Despite the absence of the former star of The Apprentice, there were no empty-chair tactics like the one that actor and director Clint Eastwood pulled nearly four years ago at the Republican National Convention when he spoke to a make-believe President Obama during a primetime speech.
But if there were, it might have livened up the event — which drew about 300 people from various education organizations and attracted another 1,100 viewers online — especially since surrogates for both the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns essentially conceded there’s not much difference between the two when it comes to education.
The forum was convened by the Committee for Education Funding, or CEF, which boasts being the “largest and oldest coalition of education organizations in the country” with 117 membership organizations.
Ann O’Leary, senior policy advisor for the Clinton campaign, said both Clinton and Sanders have “very large packages on higher education.”
“We have to applaud young people that they have raised the issue of how out of control higher education has become in terms of affordability,” O’Leary said. “Both candidates have the largest education packages of any presidential candidate who has ever run before.”
When CNN chief political reporter Candy Crowley, who moderated the event, asked Bernie Sanders policy advisor Donni Turner to “pinpoint” the priority for the Sanders campaign, Turner was unhesitant when she replied: “Higher education.”
