Education

Now, I just had a chance to talk with some of your teachers, as well as some students, who told me about your all-school project that’s weaving the life and music of Duke Ellington into your classes. And by getting students engaged in learning, you’re teaching the kinds of skills about how to think and how to work together that young people are going to need in college and beyond. That’s what all of our schools need to be doing.

And in an economy that’s more competitive and connected than ever before, a good job and a good career is going to demand a good education. Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs are going to require more than a high school diploma. So, if you want a bright future, you’re going to need a college degree or advanced training.

And as Arne [Duncan] mentioned, unfortunately too many students aren’t getting a world-class education today. As many as a quarter of American students aren’t finishing high school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. And America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree. Understand, we used to be first, and we now rank 9th. That’s not acceptable.

Several other Georgetown students and I, who all have been able to pursue our educational dreams thanks both to federal student aid programs and Georgetown scholarships, spent our Spring break in Washington.

On Wednesday, we went to Capitol Hill to attend a hearing before the Education and Workforce Committee, where Education Secretary Arne Duncan testified about education policy proposals in the Obama administration’s FY2012 budget.

Over the past few years, educators and lawmakers in Ohio worked together to benefit the students of our state.

In 2009 we passed the Education Opportunity Act, which laid the groundwork for improved student achievement and teaching practice. Since then we have seen a narrowing in the achievement gaps between minority students and their counterparts. We have seen college graduation rates climb. We have seen test scores rise at a pace faster than the rest of the nation.

The Education Commission of the States recognized Ohio’s education reform plans as ambitious, inspired and comprehensive.

In celebration of Teach For America’s 20th anniversary of bringing exceptional young teachers to low-income schools, here are some multiple choice questions. 

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently indicated that he would consider waiving the supplemental educational services (SES) provision of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). 

This is troubling. Not only would this be a major policy change, trumping Congress' current deliberation on the law's reauthorization, it also undermines one of the most innovative and sensible strengths of the law - serving the interest of parents and their children before that of adults.

President Obama firmly believes that all children deserve a world-class education. When he says all children, he means all – regardless of their race, ethnicity, disability, native language, income level or zip code.

The President’s proposal to fix NCLB focuses on schools and students at-risk, and on meaningful reforms that will help these students succeed. The plan will maintain the federal government’s formula programs serving disadvantaged students, English learners, migrant children, and students with disabilities. Many people are speculating that the President wants to make these programs competitive. They are wrong. The President is committed to keeping the historic federal role of providing funding for students who need it most. He does not want the programs dedicated to at-risk students to become competitive. And he does not want to reduce the funds distributed by formula.

In the President’s recent State of the Union address, he spoke about the steps we need to take to compete in the global economy and win the future. As the President rightly noted, education moves our entire society forward by ensuring that America’s workforce can meet current and future challenges.

This year we have an excellent opportunity to improve our educational system and move forward with a bipartisan reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). As my colleagues and I work on this critical legislation, we must go beyond simply addressing the academic needs of our students; we must focus on the development of the whole child.

Today I traveled to the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, along with the Presidents of Senegal and Georgia, former leaders of France, Germany, Turkey, current ministers, ambassadors and other dignitaries to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. That such a group has come together, Muslims, Jews and gentiles, to share this experience is, in itself, a milestone in bringing the world together in the goal of reconciliation and peace.
 
The trip, organized by the Aladdin Foundation, UNESCO, and the Mayor of Paris, is of particular importance as the survivors, witnesses and liberators of the atrocities that took place in these camps pass away.  We are here because the world needs to continue to teach the lessons of this terrible chapter in our history. As Dr. Mustafa Ceric ,The Grand Mufti of Bosnia Herzegovina, poignantly noted, "Those who deny the Holocaust are capable of committing another Holocaust." We cannot allow the distance of generations nor relational space from those most directly impacted by the Holocaust to blur the lessons we must share with our future leaders.

Many Americans, including President Obama, weren’t even born when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into outer space in October 1957. Yet everyone knew exactly what the President meant when he said during his State of the Union address, “This is our Sputnik moment.” Today the U.S. faces economic and innovative competition around the world. If we want to win the future in the same way that we won the Space Race, we must do what we did then – invest in education. 

The President shined a spotlight on the importance of a long-term investment in education and recognized the critical role that teachers play in student success, calling for more respect for the teaching profession. His strong message of support for education and his call to fix No Child Left Behind is sorely welcome. However, as with many good things, the devil is in the details.

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address illustrated just how much political duplicity has entered the debate about national education standards. While crowing about the success of his Race to the Top in purchasing states’ buy-in to the so-called Common Core math and English standards—and asking Congress for even more bribe money—the president then stood truth on its head by depicting the incipient national curriculum developed by Washington insiders as a grassroots effort.

Education progressives who delight in this disingenuous exercise of power to push national standards (and soon, federally subsidized tests as well) upon all U.S. public schools ought to take warning from England, a country where statist curricular guidelines are firmly entrenched.