Swift & Change Able

Essence Magazine publishes an exclusive interview with John McCain today in which he seems to be road testing an education message for the general election - emphasizing educational inequities and achievement gaps (who said John Edwards’ "Two Americas" theme didn’t have an impact?). What’s kind of bizarre about all this is that there are many liberals (just read down across our last few posts here) who are sending the message, one way or the other, that poor kids really shouldn’t be expected to learn much anyway…

Memo to Democrats:

• Bush used a message similar to McCain’s to good effect in 2000. 
• We suggest you claim the high ground again rather than cede it to the leader of the Republican party.
• Let’s hear more about what you are for and a little less about what you are against.

Here are some key McCain quotes. 

"We have an unacceptable situation in America today where lower-income people do not have the same access to the quality education that higher-income people have. We tried busing, but that didn’t work. So now we have to bring in new programs, which will improve education standards and choice and work with teachers…. 

"But we also have to act at the federal level, update the No Child Left Behind Act. The No Child Left Behind Act was a good beginning, in my view. Those who want to scrap it completely—I respectfully disagree. 

"But now we have learned the lessons of the first five or six or seven years of putting No Child Left Behind into practice. So let’s fix it, because it’s clear we have a two-tiered system of education in America.”