Obama Supports Positive Changes In Education

Alan Stewart Carl gives a thumbs up to President Barack Obama's first major presidential speech on education today. The former college instructor outlined his support for tying teachers' pay to students' performance, expanding charter schools, and longer school days and years. Mr. Carl, a moderate blogger, writes: "Teachers unions might be wise enough not to sound bitter today, but make no doubt they will fight Obama’s 'teacher pay' idea if the president is indeed talking about merit pay and not just better pay for certified teachers. And it seems quite likely, based on the statement, that Obama is talking about linking bonuses and raises to in-classroom performance — an important change which teachers unions would do well to help implement rather than keep resisting. In addition to wanting to allow for more charter schools, Obama also said he’d like to see the time students spend in public schools increased. While he didn’t specifically reference the fact that our nation still operates the school year on an agrarian calendar, his willingness to support more time in the classroom is a positive sign that our nation might finally consider adopting a school schedule in line with modern realities, with breaks spaced out through the year and not lumped together in the summer. All in all, Obama’s education speech was more a description of his education philosophy and not an announcement of any new programs. However, it’s great to see he is leaning towards ideas whose time have come."

Booker Rising response: Based on what I've read so far, good ideas by President Obama.