Imagine for a moment that we can rewind time and replay that town hall-style presidential debate of a week ago. Imagine yourself sitting in that tiny audience among those stiff and somber-faced people. And imagine that you have one question to ask, one opportunity to steer the debate how you see fit. What would your question be?
I know what I would ask. I would bring up a topic that has been pushed to the wayside and shoved unceremoniously beneath the raging rhetoric about drilling for oil and the tiresome redundancies of an economic stimulus plan, a subject bypassed time and time again by a media and a populace compelled by other, more sensational, stories. I’d ask about education.
I’d bring up education because while the problems we face today in the arenas of national security, the economy and the environment are undoubtedly severe, a nation that neglects education will soon find itself facing these same problems on a much larger scale.
So why do our candidates refuse to discuss this issue? Why does the media let education fly under the radar? Why don’t voters see education as a top three voter issue?
Education is important, and it is in dire need of our attention. According to Strong American Schools, a nonpartisan advocacy campaign supporting sound education policies, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school every year, and many of the students who do graduate are not ready for college or the workforce.
Addressing the major issues of this campaign without talking about education is like taking a final without a pen. It’s impossible to respond to the questions and pass the test if you have no way of getting the answers onto the paper. It’s the same with education. Without addressing the falling standards of education in this country, we can’t expect the next generation of leaders to be able to solve tomorrow’s dilemmas. They will take their generation’s final exam and will find themselves terribly ill-equipped to do so.
Of course, the next president must deal with a failing economy, the aftermath of a war in Iraq, a health care system in need of reform, but that doesn’t mean we should be talking about those issues to the exclusion of an issue that is just as vital to the future of America. If the next president has any kind of eye to posterity, which both candidates profess that they do, then education should form a huge part of the heated debate between the parties.
We should be hearing about these candidates’ plans to improve elementary education, to make sure more students graduate from high school and to make college affordable for every American. I want to hear some statistics about how much money these candidates will be throwing at these issues and which unnecessary government expenditures will be cut to provide these funds.
The topic of education always seems to provide a poetic moment or two in a public address, but this issue deserves far more attention than a few lines in a 45-minute Republican or Democratic National Convention acceptance speech. Its merit does not lie solely in stirring up the sympathy of the American people. It is an issue of substance that relates more directly to each of our lives than many of the issues featured in the debates over the past weeks.
In his acceptance speech in Denver, surrounded by a roaring crowd of an estimated 84,000 Americans, Sen. Barack Obama proclaimed, “This election has never been about me, it’s about you.”
Oh, really? Then why can’t we focus more on the issues that will affect my college career and the educational careers of every other student in this nation? Let’s hear a little bit less about Sen. John McCain’s voting record over the past two decades or Sen. Obama’s stance on the troop surge in Iraq, and try to squeeze in a little dialogue about the changes that will keep students in school and prepare them for their everyday lives in the American workforce.
Change is a major theme of both candidates’ campaigns. And they need to step up and shift the focus of this presidential race to an issue that is just as relevant and perhaps more important than any of the issues they are talking about right now.
The best way to connect on an individual level with American citizens is through education. If this election is about us, the candidates cannot neglect the issue that will have the greatest impact on our lives and the lives of our children. In the process of talking about education, they’ll be focusing on the issue that’s in the nation’s best interest as well.
Want to hear more about education? E-mail Fitzpatrick at cfitzpatrick@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.