Obama wisely makes education a priority

[babylonsister]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1470724,CST-EDT-edit11.article

Obama wisely makes education a priority
March 11, 2009


snip//

These are not the same old tired ideas. They represent a major shift for the government that may rattle the teachers unions but finally may let innovative, proven ideas flourish.

To bring these ideas to life, Obama needs some help from Congress, but with $100 billion earmarked for education in the federal stimulus bill, he already has a large pot of money to play with.

Much of the stimulus money will go to save teacher jobs, but Obama still has plenty of money to open the door for innovation. A stimulus bill that only created jobs for today, without laying the groundwork for a more prosperous future, is no stimulus bill at all.

In particular, we strongly support Obama's focus on early childhood education. The stimulus bill increases funding for Head Start and Early Head Start by $5 billion. On Tuesday, Obama also called on Congress to enact a grant program to support high-quality early learning programs. Investments in strong preschool programs, research shows, offer some of the best returns in education. Investment later on, such as remedial help and job training, have much lower returns.

snip//

And he urged us all to make "turning around our schools our collective responsibility."

Obama used his bully pulpit to lay out a better vision for America. Making it happen won't be easy, and some ideas will fall flat.

But without a clear vision for something better, we can't even get started.

[liberal N proud]

1. Sounds like a smart decision

[T Wolf]

2. May be a "priority" but what he is doing and who he put in charge raises big questions

on the direction he wants to take education.

NCLB has to be scrapped. It is a disaster, as shown by the falling status of American schools and the students we are turning out.

And putting Duncan in charge of Education is downright stupid.

[babylonsister]

3. You know what they say about opinions. That includes yours.

I'm not quite ready to second-guess the man. He's a lot brighter than both of us.

And PS, as an American, I'm very enthused that he's putting such an emphasis on education. We've been dumbed down for way too long.

[T Wolf]

4. Exactly when might you question any decision made by the President? How long do

we have to wait to be able to express an opinion, especially one that criticizes him? Are we just supposed to shut up until 2012 and then go vote big-D out of party loyalty?

You can also say the Bush put an emphasis on education with his NCLB. It just was not a good approach to the issue.

Of course Obama is better than Bush on most things (on some, it seems, he is the same). And Obama is better than McCain would havebeen.

But better is just not good enough anymore.

[babylonsister]

5. Opinions are fine. But constant, unrelenting criticism

from people such as yourself gets old to me. I've criticized Obama on his reasoning going into or staying in Afghanistan, because that's an action he's taking.

As for this, nothing has been done yet to criticize except for people shaking in their boots that it's the wrong thing to do.

Like I said, I'm waiting to see what happens. As for Arne Duncan, I never met the man. If President Obama thinks he will pursue the president's agenda, why should I question that?

[jefferson_dem]

6. Duncan is a fine choice.

He's a non-ideological consensus-builder like the President and has called for a bold reform agenda, which is exactly what we need. The standards of excellence laid out by NCLB are worthy in principle though we all know how the initiative is broken as applied.

I look forward to seeing more details of Obama's education agenda.

[4lbs]

9. Well, this is the first time that NCLB would be actually fully funded. Bush just enacted

it without giving it enough funding.

It's no wonder that it hasn't been up to snuff so far, since it didn't get much financial support.

<snip>
Congress knew that the goals of NCLB could not be achieved without accountability and additional resources and it set a funding authorization for NCLB for each year. While President Bush's FY 2008 budget would increase NCLB funding by $1 billion, the President's budget still shortchanges NCLB by a total of $70.9 billion since the law's enactment. It is clear that the proposed increase in funding is far short of what is necessary to get the job done, and what the Congress anticipated would be required.

These funds are crucial. For example, AFT research estimates that adding the $70.9 billion shortchanged since enactment to fund NCLB would provide enough money to:

Improve the more than 1,700 secondary schools that are struggling the most to meet standards by:

1. creating smaller school settings and
2. providing after school tutoring programs

And

Improve more than 7,000 of the elementary schools that are struggling the most to meet high standards by:

1. Lowering class size
2. Hiring specialists in reading and math instruction to provide model lessons and in-class training to teachers in research based instructional techniques
3. Creating a faculty workroom with high-speed Internet connections so that teachers can make use of the broadest array of resources when planning lessons.

<snip>


http://www.aft.org/topics/nclb/funding.htm


President Obama fully funded it in his budget plan.

[NYC_SKP]

7. Energy Education Heath Care

Just as he promised.

Sad how many swallow the BS about merit pay and charter schools.
Can't read , I guess.
Or won't.

Recommended.

:patriot:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. Bush didn't have a clue about education

Bush made a mess of it.

Obama is certainly doing what he said he would do!

[Cha]

10. This must be bad news for

republicons who don't want Americans educated. Keep dumbed down and soaking up rush limpbaughs.