Education Missing in Latest Presidential Debate

Tom Shales wrote a spot-on column ("In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC") in today's Washington Post slamming moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos of ABC News for their performance in last evening's presidential debate between Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama. Shales chastized Gibson and Stephanopoulos for dwelling on "specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed," rather than ask substantive questions about important policy issues like education.

Their efforts resulted in the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's name being mentioned 16 times during the debate. From the way-way-backkkk machine, even the Weather Underground was mentioned twice. I expected Timothy Leary to jump out from behind the curtain at any moment.

Fascinating. Don't believe me? Read the debate transcript.

What discussion was there of education? Not much amidst the inane questions, parries and thrusts about stark raving mad pastors, imagined sniper fire, flag lapel pins, and bomb throwing radicals who were pardoned by President Clinton and who sit on nonprofit boards in Chicago.

In her opening statement, Senator Clinton vowed to "make our education system the true passport to opportunity." Later on, she called herself "a strong supporter of early childhood education and universal pre-kindergarten" and said she would "end" No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Early childhood is worthy of greater investment, but what exactly would she replace NCLB with?

Senator Obama framed some of his comments about education around the issue of tax fairness, saying that "those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries." Obama went on to say that "investing in our schools" and other national priorities can't be done "for free." If I were a Republican, I'd call him "a tax and spend liberal." Of course, after 8 years of W, that seems like a breath of fresh air. Let's line up the millionaires and let them pay their fair share for a change.