Presidential surrogates to debate education

Those of you who think education issues have not been getting enough attention during the Presidential campaign, may want to check into this:

Jon Schnur, education advisor to President Obama, and Phil Handy, who serves the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney in the same role, will debate education policy matters at stake in the 2012 election during a special webcast co-hosted by Education Week, the leading education trade paper, and Teachers College at Columbia University. The event is sponsored by the International Reading Association. The session, scheduled for October 15, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. EST, will be moderated by Susan Fuhrman, president of Teachers College. Registration for the live webcast is free at www.edweek.org. (Click on “Topics” and then “Campaign 2012.”) A panel discussion featuring education journalists and others will immediately follow the debate.

Some of you will recall that a similar event was held at Teachers College and hosted by Fuhrman prior to the last Presidential election. That one featured Linda Darling Hammond representing President Obama. Many of us hoped that her highly visible presence as an adviser during the campaign signaled she might be our next Secretary of Education.  Given that history, I’m a little skeptical (aren’t you surprised) that what we hear from the surrogates in this debate will be an accurate reading of what we can expect in terms of policy after the election dust settles.

Still, thanks to EdWeek, IRA, and Teachers College for at least putting the campaigns on record. We’ll be paying attention.