WASHINGTON — Despite its brief moment in the sun during the final presidential debate, education has not been a hot topic in the 2008 race. But the candidates' differences on two key issues - early childhood education and school choice - do raise temperatures among education leaders.

Much of the education debate is tied to money: McCain wants to freeze discretionary spending, which means no new cash for education. Obama proposes an $18 billion education increase.

Analysts note that the federal government provides less than 9 percent of all U.S. education dollars. While state and local governments are bigger players in this issue, the next president does face one major education fireball: renewing the No Child Left Behind law.

The issue: Early childhood education

Obama wants to send an extra $10 billion to pre-kindergarten programs. McCain suggests sticking with current funding levels.

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Although McCain doesn't have plans to up the coinage for education, he vows to better coordinate existing programs.

"There is no shortage of federal programs targeted at early child care and preschool," McCain argues via his Web site. "State and federal funding for early childhood care and education programs is over $25 billion each year."

His plan includes building Centers for Excellence in Head Start to serve as "models for leadership and best practices." Head Start is a Health and Human Services Department program designed to promote health and education services to children from low-income families.

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The Obama camp touts a "pay as you go" policy, and claims the federal increase in education spending would be offset by so-called "earmark" - or special projects -- reduction, withdrawal from the Iraq war and other spending cuts.

Obama's "Zero to Five" plan emphasizes the creation of Early Learning Challenge Grants to "help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school," according to his Web site. He plans to increase Head Start dollars, including quadrupled support for Early Head Start, which targets infants and toddlers.

Something to consider

Critics question whether an emphasis on early childhood education will benefit long-term K-12 learning.

"[Early childhood education] is a bit of a red herring," said Adam Schaeffer, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute, a right-leaning think tank. "Research shows that [students] make some gains in the first two years after pre-K, but it fades out."

Mary Ellen McGuire, an education policy director at think tank New America Foundation and a former analyst for Democrats on the Senate education committee, said early childhood education isn't intended to be a silver-bullet fix to the educational system.

"There are a number of studies that show a positive impact with pre-K," McGuire said, "but for those impacts to last over time, the feeder schools have to be good enough, too. We need to connect high quality pre-K with high-quality elementary schools."

The issue: School Choice

Both candidates support public charter schools, which are designed to be an alternative to traditional public schools. Charters face fewer regulations on what goes on in the classroom, but have to demonstrate agreed-upon student outcomes.

McCain and Obama disagree on vouchers, which fall under that private school choice umbrella. McCain alone supports this effort to provide qualifying parents with government money to put towards private school tuition.

Critics of the voucher system say public dollars shouldn't be mixed with private education because private schools don't have the same accountability system. They also say if the private school happens to be parochial, a questionable blend of religious education and public dollars is created.

McCain's support of vouchers does not currently extend beyond the Washington school system.

D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's name came up in the final debate as the candidates quibbled about school choice. Since the debate, Rhee has publicly stated that she does not have a formal position on vouchers.

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Education experts from both sides of the political aisle say that aside from his proposed Washington voucher expansion, McCain's school choice plans are vague. His rhetoric emphasizes change through the free-market system, the engagement of private market forces to maximize parental choice.

While McCain won points in the final debate by labeling education the "civil rights issue of the 21st century," those who follow the issue call for more meat on the rhetorical bones.

"He's said that he proposes expanding the D,C, voucher program," Schaeffer said, "which is currently limited to D,C, and low-income so that would really do nothing for the rest of the [country]."

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Obama is more about driving changes from within the public school system and not necessarily engaging outside forces, according to policy analysts who said his emphasis is on charter school accountability.

Obama wants to double funds "to support the creation of more successful charter schools" and provide additional charter school dollars "only to states that improve accountability for charter schools, allow for interventions in struggling charter schools and have a clear process for closing down chronically underperforming charter schools," according to his site.

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Teachers unions, which historically have a weighty influence on the blue party, strongly oppose the voucher system.

Tor Cowan of the American Federation of Teachers said parents hungry for more choice should be aware of some less appetizing aspects of vouchers.

Vouchers do not necessarily provide enough cash to cover tuition and other private-school expenses, he said. In addition, kids may not be ccepted if they have learning disabilities or don't speak English well he said. "(Vouchers) won't improve education for everybody," Cowan said, "just a select few. And (they) take public school dollars away."

The Issue: No Child Left Behind

The NCLB law that was President Bush's education reform plan is intended to tackle school accountability on a national scale and get all students up to standards in reading and math by 2014. The common criticism among teachers is that it forces them to "teach to the test."

In terms of federal policy, renewing the five-year-old lawtops the education "to do" list for the next president. Both candidates say they support the law, but would tweak it.

McCain and Obama speak in generalities when describing how they'd actually change NCLB, experts say, because the issue is a political hot potato and candidates don't want to risk angering their bases.

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When education came up in the last debate, McCain said he viewed NCLB as a "great first beginning."

"[The law] had its flaws, it had its problems," McCain said, "the first time we had looked at the issue of education in America from a nationwide perspective. And we need to fix a lot of the problems. We need to sit down and reauthorize it."

"John McCain hasn't spelled out a clear policy on No Child Left Behind," said Michael Petrilli of the Fordham Foundation. "It's not clear how he'd reconcile accountability . likewise on Obama. As president, one of them is going to have to have a plan."

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While Obama also plays the vague game with NCLB, experts say, he is more specific in his criticisms of the law.

"Unfortunately, they left the money behind for No Child Left Behind," Obama said in the final debate. "And local school districts end up having more of a burden. ." He vowed to fully fund the law.

Michael Johnson, an Obama education adviser, said Obama supports improving the NCLB assessment system by "creating a way to measure student growth without punishing teachers and students in the lowest performing schools."

Obama supports the goals of NCLB, Johnson said, but wants to broaden assessments to measure students' "complex thinking skills."

Johnson also hit on the importance of how assessment data is used, saying Obama wants to develop more efficient ways for teachers to use testing information.

McCain's party was not available to comment on details surrounding NCLB.

Something to consider:

Tom Loveless, an education policy authority from the nonpartisan Brookings Institute, said when it comes to NCLB, he has his eye on neither Obama nor McCain.

"I actually think [Sen. Edward] Kennedy's current health problems are more important because he's absolutely crucial," Loveless said. "The leadership on NCLB authorization is going to come from Congress." Kennedy is chairman of the Senate education committee.

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