Education in the Election: The View from Canada

Writing in the Globe and Mail, Canadian columnist John Ibbitson offers an interesting perspective on the current U.S. presidential race. Ibbitson notes that the tenor of the campaign debate has pushed education reform out of the public view in this race, and wonders why, given the issue’s importance to America’s future. Ibbitson makes a pretty bold prediction:

But mark this: After this election, education will be one of the two or three issues that dominate political debate. Why? Because it’s simply too huge a problem to ignore.

Ibbitson goes on to identify high dropout rates and poor showings on international assessments as key indicators that the U.S. education system is struggling. That’s similar to something David Brooks wrote earlier this year when he identified the skills slowdown–the stagnation in the percentage of Americans attaining higher education credentials or even a high school diploma–as the major challenge facing the United States in the coming years. The exploding financial crisis this week has focused attention elsewhere, but it’s undeniable that getting us out of the hole created by the current crisis is going to require, among other things, a new generation of American workers capable of competing with their increasingly educated peers in other countries, and more importantly of developing the next generation of transformative innovations–real innovations, not just financial chicancery–that have been behind our economic success over the past century. And that requires a renewed focus on improving the quality of educational outcomes for all our students–including those who have historically been underserved.

A lot of the conversation about these issues focuses on high school reform, college access, and strategies to increase the number of young people taking advanced coursework in math and sciences–all important goals. But these initiatives can only succeed if they build on an early education system that equips children with the foundational skills and knowledge they need before they can tackle advanced content. We know that children who cannot read proficiently by the end of third grade are at risk for school dropout and a host of other problems, and that remedying our failure to help these children succeed early is much more difficult and costly than doing it right from the start. Yet only 33 percent of our 4th graders read at the proficient level. Building a strong early education foundation–starting in the preschool years and continuing through kindergarten and quality early elementary school–must be a top priority for the next administration, regardless of who wins in November.

Ibbitson isn’t entirely correct that education’s been AWOL from the current campaign debate. Just take a look at this discussion with top education advisers to both the McCain and Obama campaigns to see that both sides are doing some interesting thinking here. And, in a development that Early Ed Watch is particularly gratified to see, both McCain and Obama have endorsed quality early education–although they clearly have very different views on what the federal role in supporting early education access and quality should be. Unfortunately, the media hasn’t focused much attention on these issues. There’s also an interesting conversation going on among Democrats about the future of Democratic thinking on education issues–New America is hosting a discussion on this topic Friday; more information here.