Obama - Education

“I don’t want to send another generation of American children to failing schools. I don’t want that future for my daughters. I don’t want that future for your sons. I don’t want that future for America” (Obama ’08).

Barack Obama is an advocate for better education. Among all of the issues that he speaks on throughout his campaign, education is continually at the forefront. Of the articles that I have read, he consistently wants to better the education system for both the children and the teachers. Obama begins from the beginning of the education system, starting with pre-k all the way to training for the teachers. He has taken all laws and ideas that have been implemented the past several years and explains how they have failed to work and what moves he wants to make to ensure that the next generation has to stability and ability to have that opportunity to have an “affordable, world-class, life-long, top-notch education, from early childhood to high school—from college to on-the-job-training”(Citizens for Barack Obama). The problems that are laid out throughout his educational campaign were “No Child Left Behind”, “Students Left Behind”, “High School Drop Out Rate”, “Teacher Retention Problem”, and “Soaring College Costs”(Obama ’08). These issues address the effectiveness of the laws that were implemented to alleviate the issues that they were already causing.

On the issue of “No Child Left Behind”, it addresses the lack of follow through that the government had to provide quality teachers, paying those teachers, lack of funding, and deferred implementation of the Education Department. “Students Left Behind” identifies the amount of students that read below their grade level and fail to graduate on time or go to college. With “High School Drop Out Rate”, it shows that America has the highest drop out rate in the world. It also identifies African Americans and Latinos as the ones that are less likely to graduate. When looking at those issues, I was able to see causes and outcomes of them and that leads to teacher retention and the prices for college that is continually rising. Teachers are beginning to leave within five years of entering the system and because of the constant rise of college, students end up being in debt or not going at all. Barack Obama wants to implement a reform for grades K-12. He plans to reform NCLF by first, funding them appropriately and then supporting the ones that need it the most while assessing the progression of students and their teachers. Obama wants address the HSDOR by providing funding to find strategies to prevent it. Other solutions he has are expanding summer school programs, after school opportunities, and to make math and science education a national priority. He plans to recruit, prepare, retain, and reward teachers so that they can better teach their students. Obama also plans to increase higher education by creating what is called the “American Opportunity Tax Credit.” Through this, he hopes to make college more affordable and make tax credit available to all families.

I choose to analyze education interdisciplinary because there are so many different aspects that have to be considered and looked at differently in order to find how to go about making a change that benefits as many persons as possible. When looking at the ideas that Obama wants to implement, I was able to connect them to an excerpt from Reich, “…deficits are not bad in and of themselves, certainly not if the money is spent on making more Americans more productive and fuller members of our society”(Miller, 81). I find this particular excerpt to be meaningful because when looking at the money that goes into our government and where it is spent instead of where it should be spent, I feel that education has taken a back seat. As far as Obama states in his articles, education has been left on the back burner. Money is hindering our society, when looking at education, rather than assisting in its growth. For example, when looking at the rising cost of college, the average in-state tuition is $6,700 (On The Issues). With the amount rising and the availability for lower income families to send students to college, it seems as if the gap would only widen. Eventually, the students that can’t produce the money don’t go to school, which can produce unproductive Americans in society.

My definition