The one presidential debate that's not happening
February 27, 2008- BoardBuzz agrees wholeheartedly with this op-ed in today's edition of USA Today, which points out that public education has become "an afterthought" in presidential debatesHistoric-Presidential-Debates Nov-07 . The author, Wendy Puriefoy, CEO of the Public Education Network asserts, "Nearly 50 million of our nation's children attend public schools, yet the men and women who aspire to lead us have spent less time debating how these children are being educated than it takes to get a haircut or a facial." Strong (but true) words.

On the rare occasion that the presidential candidates have managed to get in a few words about education, they've often recycled such buzz words as No Child Left Behind and unfunded mandate, with little substance or meaning attached. We are hearing the same repetitive statistics on students' poor graduation rates and their lackluster performance in math and science compared with other countries, but rarely are any concrete solutions offered to tackle these challenges.

There is no reason why education should not be debated as feverishly as healthcare, the economy, the Iraq war, and immigration. There are plenty of substantive issues to debate that affect our kids' education every day. Most of all, there is NCLB, which is now driving the activities in many of our schools.

Public education advocates need to hear from our presidential candidates on exactly how they will improve NCLB and address other challenges in our schools, and not just as an afterthought. How exactly, for example, should student performance be accurately measured and how to build the capacity of local schools and school districts to help student achieve? The list goes on and on.