Prez Candidates: Schools? What Schools?

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With big issues like the war and Iran hounding ’08 presidential candidates, have domestic schooling issues gone completely off their collective radar?

Education has never been the sexiest of topics, but as Education Week points out, the next president needs to hone in on a few dry, but important, issues: the future of No Child Left Behind, the expansion of prekindergarten programs, and how much federal dollars should be spent on charter schools or private school choice. An interactive chart in the same article gives the low-down on where all the red and blue candidates stand on the issues.

The education think tank Education Sector argues that candidates should focus on improved recruitment and compensation for teachers, and opening new schools in low-income areas.

And here’s one more candidate-by-candidate comparison on issues like school vouchers and social promotion. Just because the candidates aren’t talking about it, doesn’t mean we can’t.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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