On the heels of the 2006 Stand Up Campaign, the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, one of the biggest philanthropy services in the world, created a nonprofit project billed “ED in ’08,” better known as Strong American Schools. It advocates public educational reform in the US, or at least the discussion thereof. Through the generous grant funding of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, this project’s aims has taken such discussion to a national level.

Strong American Schools was created to secure a strong policy on education from 2008’s US presidential contenders. Bill Gates and Eli Broad, extremely wealthy philanthropists, have infused this project with no less than $60 million initially. A nonpartisan motive, Strong American Schools is chaired by Roy Romer, a Democrat and former Colorado governor; and directed by Marc Lampkin, a Republican lobbyist.

Strong American School’s goal is three-way, all specifically designed to increase the competitiveness of their nation’s K-12 schools. Strong American Schools is aiming for higher standards in the formal education of Americans, because many schools are increasingly handing out diplomas without good reason and with lowered requirements; good enough is not good enough. States must at least agree on forward-thinking curricula in Math and English. Likewise, Strong American Schools wants to attract the best and the brightest teachers by jumpstarting great incentives, higher salaries, and attractive opportunities for advancement. The project also expects teachers to give students their utmost support, to the point that they personalize the education experience. Ideally, students should also attend longer classes because the deficit in classwork in the US is already alarming.

For this reason, Strong American Schools launched multimedia campaigns in several key states of the recently concluded presidential race. The campaign began with print ads showing someone misspelling ‘Iraq” on the chalkboard. It has since ascended to full-blown efforts like The One Nation Left Behind tri-media campaign which is worth $5 Million.