Campaign 2008: Education

From the Inquirer

Karen Heller: Health, education foremost for voters

By Karen Heller Inquirer Columnist

In an economy that resembles a natural disaster - except that it was man-made and avoidable - Americans are concerned about health care and higher education, and how they're going to pay for them.

These are universal concerns. Without health or education, we can't go forward. We can't even tread water. Education is the great equalizer and the biggest key to financial advancement and independence, far more than race, ethnicity, country of birth, or your parents' financial situation.

Educated citizens land better jobs, ones with health insurance. A healthy, educated country is a more prosperous one. If that's elite, we should all be for it.

When Americans are uninsured and sick, they drain the entire system. We all end up paying for it. And the nation suffers.

During the Republican National Convention, education came up maybe twice. You can't have the "best workers in the world," as both candidates claim, without educating them well.

Otherwise, you don't simply leave a child behind, you leave a nation.

The McCain campaign rarely mentions education. On health care, it applies the same marvelous free-market applications that got us into this fiscal disaster. The campaign is too busy fighting community organizers and former domestic terrorists, who often amount to the same thing. Who knows, they could be anywhere. I attended the same school as Bill Ayers' wife, in the neighborhood where they live. Possibly some errant terrorist dust rubbed off on me.