Obama Defends Education Policies as Economic Lynchpin
July 29, 2010, 12:26 PM EDTBy Moira Herbst and Roger Runningen
(Updates with quotes from Obama’s speech beginning in the fourth paragraph.)
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama defended his signature Race to the Top education plan before an audience that included critics who say some of his policies may shortchange low-income and minority students.
“Education is an economic issue, if not the economic issue of our time,” Obama said in what the White House billed as a major education speech today to the National Urban League, a civil rights group, in Washington. “It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have gone to college.”
Obama’s attempt to raise tougher education standards and inject competition into the classrooms to prepare students for higher education has stirred opposition among civil rights leaders, unions and other traditional supporters of the Democratic Party, congressional Republicans and some state officials. A coalition of groups that includes the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People released a report July 26 that said Race to the Top and other “market-based” programs unequally distribute government funding and support.
The status quo in U.S. public education is “indefensible,” Obama said, and critics are simply resistant to change.
‘Distant Dream’
“Too many of our children see college as nothing but a distant dream” and are relegated to failing schools in struggling communities, Obama said. “We’ve got an obligation to lift up every child in every school.”
Some of the criticism of Race to the Top is “absolutely false” because every school district has an incentive to improve, Obama said. The plan has forced teachers and principals to “raise their sights,” he said.
“I know there’s a concern Race to the Top doesn’t do enough for minority kids,” Obama said. “What’s not working for black kids and Hispanic kids and native American kids across this country is the status quo.”
“By emphasizing competitive incentives in this economic climate, the majority of low-income and minority students will be left behind and, as a result, the United States will be left behind as a global leader,” according to the July 26 report.
The administration has succeeded in getting at least 29 states and the District of Columbia to sign on to common academic standards that would for the first time set shared performance goals for math and reading. Through the $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has prodded states to lift caps on charter schools and link student achievement to teacher pay.
Common Standards
Republicans in Massachusetts, Texas and Alaska are attacking the common standards, calling them a federal takeover of local school-district policy. A proposed school-turnaround program, which allows districts to fire teachers and replace principals in poorly performing schools, is under attack from teachers’ unions and community groups. Obama has also failed to get enough Congressional support for a $10 billion bill aimed at saving tens of thousands of teacher jobs from state and local budget cuts.
Obama said today it was critical to give teachers more support and a “career ladder” so they would have opportunities to advance.
“I want teachers to have higher salaries,” Obama said.
At the same time, he wants teachers to have “some measure of accountability,” Obama said.
“Our goal isn’t to fire and admonish teachers, our goal is accountability,” Obama said.
Blaming Teachers
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers criticized school turnaround proposals as part of a simplistic, “blame the teacher” approach in a July 8 speech at the union’s convention in Seattle.
While Obama and Duncan are proposing changes designed to garner bipartisan support, political divisions are endangering the chance they will actually be carried out, said Jeffrey Henig, a professor at Teachers’ College at Columbia University in an interview yesterday.
“Politically the agenda is working in the near-term, but there are risks,” Henig said.
Obama also used his speech today to defend his economic program and the overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, which have been prime targets of Republicans heading into the November congressional elections.
The recession “had an especially brutal impact” on minority groups, Obama said, and his policies are “creating an economy that lifts up all Americans.”
--With assistance from Catherine Dodge in Washington. Editors: Robin D. Schatz, Jonathan Kaufman
To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net; Moira Herbst in New York at mherbst3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Kaufman at jkaufman17@bloomberg.net
