Left and Right Meet in SF

Famed political figures from the left and right debated education yesterday in San Francisco. Both former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and consumer advocate Ralph Nader told the National School Boards Association that fixing public education was the nation€™s top concern. From there, the two agreed to disagree.

Nader called for broad based investment in public schools, and slammed what he called the €œcorporatization€ of education.

Gingrich says school choice, in the form of vouchers, was the best way to take children out of a failing system.

And while Gingrich says fixing education was a more compelling challenge than the war in Iraq, he praised the military€™s handling of the conflict. Nader called the war an unconstitutional engagement draining resources from vital social programs.