The National Education Association is trying hard to promote the notion that college affordability will be a major factor in this year’s elections.

The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, issued poll results today that show that college affordability will be “an important issue” in the November elections for 65 percent of students and 34 percent of all surveyed.

“It’s no wonder college affordability is shaping up to be the sleeper pocketbook issue of the 2008 campaign,” the NEA’s newly elected president, Dennis Van Roekel, said in a statement.

The poll didn’t make clear, however, how college affordability ranks as an issue among all voters, or whether the high rate of concern about college costs among college students is distinguishable from the nation’s overall economic concerns.