Pre-K and the Election

One of my friends recently asked me if I might write a piece on education and the elections. As much as I follow the relationship between education policy and the elections the truth is, I'm still confused. Is Obama for or against vouchers? How do you actually plan to change NCLB? Mike Huckabee for education secretary? McCain are you ever planning to really talk about education? I still have a lot of questions to be answered. Yes, I visit the blogs and I try to understand as much as I can but a new blog I have found has started to answer some of my questions, well, at least about early education.

Sara Mead, a former Education Sector staffer, has been blogging on The Early Ed Watch about well, early education policy. She is a former blogger for The Quick and The Ed and I believe a strong voice when it comes to education. Obviously I am new to the game, but I look forward to taking in more of her opinion.

Okay, so back to the elections and my favorite, pre-K. Obama and Clinton have both made huge promises when it comes to pre-K education, with billions of dollars and even trying to maintain a balance for parents to spend more time with their young children. The hanging question, how will this line up with elementary and high school education. My opinion is, if you build from the bottom up the rest will follow. Obviously changes need to be made in education policy for K-12, but I truly believe that by funding a foundation these children will have a marked change in their trajectory. Mead talks about the PK-3 alignment that must be made for the candidates, and I can see why. Most people would tend to vote for later educational achievements, the links must be shown.

As for the Republicans...Let's be honest, McCain is the voice that matters at this point, even with rumors of Huckabee for education secretary. McCain needs to speak up a little more about education. I have little to say because as confused as I am I feel like I have never really heard him talk about education at all let alone pre-K.

So I guess for now I'm less confused. Well, on at least one issue.