He says he avoided making explicit campaign promises because he knew he couldn't keep them.

Educating Mass. and the Masses

If national races lacked a single, unifying issue, candidates for the Eighth found it difficult to talk about anything but education.

State records show that Boston's public schools have perennially underperformed. Significant numbers of perspective Massachusetts teachers have failed basic competency tests.

As mayor of Somerville, Capuano took heat for that city's underwhelming educational record.

SAT scores for Somerville high school students are below the state average.

Capuano was quick to point out that test scores of third and fourth grades have risen slightly since he became mayor.

And he claimed that plans to further nationalize education or to institute a voucher system were impractical.

"Kids in Somerville are not just competing with kids in Worcester, they're competing with kids in Los Angeles and in Bangladesh."

Although he says that "eventually," the federal government should assume more of a role in secondary education, he recognizes that many in Congress don't feel that way.

"That's the biggest part of the rock, to convince other Congressmen that it should be a federal issue."

He says he sees national education standards at least "20 years down the road."

Capuano says higher education is close to his heart.

"My oldest kid is a senior in high school, and we're starting to look at college tuitions. And they're killers," he says.

"We are well down the road of taking a good college education out of the reach of the average middle-class family. That's wrong."