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What Would You Ask in the Presidential Debate?

By Alyson Klein — September 26, 2016 3 min read
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Grab the popcorn—the first debate between Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, and Donald Trump, the Republican contender, is on Monday night.

You probably know by now that the candidates are far more likely to be asked whether they have pneumonia and how they would get Mexico to pay for a border wall than about, say, teacher evaluation.

But if you were the debate moderator and could ask the candidates one question, what would it be?

We turned this question loose on, of course, Twitter. Here’s what our followers came up with:

Some folks preferred to email us their responses:

“Competition—charters, vouchers, and the like—imply winners and losers. What would you [do as] President to support public schools which [is the choice] provided to all children in the country?” wrote Debbie Wussland, a former school board member from Jefferson County, Kentucky, which includes Louisville.

And Democrats for Education Reform, which supports Clinton, emailed us a few suggestions, including this one:

“Last year, President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act. While the law provides a great deal of new flexibility to states regarding testing, accountability, and school interventions, it also has requirements in each of those areas. Would you continue going down the path the Obama Administration has followed to set clear guidelines for monitoring and enforcing the law? Or would you open up policies like annual student testing for re-negotiation?”

Want to know where the candidates stand on some key K-12 issues, including school choice, bullying, and education funding? Click here to check out our interactive graphic.

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