Obama, Clinton have subtle differences on federal education policy

Throughout the presidential campaign, the leading Democrats have been speaking from a similar script on education—until this month, when U.S. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois suggested he could be persuaded to support private school vouchers.

“If there was any argument for vouchers, it was ‘Let’s see if the experiment works,’ ” Sen. Obama told the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Feb. 13. “And if it does, whatever my preconception, you do what’s best for kids.”

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York rejected any private-school-choice proposals in her interview with the same editors the next day. Although Obama’s campaign has since downplayed his voucher comments, the exchange suggests that the two have subtle but important differences in their approaches to federal education policy, whether the topic is expanding school choice, rewriting the No Child Left Behind Act, or experimenting with new forms of teacher pay. Read the article in Education Week online.