Strong American Schools, an education-advocacy group that is financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, will begin airing ads this week to press the two major presidential candidates to focus on the state of education, reports the Associated Press.

The group plans to spend $5-million on ads that will begin appearing today on television and radio and in print and online. The ads will appear in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

“This campaign is trying to stoke interest and create intensity in key battleground states,” said Marc Lampkin, executive director of the advocacy organization.

To read more about other efforts by nonprofit groups in the 2008 campaign, see The Chronicle’s special election section.

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