Education Plan(t)

I checked my e-mail this morning to find a release from the Knowles campaign criticizing Sarah Palin for an inadequate education plan. Apparently, the Palin campaign handed out a tribute to Sarah's dad while the Knowles campaign wanted to talk policy. (AlaskanAbroad has a link to the document.)

The debate so far has been about whether or not the document actually comes from the campaign. Let's take a different approach here and consider it as an actual statement of education policy.

Sarah - apparently - is talking about the advice she got from her father, a former teacher, how he taught her at the dinner table and told her to "Turn off the TV! Read! Get outdoors!" Given that the role of parents in education is currently at issue in state Superior Court, I'd say the Palin campaign has given us the most up-to-date and relevant education statement. More seriously, I'd say that the role of parents in education is often minimized and the advice "Turn off the TV! Read! Get outdoors!" is tremendously valuable. If I was confident there was a successful way to codify that advice in state law and that Sarah Palin would do it, I'd vote for her on those grounds alone.

On the question of whether the document actually comes from the Palin camp, on the face of it, it strikes me as so hopelessly out of sync with the rest of the campaign that it can't possibly be a real document. But what do I know? I wasn't there when they were handed out and I won't say much, other than that most Palin material I've seen so far has always said, "Frugally paid for by Palin Parnell 2006" and this one says "Paid for." It's not much to go on but it leaped out at me immediately because the frugal line has also seemed so self-righteous to me. On the other hand, there is a lot of specificity about Palin's life and family. That's tough to fake.