"Education" at the 2016 Primary Debates

Tuesday's Democratic Presidential Debate once again had me glued to the television hoping for the candidates to discuss important issues facing education on a national forum (here's a small list to name a few). True, my expectations were minimal after watching the first two Republican debates (a word search of the last GOP debate transcript finds that the word "education" was only mentioned 7 times--all of which focused on their thoughts on the Common Core State Standards).

Fast-forward to last night's opportunity for the Democrats to debate education policy on the main stage of national politics and not much change. A similar word search of a transcript from last night's Democratic debate finds that Democratic Candidates mentioned "education" only 3 more times than their GOP counterparts. To their credit, their discussion focused more on free community college and alleviating students from rising tuition and loan costs--proposals that are, however, already being rigorously fact-checked.

To give you an idea of just how much the issue of education has been neglected on these debate stages, take a look at two Worlde collages created by NBC News that emphasize the words or phrases that have been discussed most in these first few primary debates.

First, from the GOP:

And the Democrats:

Finding discussions of education on the campaign trail should not feel like a Where's Waldo book--especially if you truly believe that providing every American child with a quality education is the first step in solving the other social and economic concerns highlighted in those images.

Doesn't that sound like a message both parties can and should emphasize?