"I think it is very real as an issue in the presidential campaign," Vice President for Government and Community Affairs John Shattuck says. "There's no question that the electorate is recognizing the importance of education."
Educators say that the Friday Commission's report has had a significant impact in putting education at the top of the candidates' agenda. They argue that the report has set the terms of the education debate this year, forcing the presidential candidates to come up with specifics instead of rhetoric, and putting conservative critics on the defensive.
"The impact [of the report] is fairly subtle and can be measured [by] to what extent it informs the policymakers" for the Dukakis and Bush campaigns, says Robert Atwell, president of the American Council of Education. "I have no doubt that it [the Friday report] will have an impact on [Bush's] subsequent pronouncements."
"Our objective has been all along to inform the next president," says Charles Saunders, ACE vice president for governmental relations. "I think the Friday Commission has helped shape the frames of reference and the parameters" of the debate over education.
"Dukakis is also rethinking his positions on education," Saunders says. "It's a long educational process with the candidates."
Pointing to the lack of American competitiveness in international trade and the troubling decline in minority enrollment in the nation's colleges and universities, education officials say that America must now renew its committment to education.
Higher education, they say, is the gateway to future opportunity in employment, and thus the federal government must increase expenditures on all forms of student aid to ensure equal access for all. "Education is a metaphor for a lot of the challenges facing the country," Shattuck says.
"The need is as great as that document indicates, if not greater," Friday says. "The cutbacks [in education] have been very costly for America."
"We're talking about very substantial expenditures" that are needed for education, Friday says. "The tragedy of it is that nobody's been saying these things before."
"We obviously have an interest in advancing that belief [that education is a national priority]," Atwell says.
Two Can Play That Game
Presidential election concerns not only moved universities to action, but the Reagan administration as well. Ending seven years of bitter battles with universities on Capitol Hill, Secretary Bennett announced over the summer that the administration was abandoning its attempts to drastically reduce funding for crucial financial aid programs. The Administration then submitted a budget in February calling for major increases in education funding and most types of student aid.
"It took seven years, but it looks like the President has finally submitted a budget request we can live with," says Sen. Robert Stafford (R.-Vt.), ranking minority member of the Senate's Subcommittee on Education. The Administration's proposed budget, Stafford says in February, "represents a major shift in policy."
Education Department spokesman Loye Miller admitted that this dramatic turn-around in policy was aimed at helping Bush in the upcoming national elections. Bennett also believed his ideas were being ignored by Congress because of the its hostility toward his budget cuts, Miller says.
Suddenly, the traditionally stormy budget process in Congress had become an unusually mild and tranquil one. The House and Senate passed budget resolutions that differed only slightly from the administration's requests.
Meanwhile, educators agree that the Friday report's powerful argument and its widespread acceptance by the presidential candidates has made it difficult, if not impossible, for the next president or the Congress to call for the deep cuts formerly advocated by Bennett.
"It's been called to the attention of all members of Congress," Saunders says. "I'm sure it's helped [in the budget process]."
"It's become clear to Congress that it's very important to support education programs," Shattuck says. The Friday Commission's report "took the whole approach [of calling for cuts] off the table."