Time to trash our nation’s public schools! Campbell Brown, joined with the pro-voucher American Federation for Children, is sponsoring a debate on education among the GOP candidates in New Hampshire today. Don’t expect to hear anyone say anything positive about the public schools, which educate nearly 90% of the nation’s children.

Expect to hear how terrible our teachers are, how many need to be fired at once, how dismal our public schools are. You might conclude that we live in an impoverished third-world country from this kind of negativity.

You can be sure no one will acknowledge that NAEP test scores are the highest in the history of NAEP (since the early 1970s) for white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students.

You can be sure no one will note that graduation rates are at an all-time high and dropout rates are at an all-time low.

This is the first time ever, at least in my memory, that a highly partisan group (or two) have sponsored a primary debate. This is not the League of Women Voters, after all.

Why don’t supporters of public education sponsor a debate for the candidates? Why not ask them to explain their K-12 education plans? Ask them about high-stakes testing? What about privatization? Will they continue to send federal funds to for-profit colleges and charter schools? Will they continue to close schools because of their test scores?

There are many such questions. They need to be asked. They should be asked not by those who despise public education, but by those who understand that public education is a basic democratic institution that educates ALL children, not just those it chooses.