The economy. War in Iraq. Health care. Energy and environmental policies. All of these issues, at different times, have dominated the headlines of the 2008 presidential election cycle. So too, have campaign strategies, personal attacks, and the occasional speaking gaffe.

Lost in these headlines, however, has been one key topic that may well have as much impact on the future of our nation as all the rest: education. Indeed, school reformers interested in pushing education into a more prominent position of debate between Senators Obama and McCain have more or less held a backseat over the past several months.

This is not how the leaders of at least one non-profit organization envisioned the election cycle. Ed in '08, a $60 million effort funded principally by the Gates Foundation to raise the election day prominence of public education as an issue. The group has made major ad buys in radio, print, and even on TV without much impact--one TV ad is embedded here:

Why hasn't education been more talked about? It's hard to say. After all, it's not as though the voting public isn't interested in public education, and it's not like there aren't meaningful debates to be had over key issues like teacher pay, charter schools, pre-kindergarten, and school accountability. One possibility is that other news have been "sexier" in the sense that they are more timely and seemingly urgent--the housing crisis and gas prices fit this description. Another possibility is that the two campaigns do not disagree enough on the major questions (both are more or less in support of NCLB with modest revision) to be the point of a debate. Either way, it doesn't bode well for America's children that more public attention has been paid thus far to John McCain's real estate holdings and Barack Obama's wife's dress color than to their schools.

Posted by Aaron Tang at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A diverse and highly respected group of leading education reformers from across the country gathered today in Denver, CO to challenge Democratic officials to fight for fundamental changes to the nation's public schools. Elected officials such as Adrian Fenty and Cory Booker, the mayors of Washington, DC and Newark, NJ respectively, were joined by a slew of prominent school experts and civil rights leaders who called for a commitment to six key steps to fighting the achievement gap that plagues low-income and minority students.

The six steps include: providing universal access to pre-kindergarten programs for low-income children; expanding parent choice and access to charter schools; improving standards and accountability systems so that high achieving schools and teachers can be rewarded and modeled; extending school days and the school year to help low-performing children; improving teacher recruitment and hiring practices; and re-examing school funding within the realms of teacher pay and after school programming.

The six proposals are hardly radical ideas; each of them has been suggested to improve student achievement at one time or another. What is interesting, however, is the timing and target of the call--a plea for action by widely respected Democrats who see education as an issue that can propel the Obama - Biden ticket to victory in November.

A recent PDK / Gallup poll seems to confirm this possibility. In the poll, respondents were asked which presidential candidate they would vote for if they were choosing solely on the basis of improving public schools. 46% said they would vote for Senator Obama, compared with only 29% who supported Senator McCain (the remaining 25% said they did not know).

The poll result is noteworthy for two reasons. First off, it shows a clear issue-motivated party preference on the part of voters that did not exist in either the 2004 or 2000 president elections, when President Bush was virtually tied with Sen. Kerry and Vice President Gore on the question of who would improve public schools more. To the extent that this preference is deeply held, education seems to be an issue on which Senator Obama has potential to draw voters to his camp.

The second interesting element of the poll is that the clear candidate preference has emerged in spite of a relatively quiet campaign season when it comes to the issue of education. It is one thing that voters express preferences on economic issues and the Iraq war, where both candidates have spoken extensively on the subject and where clear distinction exists. But voters support Senator Obama on education even without a clear sense of how he differs substantively from Senator McCain. One wonders if Senator McCain would be wise to draw comparisons between his education platform and Senator Obama's, rather than contrasts as a way to reduce the gap expressed by likely voters.

Posted by Aaron Tang at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so this is not exactly going to be an insightful, hard-hitting entry about some controversial education issue. In fact, this entry is not going to be about education at all.

It's going to be about the Olympic Spirit - a phrase that is being thrown around by native Beijingers and Chinese from across the country with ceaseless regularity. And it's about a moment that hits particularly close to home because, well, watch the video here and see for yourself:

What's so special about the Natasha Watley homerun, you ask? Well, the guy who catches it is my best friend from college, Matt Reagan. The fellow to the left of him doing a USA! USA! chant is me, and the lovely girl to the right is my girlfriend. That's right. Someone YOU know was on national TV just two days ago at the Beijing Olympics!

But the title of this entry is "The Olympic Spirit" for a better reason than the mere coincedence that a few Americans could get lucky enough to catch a homerun ball. It's called the "Olympic Spirit" because we never should have been at the game in the first place. You see, the game was all sold out (just like every venue is allegedly sold out here in Beijing, even if you see empty seats in the stands - those seats belong to someone who for one reason or another decided not to attend and not to give away their tickets), so we spent an hour before the game walking around the stadium looking for scalpers. There were none.

Then we ran into the parents of Stacey Nuveman, the starting catcher for the USA team, who were also looking for tickets. As we walked around outside the main gate asking people if they had extra tickets, it was--strangely enough--a couple of other Americans who showed the true Olympic Spirit by offering to give us extra tickets that they happened to have! We tried to pay them anything for the tickets but they flatly refused (although they later accepted a round of drinks bought by my friend the homerun-ball-catcher), instead helping us and the USA team's starting catcher get into the game for free.

So that's the Olympic Spirit. It is people who don't know each other, going half way around the world to do something nice for a random stranger. It's the pure chance of sitting in the right seat at the right time in order to catch a homerun ball. And it's the thrill of coming home to emails and facebook messages from friends who saw you on national TV (okay, fine, CNBC, but who's counting?).

Posted by Aaron Tang at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I write this entry from Beijing, China just one day before the start of perhaps the most highly anticipated and controversial Olympics in recent history.

At different times and by different observers, these Beijing Olympics have been referred to as both visionary and subversive. Depending on who you listen to, China's hosting of the epic contest is either a proud moment for a rapidly developing nation seeking to join the global community, or a perversion of major values that civilized nations should seek to affirm.

The feeling on the ground here in Beijing, at least among ordinary Chinese citizens, leans heavily toward the former view. Taxi cab drivers, construction workers, and middle-class office workers alike have expressed a great deal of excitement about the upcoming games, proud that their country is serving host to over five million international guests. Even as heavy smog and pollution sweep the skies, the energy is palpable across the country.

But as viewers in the United States tune in to observe the games, it is the un-televised competition happening betweeen students in American public schools and Chinese schools that matters most for the 21st century. By href="http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opwhe055789535aug05,0,5415291.story">one count, China produces more than nine times more engineers than does America--a gap of 650,000 to 70,000. A Canadian global think tank estimates that within two years, 90% of all engineers holding doctorate degrees will live in Asia.

Some of this owes to the fact that China has 1.4 billion people to America's 300 million. But only some. The reality is, China has yet to tap into a huge reserve of potential that resides in its rural areas where many children do not yet have access to public education. Once that takes place, and by some estimates it is already starting, America will fall even further behind.

So as US fans cheer a likely victory of our basketball team led by Lebron James and Kobe Bryant over the Chinese National Team on August 10th, what remains to be seen is whether the same fans will realize soon enough that the competition that matters most is not on the court, but rather in the classroom.

Posted by Aaron Tang at 06:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)