Obama's Plan for Education: Will it Work?

Now that the Presidential election is over and our country will be under the direction of a new leader, are you wondering how it will effect your job as a teacher or the way children are educated? There are many issues to consider, as education is the foundation for the knowledge that forms how our economy runs.

According to Barack Obama.com, No Child Left Behind will be reformed, not done away with entirely. The President elect does not think teachers should spend the whole year preparing students to “fill in bubbles on standardized tests.” Obama thinks that the assessments used to measure student progress should be improved, and accountability be improved. This debate has been going on for over five year since NCLB started, so this could prove to be tough for this administration as well. At this time, there is not a specific plan outlined on how NCLB will change.

Obama and Biden support Charter Schools and will support creating more charter schools. However, the charter school that our low performing they will recommend be closed. Math and science education has become a priority for the U.S., and Obama and Biden want to give it priority as well. They would like to recruit math and science degree graduates and professionals in these fields to the teach. This effort has long been an important task, but without higher wages for teachers, will the effort to get more people in these fields to teach work?

That leads me to the next area that directly affects teachers: recruitment and training. Obama and Biden say they will create “Teacher Service Scholarships” that will cover “four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field or location.” So one the teachers have been recruited, why will they be more likely to stay under this administration? Obama would like to support more mentoring programs and common planning time. Now to the hot button issue for teachers, will there be more pay or rewards for teachers? Obama says yes. They “will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase.” They do seem to still want to place greater reward to teachers in underserved areas, common with practices in large urban areas already. There are three initiatives that will try to reach the children that slip through the cracks.

They will focus on reaching children in middle school before they dropout, reaching children in afterschool programs, and outreach programs that encourage low-income families to consider post-secondary education.

Obama and Biden have big plans for what they call “Zero to Five.” This plan focuses on children from birth to five years of age and their parents. It supports early education and universal pre-school. They want to quadruple Early Head Start funding. Their efforts for this age group will be closely tied to their efforts to provide quality healthcare for this same, young age group. Healthcare may make the funding for these early childhood programs difficult to carry out in the scope that they’ve planned.

The rising cost of college these days is a concern that Obama and Biden share with families across the U.S. They would like to create a tax credit called “American Opportunity” worth $4,000. In order for students to qualify, they would have to be involved in community service. Barack Obama.com says this “will cover tw-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students.” I’m not sure how this will work, since $4,000 barely makes a dent in most university tuition bills.

Source: The Apple

I just wrote a text on Obama's site about his educational agenda.It is a shame to see the quality of education that our children are receiving in some schools in the richest country of the world.

I do not know who will be the Secretary of Education in the new admninistration,but this positon should not be filled by a politician rather by an expert in the field.