The Bully Pulpit

What can governors do about improving schools? Well assuming you can get through the rhetoric and the campaign slogans, quite a lot actually. For example, without Bill Weld's commitment to fund education reform in 1993, it's doubtful that a compromise would have been reached. And governors Cellucci, Swift, and Romney have used the "bully pulpit", the status of the office, to hold the line on standards and accountability (their record on funding however is a story for another time).

All six of the candidates for Governor (extra credit if you can name them) have their plans for what they will do about public schools. And although it is still early (the primary is September 19th), you might want to spend some time learning more about their views.

The three Democratic candidates for Governor - Chris Gabrieli, Deval Patrick and Attorney General Tom Reilly - will meet on Thursday, June 29th for an issues debate focused on health care and education. The debate will be moderated by NECN's R.D. Sahl and feature questions from Martha Bebinger of WBUR 90.9, Alison King of NECN, Frank Phillips of The Boston Globe, and Robert Keough, editor of CommonWealth magazine. The debate will air on NECN and WBUR 90.9 at 8pm on June 29th. This is the second issues debate co-sponsored by The Boston Globe, NECN, WBUR, and MassINC, publisher of CommonWealth magazine (Full disclosure -- I am vice president of MassINC).

To read more about the issues, visit MassINC’s free online resource Campaign 2006 Issues Briefing Book for Massachusetts Candidates and Voters.

And check out the candidates Web sites to read their positions on education. Better still, find out when they are coming to Lowell and ask them yourself how they will use the bully pulpit to make our schools better if elected.