Endorsements, Anyone?

The news this weekend was all about Sunday's highly-anticipated endorsements of presidential candidates by the Des Moines Register. The Register's editorial board had spent the last several months meeting with candidates and deliberating about whom to choose to support with the paper's influential endorsement.

However, the merits of one campaign didn't require a lot of debate and discussion in order to secure an endorsement. The ED in '08 campaign received an endorsement from the Des Moines Register's editorial board way back in May - only weeks after our launch!

In case you missed it the first time, some excerpts from the Des Moines Register piece:

Join Debate about Education
Register Editorial Board

May 4, 2007

How to best reform American public education is about to get a lot of attention in the 2008 presidential race, and Iowans have a strong motivation to join the debate.

Philanthropists Eli Broad and Bill Gates last week announced an initiative to focus the country's attention on improving schools. Their ambitious agenda includes more rigorous curriculum standards nationwide, a longer school day and year, and better teacher quality, accomplished with merit pay and other steps.

The Broad-Gates project is likely to provoke a healthy debate, given the pair's clout and resources. That meshes well with Iowa's tradition of a deep commitment to education. As presidential candidates and Iowans meet in coming months, Iowans should be vocal about their views on how to give Iowa's youngsters - and all of America's children - a more competitive education.

Also, I'm pleased to point out that the Des Moines Register has continued to support the ED in '08 campaign. This morning, another editorial ran in that paper which quotes ED in '08 and lists the steps that need to be taken to raise the competitiveness of American students in the global economy.

In my opinion, it really hits the mark underscoring the current crisis in American schools and the critical issues America's leaders need to address this campaign cycle. Take a look if you have a chance - with only 17 days left before the Iowa caucus, it's definitely time to keep the attention on education.