True confession: When my faith in government slips, I find myself rewatching “West Wing,” that acerbic, fast-talking drama that now seems less aspirational than a prelapsarian political fairytale. Anyway, it had slipped my mind that in the final season there is an education debate between the two presidential candidates who are vying to replace second-term president Josiah Bartlett: Democrat Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) and Republican Arnie Vinick (played by Alan Alda). 

This episode, “Debate,” which was actually recorded and broadcast live in November 2005, once for the East Coast and once for the West Coast, isn’t just about  K-12 schools. But 20 years later the education talking points that suffuse the script (see transcript below) seem especially relevant, both locally as  Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli battle it out to replace Phil Murphy and nationally, as we consider the proper role of the federal government in education.

Two things come to mind. First, we’ve made few strides in our educational stagnation. Indeed, some of what both fictional candidates said could be ripped from today’s education debates, from Education Savings Accounts (Vinick points to the D.C. program) to achievement gaps (Santos: “close the gap between Beverly Hills High and Harlem High”) to whether schools need more money (“throw more money at the problem; that’s the Democratic way”) to whether “college for all” is unrealistic. (“We need to make sure that every student gets the chance that he or she deserves,” says Santos. “If we’re going to have a practical approach to education,” replies Vinich, “we’re going to have to admit that not everyone can go to MIT.”)

Second, Sherrill is running for governor on a milquetoast education platform crafted to not offend anyone; her platform, Matt Yglesias says, appears designed to not provoke any clashes with unions or the progressive education establishment. That worked four years ago for Phil Murphy, although he only beat Ciattarelli by three points. This year? Some polls show a toss-up.

Admittedly, education only marginally moves the needle but here’s what her campaign strategists should ponder: New Jersey is trending right, as Axios reported over the weekend. (A new article in the Atlantic says NJ is no longer a safe blue state.) Most NJ voters, especially after watching the federal government waste $200 billion on failed Covid interventions, don’t think more money means better student outcomes. It is unlikely a Zohran Mamdani-like figure could win here; most of us like moderates in the mold of PA Governor Josh Shapiro (who bests JD Vance according to a recent poll in a hypothetical 2028 match-up), especially given all the bad press about NJEA.  Most NJ voters support expanding public charters — especially Black and Hispanic voters – a position Ciattarelli has endorsed and Sherrill hasn’t.  And a poll last month showed in NJ “majorities of likely voters support establishing a refundable tax credit for education expenses and open enrollment in the state’s schools.”

I, a lifelong Democrat, find Vinick’s education platform more compelling than Santos’s. I don’t think I’m the only one. And Sherrill can’t count on a lightning strike (well, a nuclear power accident) like the one that allows Santos, at the last minute, to overtake Vinick. 

Anyway, that’s 20-year-old TV. This is real life. Sherrill needs an educational strategy that goes beyond, as pollster Irene Lin told Axios,  “she flies helicopters and Ciattarelli loves Trump.” So far that’s all we’ve got.

SAWYER
Congressman Santos, throughout this campaign, you have said that you want to be known as the Education President. Now, what does that mean? What is the proper role of the federal government in education?

SANTOS
Level the playing field. Help close the gap between Beverly Hills High and Harlem High. We have got to change a system that says the quality of your education depends on where you live.

VINICK
Throw more money at the problem; that's the Democratic way...

SANTOS
Well, you want to throw money at the border.

VINICK
Let me...

SANTOS
You're thinking that...

VINICK
Let me finish. Before you vote for someone who thinks you can buy higher test scores for poor students, know this: the highest spending school system in the country has the lowest test scores. Washington, D.C. spends more than every state; $15,000 per pupil with nothing to show for it.

SANTOS
I'm not talking about just throwing money at the problem. I'm talking about supporting the new approaches that have already succeeded in some school districts. The President can spread those good ideas around the country and he can make sure that every student gets the chance that he or she deserves.

VINICK
Except the chance to go to a private school. The Republican Congress passed a federally funded voucher program for Washington, D.C. to help poor students who can't afford to go to private schools. We got more applications than we could handle. Poor minority parents desperately want to get their kids out of failing public schools. The Democrats won't let them.

SANTOS
Oh, that's right, the big, bad Democrats won't take money away from public schools to give them to private schools. What's next, taking money away from police departments to pay for private security guards?

VINICK
The federal budget contributes about seven cents out of every dollar spent on public schools. Now, if you enact every bit of the Santos education plan, then that will go up to eight cents. Do you really think you get to call yourself the Education President if you're only going to cover half the education budget?

SANTOS
Well, the federal share is much higher than that if you include headstart, and I can understand why you don't include headstart in the total of federal funding, Senator, since you voted against it.

VINICK
Headstart doesn't work.

The audience reacts in awe.

VINICK
I wish headstart did work, but it doesn't. By grades four and five, headstart graduates do no better academically than their equally poor classmates who didn't attend headstart. So yes, I have voted against expansions of an 8-billion... 6-billion dollar program that's not raising academic achievement.

SANTOS
Headstart does raise scores in the early years and then we let them slip. Our whole school system has been slipping for years and our rankings with other countries in math and science achievement... we've got to find a way to turn that around. If we provide the school systems and teachers with everything they need and the flexibility to experiment with fresh new approaches, I think that American students can be number one in the world in math and science in ten years.

VINICK
That's a lie.

MAN IN AUDIENCE
You're a liar!

The audience boos as we see a security man escort the man from his seat.

SAWYER
Please. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we should impose the original rules on the audience, and I'm going to have to ask you to please, for the sake of the candidates, to remain silent for the rest of the debate.

He turns back to the candidates.

SAWYER
And Senator Vinick, we have managed to keep a civil tone throughout this discussion and unless we can continue to do that, then I'm going to impose the original rules on the candidates themselves.

VINICK
It's a lie that every President, Democrat and Republican, has been telling for 20 years: we're going to be number 1 in ten years. Go ahead, Google it right now. I'm not saying that every President knew it was a lie when he said it or that Congressman Santos knows it's not true, but I do. So let me tell you what our goals should be  our realistic goals. First of all, let's stop pretending that everyone can or should go to college. Every airline needs high-paid mechanics and none of them have to go to college. There are plumbers in some parts of the country that make a better living than dentists. Now, I'm not talking about lowering our ambitions. I'm talking about targeting our ambitions correctly. Now, it's true: some other countries have raised their academic standards over and above what they were once. But we still have the best scientists in the world, the best doctors, and by far the most Nobel prizes. If a kid does well in one of those foreign high schools, guess where he or she wants to go to college. That's right; Harvard, Stanford, Cal-Tech, the University of Texas, and a hundred other American universities that are better than anything they have in their countries. So, if we're going to have a practical approach to education, we're going to have to admit that not every one can go to MIT. But most of the kids who do go to MIT come from American public schools.

SANTOS
So, give up on headstart, just give up on early education, and then give up on those kids who don't test well. They'll find their way, don't worry about them.

VINICK
I'm not going to give up on public schools.
SANTOS
Well, you haven't proposed a single thing that will make them better  not one new idea. I'm going to keep trying new ideas. Some might work, some might not, and I'll level with you about that. We'll keep the good ideas and we'll keep moving.