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Tomorrow, millions of Americans will go to the polls to vote for the next president, as well as a host of down-ticket races. As the 2008 campaign draws to a close, Early Ed Watch takes a look back at the role of early education issues in the 2008 campaign. The economic situation, Iraq war, and national security issues consumed most of voters’ attention this year, so educational issues in general didn’t get a great deal of attention. But in many ways this was a breakthrough year for early education. For the first time ever, presidential candidates for both major political parties–Democratic candidate and Republican candidate –put forward early education policy agendas that recognized the importance of high-quality early education, demonstrating that support for quality early education is a bipartisan issue. Early education also got a high-profile in the presidential debates.

Throughout the 2008 campaign season, Early Ed Watch has been keeping tabs on the candidates’ positions on early education, as well as how early education issues are being covered (or too often ignored) in the media coverage of the campaign. Along the way, we didn’t get very many answers to the questions we posed about the candidates’ early education agendas, but we did learn we’re not very good at predicting vice presidential picks. As you prepare to vote tomorrow, we’re pleased to provide this roundup of our coverage of early education issues in the 2008 campaign:

Candidates’ Early Education Positions

Party Platforms

Debate Coverage

(and, no, we never did get answers to them!)

(didn’t get answers then, either)

Primary Coverage

Vice Presidential Candidates

(and, yes, we missed eventual nominee Sarah Palin)

(again, we missed eventual nominee Joe Biden here as well)