Full episode
171: Election
Act Two

What We Talk About When We Talk About The Issues

The 2000 election season was strange in that many of the issues that the candidates debated most heatedly were ones that most of us have no handle on—prescription drug policy, social security solvency...and educational accountability. Producer Alex Blumberg travels to North Carolina, a state where many of the promises both candidates make regarding education are already in place. He finds, not surprisingly, that they work better as soundbite than as policy, and that if the two candidates get their way with education, it'll push it in a direction most North Carolina teachers find alarming. (23 minutes)