Prez Candidates: Schools? What Schools?

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With big issues like the war and Iran hounding ’08 presidential candidates, have domestic schooling issues gone completely off their collective radar?

Education has never been the sexiest of topics, but as Education Week points out, the next president needs to hone in on a few dry, but important, issues: the future of No Child Left Behind, the expansion of prekindergarten programs, and how much federal dollars should be spent on charter schools or private school choice. An interactive chart in the same article gives the low-down on where all the red and blue candidates stand on the issues.

The education think tank Education Sector argues that candidates should focus on improved recruitment and compensation for teachers, and opening new schools in low-income areas.

And here’s one more candidate-by-candidate comparison on issues like school vouchers and social promotion. Just because the candidates aren’t talking about it, doesn’t mean we can’t.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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