"There is no way you can claim there is equal opportunity when you cut aid," says Charles B. Saunders, a lobbyist for the American Council on Education, which has played an active role in fighting Reagan's budget cuts in federal student age. Says Saunders, explaining the widely stated rationale for student and programs. "By definition you're limiting the kind of access to higher education."

Saunders and other educators can be expected to press their cast against the Reagan program for higher education, especially in light of even more drastic proposed cutbacks in the area for the budget for fiscal year 1985. But while it is unclear just how important education in general will ultimately be in the campaign, issues involving elementary and secondary schools will most likely overshadow the higher education issues.

"I would like to see lot of focus on elementary and secondary education," says Notre Dame University President Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, a prominent American educator. "You can have all the Harvards in the world, and it won't matter without primary and secondary education."

One of the major points stressed in this area, at least by presidential candidates, is getting back to concentrated core curriculi in elementary and high schools--curriculi that emphasize traditional subjects. This especially includes topics in math and science, where U.S. slippage has made many educators fearful for future trends in industrial productivity.

"All of what have been called self-realization courses, all of the driver ed and music and band and a lot of other things...let's not let them interfere with what is a core curriculum, what is core to a good education," says candidate Glenn. "Getting back to a good core curriculum--that doesn't cost any money."

One other move that is gaining widespread bipartisan support is the idea of "merit pay," or encouraging good teachers by dangling before them possible salary increases. Reagan and several of the Democratic eight have supported the proposal in general, though no one has proposed anything specific.

The race to get on the right side of the educational fence has also been accelerated by pressure from teacher lobbying groups, especially the National Educational Association (NEA), which endorsed Mondale last fall. The NEA endorsement is more than a more stamp of approval for Mondale's platform: it carries with it the promise of campaign workers nationwide and a organization that rivals the AFL-CIO, another group that has backed the Minnesotan.

Despite the general focus on lower-level education, a healthy bureaucratic battle has been waged over questions of higher education. Yet a number of educators bemoan the fact that higher education is not, in the words of University of Minnesota President C. Peter Magrath, "a politically attractive issue."

Magrath says the electorate is short-sighted in focusing exclusively on elementary and secondary schools to the detriment of higher education issues, which in the end have a great long-term significance.

"The colleges don't get the structural attention they deserve," he says.

What little debate there has been in the public arena has largely focused on budget issues, but educators acknowledge it is tough to get the public worked up over cuts in financial aid given the swollen budget deficits nearing $200 billion.

Education lobbyists have cried foul over Reagan's proposal, and many charge him with disregarding higher education. The proposed budget would include a cut of $326 million in funding for need-based programs, which, according to education groups, would cut off nearly 800,000 of the 12 million college and graduate students who receive aid.

The budget also seeks to eliminate federal funding for several educational programs, including National Direct Student Loans (NDSL). Supplement Grants, State Student Incentive Grants. Graduate Student Fellowships, and a program to help build and renovate academic facilities.

Offsetting these cuts, however, is a major hike in funding for work study programs from $550 million to $850 million. The level of Pell Grant funding would remain equal. (See accompanying story).

The issues raised in the budget are familiar to lobbyists and other educators who over the last three years have fought the Reagan cutbacks tooth and nail. These seasoned pros generally make two points about the education budget as it relates to politics--one, many of Reagan's proposed cutbacks are certain to be restored by Congress and, two, it should not play more than a small role in the election campaign.