Will the real education presidential candidate please stand up?
The term "education president" has been overused during the last few presidential campaigns. However, to date, America has never had a true education president, one who has put a premium on transforming this country's terribly outdated public school system, one who gives teachers the positions and power to enact change.
Without getting politicial, which is easy for me to do since I am registered as an independent, Sen. Barack Obama has better ideas for fixing schools than does Sen. John McCain. Just looking at both candidates' websites reveals an immediate difference. While Sen. McCain devotes two pages to his education policy, Sen. Obama dedicates 15 pages. The quantity alone reveals a more thoughtout plan.
Sen. McCain is more interested in allowing parents freedom to choose which school their children attend rather than allowing teachers the freedom to choose how best to teach to children.
Sen. Obama desires to elevate the teaching profession, something Sen. McCain hardly mentions.
I have two main concerns with Sen. Obama's plan. One, many of his proposals add up to billions of new spending, so the obvious question is where's the money? Second, in developing more merit-based pay systems for teachers, he wants to make sure any changes have the full backing of the teachers unions. Well, that makes sense since the powerful National Education Association exclusively supports Democratic candidates. If Sen. Obama is truly looking for "change", he should not feel beholden to the NEA.
The school districts in this country which have developed performance-based systems have done so without the cooperation of unions since the unions are not interested in evaluating which teachers do a better job than others, with their main mantra being "everyone is the same and is to be paid the same."
So, if you care about improving America's schools, Sen. Obama would have to be your choice. However, he still can't rightfully call himself the education president until he empowers teachers and challenges them to develop a vision for a 21st century school system worthy of this country.
Without getting politicial, which is easy for me to do since I am registered as an independent, Sen. Barack Obama has better ideas for fixing schools than does Sen. John McCain. Just looking at both candidates' websites reveals an immediate difference. While Sen. McCain devotes two pages to his education policy, Sen. Obama dedicates 15 pages. The quantity alone reveals a more thoughtout plan.
Sen. McCain is more interested in allowing parents freedom to choose which school their children attend rather than allowing teachers the freedom to choose how best to teach to children.
Sen. Obama desires to elevate the teaching profession, something Sen. McCain hardly mentions.
I have two main concerns with Sen. Obama's plan. One, many of his proposals add up to billions of new spending, so the obvious question is where's the money? Second, in developing more merit-based pay systems for teachers, he wants to make sure any changes have the full backing of the teachers unions. Well, that makes sense since the powerful National Education Association exclusively supports Democratic candidates. If Sen. Obama is truly looking for "change", he should not feel beholden to the NEA.
The school districts in this country which have developed performance-based systems have done so without the cooperation of unions since the unions are not interested in evaluating which teachers do a better job than others, with their main mantra being "everyone is the same and is to be paid the same."
So, if you care about improving America's schools, Sen. Obama would have to be your choice. However, he still can't rightfully call himself the education president until he empowers teachers and challenges them to develop a vision for a 21st century school system worthy of this country.
You did a great job.
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