When Gov. George W. Bush goes to Springfield High School in Holland, Ohio, outside Toledo on Thursday, he will be making his 100th visit to a school since he began running for president 14 months ago. It is predictable what he will say, because he says it at almost every stop almost every day, rain or shine, no matter the audience, even when he has only 5 or 10 minutes to speak.
Every child can learn.
It starts with raising people's sights and raising expectations and refusing to yield, refusing to accept a curriculum that won't work. Five years after the Republican Congress shut down the government in part because of the money President Clinton wanted to spend on education, four years after Bob Dole embraced a Republican platform that advocated abolishing the Department of Education, Mr. Bush has made an expanded federal role in education a central campaign issue. Vice President Al Gore, for his part, has responded to the challenge on an issue that has been especially strong for Democrats ever since President Lyndon B. Johnson got the first law on federal aid to public schools enacted 35 years ago over the opposition of most Republicans. While both candidates are emphasizing education, their approaches are quite different. Mr. Bush focuses on making schools more accountable for their students' performance, and talks about the importance of local control.