Education Issues Underscore Election Stakes at All Levels

A girl waits behind the barricades before a campaign event for President Barack Obama in Dayton, Ohio, last week. He and his rival, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have criss-crossed the country in the last, intense weeks of the race.

—Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

From presidential race to state initiatives, voters face policy choices

Education policy and funding—from common standards and college access to the prospect of "doomsday" budget cuts—have been a steady theme in this year's presidential campaign, even as more specific K-12 debates lighted the political landscape in various states.

And with the strategic balance in Congress in play, along with the makeup of 44 state legislatures and the fate of numerous education-related ballot measures, the Nov. 6 elections could have a lasting impact on the direction of precollegiate policy.

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