This week's Education Week (http://www.educationweek.org/ew/articles/2007/03/07/26politics.h26.html) has an interesting piece trying to demonstrate that Barack Obama's experience with an Annenberg Challenge school in Chicago demonstrates the education attention and experience he will apply to crafting an education platform. It then goes on to cite other Democratic candidates and their education experience. (Don't ask me why it doesn't even look at Republican candidates.)

Fortunately (and I mean that I hope no one implies that any of the leading candidates have in been talking education, because they haven't), EdWeek notes that no candidate has come forward with a K-12 agenda. Heck, their Hillary Clinton reference is one from her days as first lady ... of Arkansas.

Simple fact is that education reform has not broken through the white noise to make it onto the agendas of aspiring candidates. And with so much talk about NCLB, that is a cryin' shame.

In the coming weeks, eduflack will be proposing some reccs for how Democratic and Republican aspirants can start talking about education reform. After all, it is not the policy itself that counts, but how well it excites the political base, interests the undecideds, and fits on a political bumper sticker. Stay tuned ...

(Originally posted March 7, 2007)