Now that we’re moving to the end of the Bush years, I worry that the cause of education reform could slip by the wayside. Since the day he started running for governor in 1994 and throughout his presidency, George W. Bush has talked about improving schools.

No one in either party appears eager to take up this banner. Although Ted Kennedy is one of the biggest champions of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Democrats running for president are sticking a fork in the federal law. And, except for Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney occasionally talking about it, most Republicans seem to have little interest.

So, to keep the cause of education alive, what needs to happen next?

I hope the candidates start seeing education reform as a civil rights issue as much as a school issue. The focus these days on assessing school performance is really about determining whether kids are prepared for the demands of a sophisticated economy.

If they aren’t, they can forget cracking into the middle class. Competition from around the world will eat them alive.

That’s one reason the National Council of La Raza and some other civil rights organizations don’t want to see Capitol Hill retreat on measuring schools. They know poor and minority kids will suffer the most if they are left behind.

Now, which of these presidential contenders is going to join them? Obama? Hillary? Rudy?

There’s a special need to connect Latino parents with their children’s schooling, especially when it comes to getting them thinking about college.

Principals I talk to almost always say that their first-generation parents want their kids to go further than many of them did in school. But they are often working two jobs or come from Mexico, where there’s not the same demand for parental involvement.

We need everyone from political leaders to superintendents to principals talking about this challenge. America’s future is Latino, so it pays to make sure all Latino children are getting advice about basics like how to apply for college.

The reform agenda needs a special focus on Mexico’s schools. Yes, Mexico.

You go into schools in cities like Dallas today, and you’ll find kids who came in the fourth, fifth, sixth grades from Mexico. And you’ll hear educators talk about the differences in their grasp of subjects like math.

The next president’s Mexico agenda ought to include a dialogue with our southern neighbor about its schools. Mexicans I’ve interviewed understand what this is about and would welcome a chance to get at this issue.

Churches, synagogues and other religious organizations could play a bigger role in stopping so many students from dropping out. For example, what if churches in Dallas and other cities decided to track every one of their eighth-graders? Or, what if every church or synagogue offered a Saturday school for struggling students?

Community colleges are an increasingly important entree into four-year universities and good jobs. Who’s going to talk about locating more of these in poor neighborhoods, like the Dallas Community College District is doing? More kids will see that college is for them, not for others, as Wright Lassiter, the district’s chief, says.

We need to remain firm about measuring schools but give campuses some flexibility about how they do it. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings smartly has been giving states new room to run, such as measuring how much a student’s knowledge of a subject grows over a year.

Al Gore succeeded on the environmental front because he made climate change part of the public consciousness. More than any policy change, he made Americans – and the rest of the world – think about how the way we live today affects the world we pass on to tomorrow.

That’s what I’m interested in seeing happen on the education front. How do we make reform part of our consciousness?

George W. Bush got things started. Who’s next?