Letter: Obama, NCLB, education ‘reform’
April 30, 2008
Substance:
With more focus now on the education policies of the two remaining Democratic Party candidates for President, I’d like to share an experience I had with Barack Obama over a year ago.
On March 29, 2007, I got to speak privately with Barack Obama for about five minutes on education issues specifically and I expressed my concern that what he said at a private fundraiser in Jacksonville, Florida sounded like a page out of the Business Round Table script. He had spouted some of the same data that is used to bash public education. I suggested he read books by Gerald Bracey and Susan Ohanian.
We talked about No Child Left Behind, and he said he had a sister-in-law who is a teacher and who has been preaching to him that the testing and accountability approach was counterproductive, and I told him I agreed. But he insisted there needed to be some way to hold teachers accountable. I have since seen what I think appears to be a retreat from the teacher accountability view. I suspect he got an earful in the year since I spoke with him.
Here’s what I wrote about his education remarks for the April issue of “Inside Report,” the monthly newsletter of the Duval County Democratic Party.
“Asked what he would do to help families, and especially to stabilize those in low income communities, Obama said “There is no one thing to do,” then listed some strategies: 1) provide gainful employment, particularly for men; and create second chances for offenders who live in those communities by providing legislation that will offer a clean slate to those who have demonstrated worthiness; 2) Provide early childhood education and pre-k education.
“Responding to a question about what can be done to stop the outsourcing of American jobs, Obama suggested a highly educated American workforce was key. He commented on the high value that is placed on education in countries like India and China, where many American jobs have been exported.”
Hope this provides some insight.
Billee Bussard
Tallahassee, Florida
Bussardre@aol.com
By: rosagitta Podrovsky
retired teacher (thank goodness!!)
Now that some time has elapsed, I wonder what people think of the Obama approach to education -- like putting Arne Duncan in charge of things.