A crowd turned out to hear a politician talk big about improving schools, but it wasn't a Republican railing about transgender athletes or school vouchers or any of the issues the GOP has used to put Democrats into a defensive crouch. On this night, the politician taking questions was a Democrat — former Chicago mayor and President Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel — talking about reading. For the past several years, Republicans have dominated the education debate with a focus on culture war politics. Emanuel, who is exploring a 2028 presidential run, makes the case for returning to the education part of education: achievement and learning rather than book bans and gender identity.