It's not just attention, it's action that counts

Friday, Sept. 26, 2008- Blog #5

I am interested in K-12 public education reform. At the Kennedy school I have become more educated and more involved in this subject through my classes, summer internship, and extra-curricular groups. Last week we had two prominent leaders, former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift and Harvard Law School Professor Stephanie Robinson represent McCain and Obama, respectively and debate the candidates' education platforms. It was a lively discussion (more so than a debate because they agreed on so much) between two people who are very knowledgeable and passionate about the topic. But, while I left feeling energized, I was also disappointed because neither candidate himself has shown as much engagement and energy toward addressing the huge education problems that exist as their representatives do. Whether you like the No Child Left Behind law or not, you can not deny that President Bush is engaged and took some action on the issue which helped raise the public awareness surrounding it.

As the economy falls apart, gas prices rise and the war in Iraq continues, I have little hope that an education reform initiative will come out of the presidency of either candidate. I am not trying to make a judgement on which of these issues is more or less important. Rather, I feel like education and its importance to the strength of our democracy, economy and foreign relations is interconnected with all of these issues in the long run but easy to ignore in favor of short term fixes and political gains.