Breaking the Democrats' Ownership of Education

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the education debate in the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. It concludes that Bush put together a focused campaign on the issue, driven by talk of school accountability and backed by his education record in Texas, that the Gore campaign was never able to solidly refute. Gore had the lead on the education debate and had stances on education issues that more closely matched those of the average voter, but his campaign was unable to put together a cohesive message on education and in turn could not fight off Bush's advances. In exploring the education debate, this paper considers the idea of issue ownership in campaigns and how Bush overall made up significant ground in the election by pushing on traditionally Democratic issues like education, Social Security, and Medicare. This paper relies heavily on commercials run by each campaign, speeches delivered by each candidate during the race, and the reflections of those working at the top of each campaign.

From the Paper:

"When it comes to issues that are regularly at the forefront of American presidential campaigns, education is an anomaly in one particular respect: The president of the United States by and large has very little meaningful impact on what takes place in and around the nation's schools. Granted, the federal government has played an increasingly important role in funding the nation's public schools since the enacting of Title I in 1965. And various rulings by federal courts and pieces of legislation by Congress over the years have provided some general guidance to education in this country. But by all accounts, Washington "especially the Executive Branch" plays only a marginal role in shaping what takes place in America's classrooms and how the country's schoolchildren learn and perform. In terms of education the president is, at most, a distant consultant, offering a vision for what U.S. schools should be doing in a general sense, while perhaps forwarding a piece of legislation or two that may advance the cause; at the least, he is a prominent cheerleader for educational causes being carried out at the state and local level. Either way, the president's influence on schools and education pales in comparison to that exerted by state and local governments, school boards, teachers unions, and parent groups."

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