Campaign 2008

Voters in Indiana and North Carolina cast their presidential primary votes today--a big day for Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who are battling it out for the Democratic presidential nomination. Over the weekend, both Clinton and Obama gave significant speeches in a final push to make their case for the presidential nomination to Indiana and North Carolina voters. Both mentioned early education.

At the North Carolina Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Raleigh, N.C., Hillary Clinton said:

New York Times campaign correspondent Adam Nagourney, responding to complaints about the lack of substantive policy questions in last week's Democratic debate, writes:

For all the concern voiced about the lack of discussion about issues like Iraq and health care, it seems fair to say that even the most slightly attuned Democratic voters already have a well-formed sense of the views of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama. Further, one of the central dynamics of this campaign — and why things have seemed so strained as the candidates have sought areas of difference — is that these are two Democrats with fairly similar views of the world. Thus, there is a premium on trying to find out new things about these candidates’ views and how they might react to the problems of the day.

We've spent a lot of time over the past two weeks talking about the Democratic presidential candidates' early education agendas, so today we're going to devote some time to the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain. So far, McCain hasn't said much about education issues, and hasn't offered any sort of education policy agenda. That's hardly surprising, as McCain has never been particularly involved on education issues in the Senate, and education issues were not a major issue in the Republican primary campaign. Richard Whitmire reports that McCain's advisors are about to start unrolling a series of education proposals-but predicts they won't include a significant early education component.

There are lots of good reasons for McCain's advisors to incorporate an early education component in the education agenda they're formulating. For starters, it would be counterintuitive, and it would also help cast a more positive light on some of the areas where McCain is weaker.

Further, it's probably easier for Republican politicians to support innovative ideas on early education than on K-12 reform right now. Conventional wisdom within the pundit class holds that teachers unions make it difficult for Democrats to advance compelling school reform ideas. But the politics of school reform are equally fraught for many Republicans. The conservative base loathes NCLB with a passion to rival that of the most strident teacher unionist and strongly opposes any expansion of the feds' role in schooling. Moderate Republicans know that the suburban parents they represent aren't thrilled by NCLB or reforms that might shake up a status quo that works pretty well for them now. And, as the Sol Stern controversy demonstrates, the conservative constituency for education reform is increasingly divided between choice-niks who think vouchers are the only answer, and devotees of curricular reform. In other words, for a politician who's never evinced a particular passion for education issues, the waters can't look too appealing in K-12 reform.

Last week, we looked at early education proposals from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Tonight, Clinton and Obama will debate one another in Philadelphia, Penn. Early education would be a great topic for moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos to ask them about, because it's a substantive topic, which hasn't been addressed in any debate so far, and on which the candidates have both serious proposals and real differences. Here are a few questions we'd love to hear the candidates answer on early education:

Yesterday we explored Senator Hillary Clinton’s early education agenda. Today, we’re taking a look at Senator Barack Obama’s early education proposals.

Focusing on Zero-to-Five

The centerpiece of Barack Obama’s early education agenda would be a new program of Early Learning Challenge Grants, which would provide states with funding to support quality child care, early education, and other services for pregnant women and children from birth through age five. States could use Early Learning Challenge Grant funds to support voluntary, high-quality preschool programs for three- and four-year olds, but universal pre-k is not the central focus of Obama’s early education strategy. Instead, states would be given flexibility in how they choose to expand quality pre-k and other early education programs.

Yesterday, we asked why there hasn't been more attention focused on early education issues so far in this election cycle, noting that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have released detailed and ambitious early education agendas. Today we'll explore Senator Clinton's early education agenda. Tomorrow we'll look at Senator Obama's early education plan.

Supporting High-Quality Universal Pre-K

The centerpiece of Senator Clinton's early education agenda is her Universal Pre-k Plan, which her campaign rolled out nearly a year ago as her first major education policy proposal and one of her earliest big policy releases. Senator Clinton's plan would provide grants to states to establish high-quality pre-k programs. In order to receive funds states would have to:

As the Democratic primary campaign season rolls on—seemingly interminably—we’ve read new articles about every imaginable aspect of the campaign (and some we couldn’t imagine). Today we were even treated to a New York Times story about how Democratic superdelegates’ children—and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle’s 7-year-old grandson—are persuading them to back Barack Obama. Yet we at Early Ed Watch have seen almost no coverage on a subject near and dear to our hearts—the candidates’ proposals for early education. While it’s certainly fascinating to hear about how children are helping Obama, we think voters would rather know what Obama—and his opponent Hillary Clinton—plan to do to help children learn.

Why should the media pay more attention to early education issues in the campaign?

The presidential candidates have mostly "tweaking" ideas for our tax system; they don't seem to be focused on the incredible budget and tax issues that will face the new president during the first term. Or, perhaps they just aren't being asked the right questions.

Pending fiscal challenges include:

Voters in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, including we here at Early Ed Watch, go to the polls today to express their choices for the 2008 Democratic and Republican presidential nominations. So we thought this is a good time to look at what the candidates have proposed on the early education front.

Here’s the good news: We’re seeing some pretty ambitious proposals on early education from the Democrats in the field. Senator Hillary Clinton would provide funds to help states create universal pre-k programs for all 4-year-olds that meet high quality standards, starting at $5 billion and ramping up to $10 billion annually in five years. She would also increase funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Senator Barack Obama has pledged to invest $10 billion annually to help states create and implement comprehensive early learning systems to serve children from birth through age five, improve Head Start and childcare quality, and expand Early Head Start. He would also make the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit partially refundable for low-income families. And both candidates have some smart ideas about supporting work-life balance to help parents spend more time with their young children. Despite some differences, both candidates are proposing serious investments that could make a real difference for American children.

Check out what New America's Mark Schmitt and Steven Clemons had to say on the subject this morning: