Gates wants education to be No. 1 voter priority

Bill Gates is spending $30 million on the U.S. presidential campaign for a cause, not a candidate. The United States' richest man plans to make education the No. 1 domestic priority with voters.

The 52-year-old Microsoft Corp. chairman has poured $3.4 billion into school improvements and scholarships since 2000 through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the foundation's records.

Now the charity says it is providing half the money for Strong American Schools, a bipartisan group with a $60 million effort called "Ed in '08."

The Washington-based organization, led by former Democratic Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado, wants the next president to rally support for learning standards, increased pay and training for teachers, and longer class days and school years. It says those ideas would improve access to high-quality education, boost economic vitality and reduce the number of U.S. high school dropouts from 1.2 million a year.

Ed in '08 has been "a strong presence out there in the field in the key primary states, getting the grass roots going, getting online going, getting volunteers going," said Jonathan Prince, deputy campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, whose policy aides have conferred with Strong American Schools officials. "They've taken a very smart approach."

The Gates-backed effort is nonpartisan by design, said Marc Lampkin, 43, the executive director of Strong American Schools and a deputy campaign director for George W. Bush in 2000.

Gates and Romer weren't available for comment. Lampkin said the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in Los Angeles, a frequent Gates partner on education projects, is providing the other $30 million for the Strong American Schools effort.

"The Gates name, the Gates brand, his commitment to philanthropy opens up lots of doors and avenues, and it really does, based on their enormous amount of effort they put into improving schools," Lampkin said.

Officials with Ed in '08 say they face an uphill fight in a year in which the war in Iraq, the economy and health care are top concerns of voters. A Dec. 11 ABC News/Washington Post poll showed that only 1 percent of voters identified education as their overriding concern in the presidential campaign.

"It is very difficult for any special issue to break through, given how cluttered the terrain is," said Democratic consultant Chris Lehane, who supports Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.