Bill Gates is spending $30 million on the American presidential campaign for a cause, not a candidate. The world’s richest man plans to make education the No. 1 domestic priority with voters.

The Microsoft Corp. chairman has poured $3.4 billion into school improvements and scholarships since 2000 through his Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the foundation’s records. Now the charity says it is providing half the money for Strong American Schools, a bipartisan group with a $60 million effort called “Ed in ’08.”

The Washington-based organization, led by a former Colorado governor, Roy Romer, a Democrat, wants the next president to rally support for learning standards, increased pay and training for teachers, and longer class days and school years. It says those ideas would improve access to high-quality education, boost economic vitality, and reduce the number of high school dropouts from 1.2 million a year.

Ed in ’08 has been “a strong presence out there in the field in the key primary states, getting the grassroots going, getting online going, getting volunteers going,” the deputy campaign manager for Democrat John Edwards, whose policy aides have conferred with Strong American Schools officials, Jonathan Prince, said. “They’ve taken a very smart approach.”

The Gates-backed effort is nonpartisan by design, the executive director of Strong American Schools and a deputy campaign director for President Bush in 2000, Marc Lampkin, 43, said. Messrs. Gates and Romer weren’t available for comment. Mr. Lampkin said the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in Los Angeles, a frequent Gates partner on education projects, is providing the other $30 million for the Strong American Schools’ effort.

“The Gates name, the Gates brand, his commitment to philanthropy opens up lots of doors and avenues, and it really does, based on their enormous amount of effort they put into improving schools,” Mr. Lampkin said in an interview yesterday with Bloomberg radio.

Ed in ’08 officials say they face an uphill fight in a year in which the war in Iraq, the economy and health care are issues with voters. A December 11 ABC News/Washington Post poll showed only 1% of voters identified education as their overriding concern in the presidential campaign.

“It is very difficult for any special issue to break through, given how cluttered the terrain is,” a Democratic consultant who worked for Al Gore’s 2000 presidential bid and now supports Democratic Senator Clinton, Chris Lehane, said.

Strong American Schools has 125 staffers and consultants working in four early-voting states, according to organizers. They’ve attended more than 675 forums, posted an 87-page so-called toolkit for reform on the Internet and met with advisers for the major candidates.

Among New Hampshire residents planning to vote in the Democratic primary, education tied with the economy for second among domestic issues, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll. It was identified by 8% of respondents, compared with health care at 23%. In Iowa, 6% of Democrats made education their top concern, up from 3% in November.