Good News for Presidential Candidates: The Public Supports a Wide Range of Education Reforms

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Put foreign policy first, theorist Niccolo Machiavelli once advised his 16th-century Florentine prince. It's not bad advice for 21st-century presidential candidates, either. National security, not education, will be the overriding issue in the 2008 campaign, even if the Gates and Broad Foundations succeed with Strong American Schools, their $60 million quest to place education front and center.

Still, schools will not be missing from the political agenda altogether. So long as the economy perks along and no one wants to cut Social Security or raise taxes on more than a few, then health care and education will be the top domestic issues. Clearly, no presidential issues kit can …