Is Obama the education president? How many children will his proposals leave behind? I hope not as many as the previous administration. He has made education a budget priority, and proposes to spend considerably more than Bush the younger did. But I’m not convinced that the Obama administration is on the right track. Let’s take a closer look.
- 7.6% increase in education spending, 49.7 billion total – a good sign.
- 34.9 billion for Pell Grants – helps make college more affordable for students without means. Sounds like a good idea, but where will this money come from? Obama wants the government to take over the student loan industry, but this will not happen without a fight from private lenders and student loan guarantors.
- 1.35 billion Race to the Top grants and 4.35 from the stimulus package for similar grants. Wait a minute, what’s this? The top of what? Not doubt top refers to a high test score, as if you could reduce education to a number. And sounds like education as a competition. States can bid on these grants to improve their schools by submitting plans that include the Obama administration’s proposals on education reform. One such plan is for states to increase the number of charter schools. There are some reasons though to be skeptical of charter schools:
- They drain resources away from public schools. You can’t turn around failing schools by sucking away their resources and their top students.
- They fail at an alarmingly high rate. According to the Los Angeles Times in the state of California alone, 64 charter schools have had their charters revoked, and 200 more have simply closed down.
- They cream from the top, attracting the easiest to serve or the most academically prepared, giving charters an unfair advantage when comparing test scores to traditional public schools.
- They invite corporate meddling. How about a coupon for perfect attendance for a Happy Meal from McDonald’s. Do you want your kid to learn how to think obediently, to serve the interests of corporate America?
- Would you like your child’s principal to be schooled in business, not educational theory – to have an MBA rather than a Ed.D.? Or would you prefer to leave the academic fate of your children in the hands of a retired Marine Corps major? It could happen in a Charter. In fact, your child’s teachers might not be certified to teach anything. And the young talented idealistic teacher may quickly burn out or leave because she may not have a union contract to guarantee fair working conditions and pay commensurate to her counterparts in public schools.
- Should education reform be about raising test scores, when most standardized tests are inherently biased and meaningless in measuring a child’s ability? Increasingly, forward thinking colleges think no and recognize that SATs are not the only measure for determining academic aptitude or readiness. Schools need to have high standards and expectations. To that end, school administrations need to foster leadership and responsibility to create a climate for success. Teach kids basic skills but also to think critically. Promote democratic practices, civic responsibility and global awareness. Invest in the arts including music programs, theater and debate. Reward academic curiosity; accept nothing less. This is the recipe for success.
Let’s look at some other components of Obama’s education reform plans:
- 900 million to turn around failing schools – 65% increase. Great, as long as the test score is not an ingredient in the recipe.
- 950 million to incentivize the best teachers to teach in the worst schools. Sounds good, but the “best teachers” should have to make at least a 5 year commitment to the school, or they lose the incentive; for example, they would have to pay back any signing bonus they received if they break their contract.
- 1 billion for teacher training. I’m all for more teacher training as are most good teachers, but I believe that a large chunk of this money should be reserved for teacher education programs at public universities and for teacher service programs like Teach for America.
Whether Obama can make a name for himself as the education president remains to be seen. He deserves praise for making education a budget priority, but he will earn a large part of the blame if his reforms continue to leave more kids behind.
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Charter Schools, Obama's Education Reform Plan, Pell Grants, Teach for America | 3 Comments »