By Katie O’Neal

As many have noted, education has been markedly absent from the campaign trail this year.  Both Bill Clinton in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000 ran campaigns which focused directly on education, however this year the first mention of the issue did not come until the last question of the final debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.  In the face of a $700 billion bailout and looming global economic downturn, education policy has been lost in the shuffle.  This silence flies in the face of a $60 million campaign, Ed in ’08, started by Eli Broad and Bill Gates whose goal was to make sure education was an issue in the 2008 election.  Facing a harsh reality that education was not going to be able to compete on the campaign trail, Broad and Gates cut off the campaign’s funding at $25 million – not even half the pledged amount.  There are many issues up for discussion, perhaps most notably the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, but most voters are uncertain where the candidates stand.  For an overview on the candidates’ positions, check out PublicEducation.org.