Site Devoted to Education Overhaul Is to Hold Presidential Forums
An education-focused news outlet run by the journalist-turned-advocate Campbell Brown plans to host presidential forums for both parties, with the first one held in New Hampshire.
The Seventy Four, a site recently created by Ms. Brown, a former CNN anchor who supports charter schools and overhauling the education system, will host the forums with the American Federation for Children, she said.
The Republican forum will be first, in August, and Jeb Bush, who has made education a signature issue in his campaign, is among those who have committed to attending. So have Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard chief executive.
The Democratic candidates will meet in October in Iowa in an event hosted in conjunction with the Des Moines Register, Ms. Brown said. The Seventy Four and the Register will also put out a corresponding poll focused on education.
The invitations for that forum were just sent, Ms. Brown said. But one of the most visible candidates in the Democratic field, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was endorsed over the weekend by the American Federation of Teachers.
The AFT president, Randi Weingarten, and Ms. Brown have clashed repeatedly over the last few years.
Education issues tend to recede to the background in presidential campaigns, Ms. Brown said, explaining the thinking behind the forums.
“It’s a critical issue, it’s a critical moment, and we need to know where these candidates stand,” she said.
The presence in the race of Mr. Bush, a supporter of the Common Core education standards, and Ms. Clinton, who has made early childhood education a key facet of her campaign, may make education more of a focal point than it has been.
Few candidates in the 2016 field have been pressed for their views on education as much as has Ms. Clinton, a former Senator of New York. Ms. Site Devoted to Education Overhaul Is to Hold Presidential Forums - First Draft. Political News, Now. - The New York Times:
