Obama- On Education

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“It's time to turn the page on education, to move past the slow decay of indifference that says some schools can't be fixed, that says some kids just can't learn. As president, I will launch a campaign to recruit and support hundreds of thousands of new teachers across the country--because the most important part of any education is the person standing in front of the classroom. It's time to treat teaching like the profession that it is. It's time to pay our teachers what they deserve. Pay them more money.”

Barack Obama places a great emphasis on the improvement of education. Obama believes that No Child Left behind is false advertising and that as a country, “We need a sense of urgency about improving education system”. He plans on achieving this in three steps. First he plans on improving early childcare programs. Second he wants to pay teachers more and hire more teachers, because “Every teacher I think wants to succeed. And if we give them a pathway to professional development, where we're creating master teachers, they are helping with apprenticeships for young new teachers, they are involved in a variety of other activities, that are really adding value to the schools, then we should be able to give them more money for it. Giving them a more professional environment.” And the last step would be investing in after school programs and summer programs to improve conditions for students. “And that would all cost about $18 billion a year — a significant increase in federal funding, focused on schools all across the country, but with a great emphasis on poor urban and rural school districts that really need resources.” Obama also wants to make free public college for all students with a “B” average, giving opportunity to many gifted students all over the country. By doing this he is he is planning for the future and making all gifted students in the country opportunity. Obama also is a supporter of parents getting involved in their children’s education experience, he want to “Get parents re-engaged in educating the children.”

Obama is also going for positions on education that not everyone agrees on. Note that it is impossible to make everyone happy. But Obama is claiming to create programs that are out of the “traditional political playbook”. Some of the programs and reforms that Obama is proposing are good ideas, but they might be too ambitious. “At a National Education Association meeting last week in Philadelphia, Obama reiterated his support for merit pay for teachers. The teachers union says merit pay forces teachers to compete rather than cooperate and doesn't solve the underlying problem of low pay.” If the system that Obama is trying to reform doesn’t believe that the problem will be fixed, they are most likely correct, because they are the professionals in the field. If the Nation Education Association does not support Obama, then he might want to rethink some of his reforms to try to support the teachers as much as possible. Some students claim that Obama’s programs give them hope “He said he promised to make the situation better for students if elected”. Some people criticize his attempt at reform saying it, “largely fall to the universities to improve affordability.”

Barack Obama’s ambitious education program is not cheap. The programs will cost the American tax payers an estimated 18 billion dollars. The program will help with early childhood education, dropout prevention and teacher incentives. To pay for the new programs, Obama would “eliminate tax-deductibility of CEO pay by corporations and delay NASA's program to return to the moon and then journey to Mars.” Obama’s programs will also get rid “standardized tests in favor of more complicated assessments, fund early childhood programs, give teachers bonuses for working in high-needs schools, and fund schools that experiment with longer school days or school years.” Teachers unions are opposing this program by saying teachers should not be judged based on standardized tests, but Obama claims that the program will be “federally mandated program”. On the positive side, Obama’s plans for education reform are very detailed and mapped out. Which means he has created a solid foundation for his reforms.

It can also be said about Barack Obama, that he is consistent in his education votes in senate. In 2007, he voted to make the grants for college bigger, in 2004 he sponsored a legislation to reward and recruit good teachers, and he has voted “yes” on many bills to give more money to education in the country.

Citied Sources:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Education.htm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18384932

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-07-09-obama-usat_N.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-11-20-obama-education_N.htm

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/NATION/107190083/1001