Covering Education in 2008

Campus Report ^ | March 7, 2008 | Bethany Stotts

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Covering Education in 2008

by: Bethany Stotts, March 07, 2008

Although a compelling issue in the 2000 elections, educational issues have been eclipsed by security concerns in the War on Terror and growing fears about America's global competitiveness..... He added, "Additionally, people are weary of education talk and you add that to the fact they're interested in these other issues, and I think it's not hard to understand why education might sort of take the sidelines."...

One of the more surprising-and inscrutable-educational developments on the campaign trail has been Obama's Milwaukee statement in favor of school vouchers. Elizabeth Green, reporter for the New York Sun, quotes Obama as telling the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that "If there was any argument for vouchers it was, all right, let's see if this experiment works, and then if it does, whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids."....

On February 20, the Obama campaign issued a statement declaring that his alleged pro-voucher stance is the product of "misleading reports" which take his statements "out of context." ...

In early February, Obama told Politico that he prides himself on contradicting the party line on charter schools. "I've consistently said, we need to support charter schools," reads the February 11 transcript. Echoing his Milwaukee statements in favor of "experimentation," Obama says "I think it is important to experiment, by looking at how we reward excellence in the classroom." But, as with school vouchers, no mention of charter schools makes it into Obama's $18 billion K-12 legislative agenda...

This may exemplify a disturbing trend of Obama's continued and often unchallenged policy flip-flopping. A recent article by Family Security Matters exposes Obama's hypocrisy on NAFTA....

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