Ed '08...vouchers...NEA...Obama

Pitting education issues vs. the war--a trick bag

I must admit, I saw this coming as soon as Bill Gates and Eli Broad put up $60 million for their Ed in’08, campaign, supposedly to make “education” the number-one issue in the elections. Roy Romer, coming off of his unimpressive, do-nothing tenure as L.A. school superintendent, and Karl Rove lieutenant, Mark Lampkin, were put in charge of the campaign and predictably, it was all show and no go.

First of all, the campaign has no substance. What does education in the abstract mean to millions of voters? What about education? They’ve kept their agenda pretty well hidden.

Secondly, how could ed reform possibly be pitted against the war in Iraq or the worsening economic crisis here at home, as an isolated campaign issue? We all know that the cost of the war has had a devastating effect on public education. Was this simply a trick bag, an attempt to skirt the war issue-- the Republicans’ Achilles Heel? Now it appears so.

While Romer remains virtually invisible, former Oklahoma Republican Rep. J.C. Watts, has become the new front man for Ed in ‘o8 . His strategy seems to be—pit education against the war as THE focus issue for the candidates.

Watts, a darling of the neocons, went from being a college footballer to a cheerleader for the war. He once claimed that war opponents like Sen. Feingold, were “always on the side of the terrorists.”

He sure wasn’t a big school reformer back then, opting instead for support of school vouchers and privatization. Now that the vast majority of Americans oppose the war, Watts is claiming that “voters rank the economy and education as more important than the war in Iraq.”

Watts reveals his real intent, using the usual code language for vouchers--union bashing (his friend McCain won’t even mention the V-word on the campaign trail).

"A Democratic nominee will have to be willing to take teachers' unions places they're not willing to go," said Watts.

Although he never mentions vouchers, we all know which "places" Watts wants them to go.

Bloggers suddenly quiet on Barack & vouchers

Obama made it clear once again, in his speech to the NEA, that he wasn’t going to “take the union” down that road. Anti-union bloggers tried to make much of scattered boos Obama received when he mentioned merit pay. But teachers who were at the meeting told me that way too much was made of it. The program Obama supports is pretty much the same as that supported by the union leadership.

Funny thing—remember all those bloggers, looking for a split between Obama and the union, who carefully perused each line in Barack’s interview with a Milwaukee paper, and then reported over and over again that the candidate was “open to vouchers”?

I’m talking about Joe Williams, Whitney Tilson, Alexander Russo, David Hoff, and Michelle McNeil. Not one of them even mentioned Obama’s statement in opposition to vouchers, in their coverage of the NEA meeting.

Why not?