Your education road map to the 2008 state and national elections
Michele McNeil covered education and state government in Indiana for a decade before joining Education Week as a state policy reporter in June 2006. Alyson Klein, who reports on federal education policy, joined the staff in February 2006 after nearly two years at Congress Daily. For the Republican National Convention, Assistant Managing Editor Mark Walsh joins Ms. Klein in reporting live from St. Paul.
Among the folks sure to be disappointed by his departure from the 2008 campaign: Republican social studies teachers, who in a mock primary, picked Thompson as their favorite to square off against the Democratic teachers' choice, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
When you're done reviewing Mitt Romney's victory last night in Michigan from the likes of The Washington Post, Google News, or your favorite blog, you should turn to one more authority on this presidential race: kids.
Education publishing company Scholastic has deployed its "Kid Reporters" to write, photograph, and blog about the 2008 presidential campaign. You can read what they have to say about the Michigan primary here.
You also can read 12-year-old Elizabeth Conway's review of Republican Mike Huckabee's "Huckaburger." (She notes that "a deep-fried pickle—a specialty of Arkansas—may have offset the nutritional value of the vegetables.")
Or, learn what really happens behind closed doors in a caucus, courtesy of three Iowa students. ("Trouble started right away," the story says.)
Also, read about Kid Reporter Mariam El Hasan's conversation with Republican Fred Thompson, on what it means to be a conservative. (Thompson notes that he, too, was once a "little person.")
You should even take note of the real-world experience these kid reporters are getting. And that experience includes getting the cold shoulder from their sources. Take Iowa 4th-grader Sydney Rieckhoff, who is famous enough that her reporting has made CNN, but who was brushed off by former first daughter Chelsea Clinton. Said Sen. Hillary Clinton's daughter, according to the press account: “I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you’re cute." Which, of course, catapulted Sydney to even greater fame, including an appearance in the New York Times.
Well, someone finally used it as ammunition in a debate.
Last night, at the South Carolina debate televised on Fox News, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson included that NEA endorsement in a list of other perceived Republican sins (like raising taxes) that Huckabee has supposedly committed. Sen. Thompson said: [Huckabee] has the endorsement of the National Education Association, and the NEA said it was because of his opposition to vouchers.”
To clarify Sen. Thompson's comments, what Huckabee had was the endorsement of the New Hampshire affiliate—the granddaddy-of-them-all national NEA hasn't endorsed anyone in the presidential race yet. It's worth noting, again, that Huckabee was the only Republican candidate to even speak to the NEA convention last summer (video included below.)
Clinton vs. Thompson, if Social Studies Teachers Had Their Way
This was no Iowa caucus. Nor was it a New Hampshire primary. But if the votes of 710 social studies teachers counted, there would be no need for such politicking. The presidential finalists would be:
Republican Fred Thompson and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Those are the results of a "presidential primary" sponsored by Pearson, an education publishing company, at the annual meeting late last week in San Deigo of the National Council on the Social Studies. The 710 voting teachers had to pick a party, then got to vote for one candidate. The results showed that if social studies teachers—who are partly responsible for teaching the values of democracy and citizenship to students—are any gauge, the Republican primary field is wide open. Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, got 23.2 percent of the vote. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani got 20.5 percent, and rising-star Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, edged out close rival Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, with 18.9 percent of the vote to Romney's 16.3 percent.
The Democratic vote showed more of a two-candidate race. Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, got 41.9 percent of the vote to 34 percent for U.S. Rep. Barack Obama of Illinois. The next closest was former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, with 12.3 percent of the vote.
