All of a sudden, education is a major campaign issue in the 1988 race.

Whereas in previous years, education took a back seat to domestic issues, voter concern about the nation's economic decline and skyrocketing tuitions have propelled it to the forefront of every candidate's agenda.

Education as a way to improve international economic competition is among many candidates' top themes.

"There are a whole lot of subsets of issues within the competitiveness issue," says Charles Saunders, vice president for governmental relations of the American Council on Education (ACE). Candidates stress education because study after study reveals that "education is one of the keys" to restoring American competitiveness, Saunders says.

"It's a subject matter of almost universal concern," says Mitchell Daniels, president of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. "There's genuine alarm about year after year of rotten performance."

Higher education officials say the debate over education traditionally helped Democrats because it centered around expanding educational opportunity for all students and on levels of federal financial assistance necessary to do so. However, rising college costs and recent sweeping attacks from such critics as Allan Bloom on the quality and content of college teaching have refocused the debate more along lines that Republicans prefer, on issues such as quality and "accountability."

On several major principles, the candidates are saying much the same thing. Each pledges to place education among his top domestic priorities as President. Each argues that investing in education is vital to improve the United States' international economic fortunes and to ensure that all students have access to a college education, regardless of their income.

At the same time, however, several demand explanations from colleges about the way they spend their spiraling tuitions and advocate various forms of savings plans to help parents cope with these rising costs.

Yet despite all of the candidates' self-proclaimed support for education, higher education officials are worried that their commitment will not extend much beyond this election, and are therefore urging candidates to describe their plans more specifically.

"We will be looking for more in-depth proposals for higher education, not just platitudes," says Saunders of ACE. Saunders says that it would be "disturbing if they [the candidates] were using it as a God and motherhood issue."

TGIF

With the hope of forcing candidates to make specific pledges, a commission of 31 higher education leaders, chaired by William C. Friday, President Emeritus of the University of North Carolina, released a comprehensive report in December on the state of higher education in America.

Entitled "A Memorandum to the 41st President of the United States," the report urges the next president to return the federal government to its former close partnership with higher education, provide incentives for research to help restore economic competitiveness, and increase federal grants for student financial aid.

The Friday Commission hopes "to lay out the kinds of issues we believe are the most important for higher education," says Saunders, the executive director for the commission.

"Simon and Dole have gone into some detail on their proposals," Saunders says. "Most of the rest have been speaking in general terms."

The following is a brief summary of what thecandidates are saying on higher education issues,collected from speeches, position papers, andinterviews with campaign officials:

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis:Dukakis speaks frequently about the numerouseducation initiatives he undertook as governor,such as the Boston Compact, between the city'sbusiness community and local schools. AsPresident, Dukakis says he would end Secretary ofEducation William J. Bennett's assault on theGuaranteed Student Loan (GSL) and Work-Studyprograms, federal programs targeted for low andmiddle-income students.

He also would encourage states to createcollege opportunity and tuition pre-payment plansin order to allow parents to pool their resourcesinto special interest-bearing accounts. Inaddition, in order to reduce the student loandefaults, which reached $11.1 billion in this pastyear, the Duke advocates an Education InsuranceFund, which would complement the existing GSLprogram and link repayment to the size of eachstudent's future earnings.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson: The RainbowCoalition leader pledges to double the federaleducation budget, and calls expansion ofgovernment tuition subsidies the best way to bringup the decreasing minority enrollment levels inUnited States colleges. "Higher education must beseen as a right, and not a privilege, in ournation," he says.

Rep. Richard Gephardt (D.-Mo.): Gephardtproposes the creation of new IndividualDevelopment and Education Accounts (IDEA) whichwould let parents open savings accounts for theirchildren's education with the federal governmentproviding matching funds, based on a formula tiedto income level.

Sen. Albert J. Gore, Jr. '69 (D.-Tenn.):"On election night, I would send a telegram to theSecretary of Education, William Bennett, and tellhim to start cleaning out his desk," Gore recentlytold a University of North Carolina audience.Nevertheless, he does not rule out SecretaryBennett's proposal of linking Federal assistanceto colleges to "some kind of responsibleperformance at controlling [tuition] costs."

Regarded as an effective advocate of educationissues in his years in Congress, the TennesseeSenator has repeatedly denounced theAdministration's attempts to restrict federalfinancial aid and to shift the bulk of this aidfrom grants to repayable loans for creating a"crisis of access" to the nation's colleges anduniversities.

Sen. Paul Simon (D.-Ill.): Simon claimsto have put more education laws on the books thanall of the other presidential candidates of bothparties combined. Simon has been a leadingadvocate of higher education programs during hisyears in Congress and boasts that his interest ineducation "is not simply an election-yearcommitment."

As Chairman of the Subcommittee onPostsecondary Education and a member of otherCongressional committees dealing with educationissues, Simon has helped win legislative battlesfor protecting and expanding student aid funding,creating the Department of Education, andstrengthening minority education. Of all thecandidates, Simon has the highest lifetime rankingfrom the National Education Association (88percent). Like the other Democratic candidates,Simon has denounced the Reagan budget cuts, andwants to reverse the trend away from grants andtowards repayable loans.

Vice President George Bush: Bush pledgesto become the "Education President." He isstriving to disassociate himself from theAdministration's past policy of slashing federalaid to students, and says he favors continuedfederal funding for college work-study and forgrant programs to low-income students.

Partly in response to pressure from Bush,Secretary Bennett announced last month that theadministration was abandoning its attempts todrastically reduce the Pell Grant and GSL programsand eliminate College Work-Study. In addition, theVice President wants to establish a CollegeSavings Plan which would allow parents to put awaytax-free dollars for their children's collegeeducation.

Sen. Bob Dole (R.-Kan.): The senator wasone of the original sponsors of a savings planbased on the Individual Retirement Account model.He has also advocated selective aid to collegesand universities to support their research, and,along the lines suggested in the FridayCommission's Report, says that the federalgovernment must further enlist universities tohelp restore American competitiveness. Although hesays he supports continued funding for the PellGrant progam and GSLs, he says they must betargeted to those who need them most.

Rep. Jack Kemp (R.-NY): Like Bush andDole, Kemp favors the idea of educational savingsplans modelled on IRAs to enable middle classfamilies to stay ahead of rapidly rising collegecosts. He says he has opposed the Reagan budgetcuts, and supports continuing GSL and otherfederal programs to ensure equal access to thenation's colleges.

Pat Robertson: The former televisionevangelist has argued for "fair price policies" tosubject colleges to market forces, which he sayswill lead to lower overhead costs and moreproductive faculties. Like other Republicancandidates, the former television evangelistadvocates a long-term investment vehicle, similarto individual retirement accounts (IRAs), to givetax breaks to parents saving for college. He hasalso called for a system of low-interest loansadministered in a way to ensure that more of themget paid back, though he has not laid out thespecifics to this proposal. One proposal, inparticular, distinguishes Robertson from all theother aspirants: he is the only one who wants toabolish the Department of Education.

"The Department of Education was created as theonly cabinet-level division ever directed to onelabor union," he says in one speech. "I'd take thewhole thing out."