Democrats Don’t Focus On Education During Debate.

Democrats Don’t Focus On Education During Debate. Alyson Klein writes at the Education Week (10/14) “Politics K-12” blog that the candidates made “plenty of quick shout-outs to education,” but the debate lacked “a meaty discussion of the big issues facing K-12—testing, teacher evaluation, fixing low-performing schools.”         The Los Angeles Times (10/13, Resmovits) reported that Democratic presidential candidates taking part in last night’s debate would likely not focus heavily on education, despite efforts by advocacy groups to draw attention to schools ahead of the debate. The piece notes that since education is largely governed at the local level, the issue doesn’t resonate very much with voters at the Federal level. Moreover, Democrats face a different political landscape in regards to education policy, given the influence of national teachers unions.         Meanwhile, Alyson Klein writes in the Education Week (10/14) “Politics K-12” blog that the Democratic contenders have “all been pretty quiet on K-12” thus far, noting that a “political science professor told me that there’s not as much as a contrast here between Democrats and Republicans.” The candidates all support Common Core to one degree or another.