Education, Youth & Families

Education, Youth & Families

ThinkMTV Education Issue Area

Youth Noise Education Cause Channel

VoteGopher Education Issue Page

Do Something Education Cause

Do Something School Dropouts Cause

Facebook Education Causes

Education, Youth & Families News, Links & Resources

ORGANIZATIONS & ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS

ED in 08 - Strong American Schools is a nonpartisan public awareness and action campaign offering a voice to every American who supports “ED in 08.” Our goal is to ensure that the nation engages in a rigorous debate and to make education a top priority in the 2008 presidential election. We hope that candidates will offer genuine leadership rather than empty rhetoric and tell voters how they intend to strengthen America’s schools so all students receive the education they deserve.

First Focus - First Focus works to create a lasting legacy for children and their families by encouraging bipartisan federal policy advancements and investments in children. First Focus is working to bring both traditional leaders in child advocacy and constituencies not customarily engaged in policy efforts relating to children and families together to advocate for federal policies to improve the lives of the America’s children.

Our Education - Our Education is the voice of young people across the country who believe that all American children should have access to high quality education. Created as a response to the sad reality that the most critical stakeholders in education—students themselves—do not have a voice in school reform efforts, Our Education’s mission is to improve K-12 education by engaging and empowering America’s youth in a national movement for better schools

SoundOut - SoundOut works intensively throughout the education system to promote meaningful student involvement in school improvement. Our activities promote student voice in school as students and educators realize the powerful and purposeful possibilities of meaningful student involvement.

National Education Association - Issues in Education: The National Education Association is engaged in a range of issues that affect public schools, students, and professional school employees. Some key issues are highlighted below followed by a list of other issues NEA is concerned about.

NEWS & BLOGS

Education Week Campaign '08 - Follow Education Week's print and online-only coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign to learn more about where the major candidates stand on education.

Ed Policy 08 - A non-partisan blog focused on Educational Policy in the 2008 election for President of the United States.

Education Election - The Education Writers Association's Coverage of the Presidential Election and Candidates' Stands on Education

Campaign K-12 - Education Week's blog, with more analysis of the candidates' views.

YouTube YouChoose Education - Watch videos of the presidential candidates speaking about education. Post your ideas, opinions, and questions for the candidates.

Education, Youth & Families Blog Log

Obama/McCain Advisers Debate Again, Some More 24 Jul 2008 | 12:18 pm Campaign K-12
This seems to be a recurring theme on our blog this week.

Today the forum was the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank and the advisers were the Ubiquitous Lisa Graham Keegan, a former Arizona schools chief, appearing on behalf of Sen. John McCain's campaign, and Jon Schnur, who heads up New Leaders for New Schools and is informally advising the Sen. Barack Obama's campaign (along with just about every other Education Dem).

Neither covered much new territory on K-12 education, and neither one seemed eager to address the 800- pound gorilla in the room: No Child Left Behind. At one point, Keegan sounded incredulous that nearly every question she's asked on the campaign trail "pivots around NCLB" as if that is "the universe of education."

For an inside-the-Beltway education reporter like me, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act pretty much is the "universe of education" since that's the main federal lever for shaping K-12 policy. But maybe I'm too Washington-focused or maybe it's just too complex or too much of a political hot potato to talk about on the campaign trail. Anyway, there were no mentions today of deadlines, or sanctions, or staggered testing, or anything else for which the devil is in the details. But both reiterated their candidate's support for some federal accountability based around testing, and Schnur talked up Obama's plans to improve the quality of assessments.

The advisers had a more substantive discussion on pre-K than I had heard up to this point. Schnur reiterated Obama's plan to invest about $10 billion annually in pre-K programs. Keegan said McCain is likely to be more specific on the issue soon. But she also said that pre-K programs need to have "linguistically complex" people serving as teachers. It sounded to me like she was leaving open the door for some sort of quality measure (maybe even tests?) for pre-K educators. Stay tuned on that one. It's sure to prove controversial, especially if there's no corresponding salary increase.

The best moment of the forum (for me at least) came courtesy of James Kohlmoos, the president of Knowledge Alliance. He asked Schnur and Keegan to fast-forward to 2012 and assume their candidate were running for re-election. What would the candidates tout as their greatest education accomplishment of their first term?

Keegan said she hoped McCain would be able to claim to have "changed the culture of the teaching profession" to attract some of the brightest minds into the classroom, while Schnur said that "four years" is not a long time and that Obama would have just begun to implement his policies, but would have hopefully been able to build a coalition around his ideas.
Another take on that Johnston meeting... 23 Jul 2008 | 1:29 pm Education Election
Here's how Flypaper summed up the session with Obama education adviser Mike Johnston.

note: edited to correct link.
Ed in 08 25 Apr 2007 | 8:55 pm Ed Policy 08
This blog has been flooded today with hits from google searches looking for Ed in 08, the campaign name of the Strong American Schools project financed by Bill Gates and Eli Broad. To help visitors find those sites, please access one of the following links:
- Billionaires Start $60 Million Schools Effort (NYT)
- Ed in 08 - Strong American Schools (www.edin08.com)
Of course, if you want to stick around and read this blog ... feel free! I am very excited about this project and will write about it in the very near future.