all-out elimination of NCLB, I'd still be hesitant to call his plan bold since proposing to expand pre-K and boost teacher salaries are safe bets for a Democratic presidential candidate these days.

Still, I kept watching his ad, which further directs viewers to see what he "did" for New Mexico schools by going to www.risingschools.com.

The site details a list of education accomplishments in New Mexico, and mentions that Education Week's Quality Counts gave his state an A for assessments and accountability. I thought this merited some fact-checking.

Richardson is right, we did give New Mexico an A in 2006, and gave the state other high marks for improving teacher quality and allocating resources equitably.

However, Richardson understandably left out an important fact: More recently, in the 2007 Quality Counts, New Mexico ranked dead last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia for providing children with chances for success from cradle to career.

There is a bright side to this dismal ranking for Gov. Richardson. Christopher Swanson, the director of the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, which produced the report, told me that New Mexico officials didn't shrink away from the story—that they instead used it to bring more attention to the importance of education and funding in their state.

Update: Check out this on-point cartoon, which appeared in the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate this year shortly after our Quality Counts report debuted. Thanks to the cartoonist, Frank Mulhearn, for his permission to reprint this here.

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Getting young people interested in politics—and to the polls—is still a tough chore. But in this presidential race, and even in next year's governors' elections, the stakes couldn't be higher for the nation's youth, who will be affected by decisions made about education, the economy, and war.

Enter Facebook.

This hugely popular social networking site that draws millions of young people, who share thoughts, photos, and even trivia knowledge, is partnering with ABC News to bring its users political coverage. By adding the "U.S. Politics" application, Facebook users can track the political coverage and candidates through ABC News reporters, find out which presidential candidates have the most Facebook "friends" (Barack Obama is way ahead), and see what other users say their most important election-year issue is (education is ranked fourth.)

This is a brilliant idea—ABC News gets to be the official source of politics coverage for the millions of users of Facebook. And Facebook is able to offer a more engaging type of political news to an audience that's difficult to engage, through a partnership with a highly reputable news source.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has a new televsion ad up in New Hampshire that focuses on education, sprinkled with some parenting advice. (Over at the Democrats for Education Reform blog, Joe Williams writes that Obama, a Democratic presidential contender, is the first candidate in the race to hit television airwaves with an education-focused ad.)

The ad starts by getting personal, as Obama talks about his childhood—that his parents weren't rich, his Dad left when he was very young, but that he still managed to get a good education. He briefly touts his plan for expanding early childhood education and recruiting a "new generation" of teachers.

But then he makes a worthy point: that neither the president, nor the government, can completely fix the country's education ills. He says he needs parents, too. And where can parents start? By turning off the television.

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