Now that both party conventions are over, the public has a bit clearer picture of where the presidential candidates stand on the issue of education — if not in substance, then at least in rhetoric.

At the risk of oversimplifying the positions, here’s the drive-by summary of the two candidates, based on their convention speeches.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s education plan can be boiled down to investment in early childhood education, improving teacher quality with unspecified changes in how teachers are paid and rewarded for success, and increased college scholarships in exchange for community service.

Obama hit on each of those points in his speech:

“Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. I’ll invest in early childhood education. I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I’ll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American — if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.”

Republican Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, concentrated much of his convention punch on around the issue of choice. Garnering some of the loudest applause of the night, McCain declared education the “civil rights issue of this century,” paraphrasing a line from George W. Bush in 2000. McCain spoke in favor of competition, giving parents options to pick superior schools. And in a line that overlapped with Obama, he vowed to attract and reward good teachers. But in contrast to his Democratic rival, McCain took a slightly more hard-line approach, saying he would push bad teachers out of the profession.

Here’s how McCain laid it out:

“Education is the civil rights issue of this century. Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school? We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.”

Education policy analysts, journalists and partisan critics have taken crack at both education plans. Obama has been criticized for failing to flesh out exactly how he would change teacher compensation. Merit pay is among the most contentious issues within education politics, and an issue that is particularly dicey within the Democratic Party, which enjoys strong support from teachers unions. The issue is generating some back and forth online.

McCain is under the gun for similar reasons - failing to put the meat on the bones when it comes to school choice. While he has said that he supports the continuation of a Washington D.C. voucher program, he has not otherwise called for vouchers more broadly. Nor, as some have pointed out, has he said what other forms of school choice the federal government might be able to promote and in what circumstances.

Conspicuously absent from the convention addresses were any direct mention of No Child Left Behind, the increasingly criticized federal education program. Both candidates have said they dislike aspects of the program, but neither want to scrap it and neither have been clear on precisely what they’d change. As many are quick to point out, tampering with No Child Left Behind is a tricky politically — with both parties split over its finer points and whether the federal law should even exist at all.

In fairness, both candidates have more thorough education plans on their web sites (here’s Obama’s  and here’s McCain’s).

But even so, both plans have some wanting for details.