By Joy Resmovits
(From Huffington Post, September 5th, 2012)
When addressing the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appealed to the crowd not in his official capacity, but “as a parent with two young children who attend a wonderful public school.”
“No one has more at stake in this election than our kids, and that is why we need to re-elect President Obama!” Duncan said, before stressing that the quality of America’s schools speaks to the next generation’s employment prospects.
But Duncan did not overtly mention class size, the Obama campaign’s loudest rallying cry against Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney when it comes to K-12 education. Instead, Duncan’s brief remarks toed the line between Obama’s education record, and the way the president’s campaign has attacked Romney on the issue.
Two weeks ago, the Obama campaign released a television advertisement asserting that Romney “cannot relate” to public school issues, especially the need for smaller class sizes. “Mitt Romney says class sizes don’t matter, and he supports Paul Ryan’s budget, which could cut education by 20 percent,” a voiceover says.
Obama also released a back-to-school report noting that 300,000 educators have lost jobs in the last three years since the recession ended. “These cuts force our kids into crowded classrooms,” Obama said at the time.
But the Romney campaign was quick to note that, “Obama’s latest ad puts him directly at odds with his own education secretary, who has promoted teacher quality – not class size – as the most important factor in a good education,” according to a statement Romney spokesperson Amanda Henneberg. (Duncan’s spokesperson Justin Hamilton shot back: “What Secretary Duncan has said is that class size is especially important in the early years and we should focus our class size efforts where the evidence shows it’s most effective.”)
In his Wednesday evening speech, Duncan mentioned the Romney-Ryan budget, but relegated class size to a brief clause, saying the budget would mean “fewer teachers in the classroom.”
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