It’s a bit premature to offer endorsements for 2008, but there is one campaign out there that already deserves backing: Ed in ’08.
That’s ed, as in education.
Not unlike Congressman Tom Tancredo’s single-minded push to make illegal immigration a major topic of the presidential campaign, a new, nonpartisan campaign has emerged to push education to the front burners of debate. It’s a welcome addition to the presidential campaign and to the national dialogue.
Former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer will lead the $60 million effort, which is being funded by philanthropists Bill Gates and Eli Broad. The pair say “Ed in ’08” will be a force for “public awareness and action” with “troops” situated in up to a dozen states, possibly including Colorado.
The idea is to show voters how America’s economic standing in the world is threatened by a school system in need of reform. Romer said the initiative, called Strong American Schools, will set only the “framework for an in-depth discussion” rather than advocate possible solutions.
Ultimately, it’s designed to pressure presidential candidates to come up with solutions for how we educate young people.
America’s school systems are clearly broken, considering more than 1 million U.S. kids drop out of it each year. That’s one every 29 seconds.
Colorado’s numbers are dismal as well, with about 30 percent of high schoolers failing to graduate.
Any campaign that elevates education into a national dialogue is a welcome idea. We hope specific ideas and solutions for a troubled system will be born from that conversation.
