Missing in campaign '08: The education candidate
By Wendy D. Puriefoy

Listen to the fevered rhetoric of the presidential candidates and you get the impression that the country is in a state of crisis. They have talked pointedly about the war in Iraq, the ailing economy and the need for health care reform. Taxes, immigration and the war on terror? All accounted for. Yet one issue that's key to our nation's security, prosperity and future has barely been discussed in the more than 30 hours of debates: education.

Nearly 50 million of our nation's children attend public schools, yet the men and woman who aspire to lead us have spent less time debating how these children are being educated than it takes to get a haircut or facial.

In the GOP debate on Jan. 30 in Simi Valley, Calif., the word "education" was heard twice and No Child Left Behind once. In the Democratic debate between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama last week in Austin, "education" was uttered just five times in a nearly two-hour debate.

Significant issue in need of attention
The need for candidates to tell us how they plan to improve our nation's public schools has never been greater. Just 74% of freshmen, on average, graduate from high school. What's worse is that Latino-, Native- and African-American young people have little more than a 50% chance of getting a high school diploma. The figures for white and Asian-American students are better (76% and 80%) but not good enough for a nation that seeks to compete in a global economy.

Public education is of genuine concern to voters. A poll released in January by Lake Research Partners indicated that 94% of voters said high quality public schools were important to them.

As the candidates campaign toward November, we must press them for details, not just platitudes, on how they would reform our public schools to ensure a high quality education for every child.

For starters, candidates should answer these five questions:

• Fifteen percent of our nation's schools are overcrowded. As a result, teachers say they spend an inordinate amount of time policing classrooms. Do you have a plan for relieving this overcrowding?

• How will you ensure that children attend schools that are places of teaching and learning, not violence and crime?

• Teacher recruitment, retention and quality are suffering. How will you work to make teaching a more attractive career?

• A child who cannot read or do math at grade level has little hope of finishing high school. What will you do to make sure children master all subjects at grade level?

• What will you do to persuade more adults to become more involved in the education of their community's children?

Problem is only getting worse
In the not-too-distant past, the quality of public education was a major issue. The problems we face today are far more serious than those we faced 50 years ago when Americans, alarmed at Soviet space advances, demanded that we improve our schools. And they are more difficult than the problems we confronted in 1983, when the landmark "A Nation at Risk" report spurred educational reform.

We cannot remain a truly free society unless we educate all our children to the highest standard possible. Such lofty, yet essential, goals will be met only if reform is embraced and directed from the highest levels of our government. There is no debating the fact that the remaining candidates have allowed public education to become an afterthought. Let's call this what it is: An unexcused absence.

Wendy D. Puriefoy is CEO of the Public Education Network, a Washington-based association working to advance public school reform in low-income communities.