A flurry of activity from the big papers this past week has occured over the question of whether the major presidential candidates have been willing to tackle tough questions in K-12 education reform. This article from the Boston Globe suggests that the two leading Democratic hopefuls, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have been more or less beholden to the nation's two large teachers unions, and as a result focusing more on traditional union favorite proposals like increasing school funding, teacher salaries, and reducing class size. And, but for this one unique Barack Obama moment at last month's NEA convention, the Globe is pretty spot on in its analysis.

Just a few days earlier, USA Today's Richard Whitmire had an op-ed published in the Florida Sentinel challenging the major candidates in both parties to say something substantive about national level education policies nothing that, in his words, "there appears to be little acknowledgement from the candidates that local education issues have a strong national flavor."

Are these articles--and public interest groups like the recently launched Ed in 08 campaign correct? If the Presidential debates over the past few months are any measure, yes. The first question asked in any of the numerous debates was asked in last month's YouTube debate when the candidates were asked whether they'd scrap NCLB, revise it, or keep it. An important question... except that CNN's Anderson Cooper directed it to Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Joe Biden, and Sen. Chris Dodd. It would be much more interesting to put the major candidates on the spot to answer that.

What's more, none of the major candidates have released serious or comprehensive education reform plans on critical issues such as increasing teacher quality, national vs. state standards, and improving assessment capabilities to truly measure student learning growth. Until these issues and other substantive, real, and impactful policy challenges are tackled--even if they are unpopular--the candidates will only be paying lip-service to our nation's youth.