It’s no secret that even as the 2016 presidential election heads toward the Super Tuesday contests — and the all-important motherlode of delegates needed to help clinch the nomination — discussion of the nation’s K-12 education system has been largely neglected.
Inspired in part by the cable news networks’ town hall sessions, which let voters ask the candidates questions of real substance, The 74 staff tried to find out what candidates should be asked on such a vital subject. In this political dreamland, the two Democrats and five remaining Republicans would face, and answer, real, substantive inquiries.
Some would be super niche or in-the-weeds; all would move beyond what has sufficed as education discussion in the campaign so far: “The Common Core is evil!” on the right and “Free college for everyone!” on the left.
Here’s what our experts — former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, prominent researchers across the education policy spectrum and classroom teachers on the front lines — think the candidates really should be discussing.
We offered our respondents the option to address all the candidates, which most did, a group or one specifically. (Check out The 74 on where the remaining contenders stand on education issues.)
Read questions here.
