by Aziah Siid
They clashed over the economy, abortion, immigration, housing and race. The size of one another’s campaign rallies was discussed. Even debunked, incredible allegations that undocumented migrants in Ohio are eating household pets while others are — no joke — getting gender reassignment surgery in prison actually came up.
But at Tuesday night’s presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the state of the nation’s K-12 education — arguably one of the most contentious issues on the American agenda and the subject of one of Trump’s most radical proposals — barely got any airtime.
That was a big frustration for viewers who work or advocate in the education space.
“The absence of any public education discussion at the debates when only 3 out of every 10 students can read on grade level in our country is harmful to our current and future students,” wrote Margo Roan, an educator.
Chalkbeat, an education policy website, noticed, too.
The 90-minute debate between Harris and Trump ”did not include any discussion of the ongoing struggles of American students to recover from pandemic disruptions,” the paper wrote. ”It did not include any discussion of how to make American schools safer. It did not include any conversation about how to control the cost of college or ensure students are prepared for well-paying jobs.”
The absence of education policy in the highly-anticipated debate happened despite recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data that lays out an unfortunate reality: the average literacy reading scores for 4th- and 8th-graders fell 3 points from 2019 to 2022, with 4th-graders recording their lowest average score since 2005.
Crisis in The Classroom, a news outlet covering K-12 education topics important to parents, reported that arent activists “feel ‘ignored’” after their issue was snubbed.
Since replacing Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Harris’s education policy mostly centers on making college more affordable and protecting LGBTQ+ grade-school students. Trump, on the other hand, has promised to eliminate the Department of Education if he’s elected, giving states the power to determine their own education policy.
But neither position came up on Tuesday. So far, it’s unclear if Harris and Trump will agree to a second debate, which could leave educators and advocates even more frustrated.
Sarah Carpenter, the executive director of education advocacy group Memphis Lift, like others felt keeping education off the debate stage was full of “missed opportunities” to address the students and educators’ needs.
“Every second spent on lies and rumors about immigrants eating domesticated pets, we lose more kids to the literacy crisis in this country,” Carpenter told Crisis in the Classroom. “At the end of the day, you can’t talk about the promise of this country’s future without lifting up the necessity of an excellent public education system.”
