Obama Wins Debates, But So Did Gore, Kerry -- Turnout Counts -- We Must Nurture Education

Obama won the final debate, by my score card, and, therefore, won all three debates. The opinion polls agreed with me on these debates. All of them had the public picking Obama by whopping margins. So Obama won all three and Biden won his on points, although Sarah Palin definitely out-winked him. But let me remind you that Gore won all three in 2000 and Kerry won all three in 2004.

So debates do not always hold sway. It is mainly get-out-the-vote at this juncture, which is why McCain still runs the attack ads -- and his ads attack Obama's character and contain outright falsehoods, which is a far higher level of negativity than the Obama ads which attack McCain's real policies and the Republican record of the last eight years. McCain may claim that he is not "George Bush," but the represents the same party that has been in power in the White House for the past eight years, and six of the last eight years in Congress.

And McCain really is Bush warmed over in so many ways. For one, he picked the SHE-BUSH to be his Vice-President, and then, on issue after issue, he continues to trumpet the Republican ideology of Bush and his failed policies.

John McCain’s fusion to President Bush’s ideological hip couldn't’t be tighter when it comes to education. He is eager to expand taxpayer financed vouchers to aid parents who send their children to parochial schools, to “shake up schools with competition,” as he said Thursday night in his acceptance speech. And he aims to further centralize elements of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind initiative, rather than rethinking how Congress can narrow achievement gaps without micromanaging the daily work of teachers.

I am convinced that a full vouchers system, taking money from public education, will eventually destroy public education, and yet public education has made America great -- a fantastic social justice leveler of the playing fiend, so to speak, helping for fairness and building society stronger.

McCain’s pitch on school reform actually might be better if he talked to Palin a bit. Palin, the daughter of a retired public school teacher, who began her political career leading the local Parent Teachers Association.

But, as University of California professor Bruce Fuller expertly points out, McCain places his faith in vouchers, assuming that market competition among schools will magically deliver a stronger teaching force or counter the denigrating effects of family poverty on children’s early growth. Yet only three publicly financed voucher programs — Cleveland, Milwaukee and Washington — have survived since the early 1990s. We know that many inner-city parents seek an escape from dangerous or ineffective schools. But these experiments with vouchers have failed to yield consistent achievement gains.

Fuller shares that according to a recent Gallup poll, just two in five Americans support school vouchers. On No Child Left Behind, four in five believe the legislation should be revamped by Congress, to de-emphasize standardized tests.

McCain’s push to privatize schooling also surfaces in his pitch to have Washington pick after-school tutoring companies, removing this authority from local school boards. These budding corporations, sniffing out a vast new market, see better prospects if they can directly lobby federal officials, not unlike the inside politics of winning farm subsidies.

Fuller, who monitors public policy closely, states that on early education, Republican leaders have been silent, even though quality preschools pack a strong punch in boosting young children’s learning. Mr. McCain has repeatedly voted against bipartisan proposals to expand and improve Head Start preschools. In contrast, Ms. Palin as the governor of Alaska, has urged expansion of early childhood efforts that focus on poor families. Indeed, she recently asked for legislative options to enrich the training of preschool teachers — priorities right out of Hillary Clinton’s playbook.

So where are McCain's real priorities? He wants to freeze spending on discretionary federal programs, like special education that serves millions of young children. Once again we need to speak for the weakest among us. Special education must be saved and nurtured.