Education

My former California Assembly colleague, Tom Torlakson, hit the mark in his letter to House and Senate Congressional leadership this week: struggling families and children will bear the heavy load of sequester burden. All students in California schools and especially those who are living in poverty will feel its effects. It seems absurd to me that we would short-change our public schools and the programs that target underserved youth. We live in one of the most prosperous countries in the developing world and yet we fund schools so poorly. The sequester will further diminish school funding in addition to negatively affecting the economy.

Our bravest citizens wear our nation’s uniform and enlist in the Armed Services. They face many harsh realities both at home and abroad, making sacrifices for the good of our nation – and they ask nothing in return. Disproportionately, they suffer the consequences of a stagnant economy, which has made finding high-quality jobs difficult.
 
I believe we can and must do better; therefore, several months ago, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) convened a Blue Ribbon Taskforce to ensure that every service member, veteran and family member utilizing their earned, postsecondary education benefits are provided with the quality education to which they are entitled at every institution of higher education. 

One of the first complexities that students of computer science get to puzzle over is the concept of abstraction: the fact that small symbols or chunks of programming code serve as objects, or stand-ins for the more complex sections of code that drive the software. As those of us in education wrestle with the looming effects of sequestration on our budgets, our institutions, our programs and our people – students, parents, teachers and administrators -- we move quickly from the abstract concept of what sequester is to the very tangible struggle with the impact and timing of the looming budget cuts.

It’s encouraging to hear Democrats and Republicans talking about children in the immigration debate. Children of immigrants are one-fourth of the kids in America, and one million of America’s unauthorized aspiring citizens are children. So getting immigration reform done means getting it right for kids.
 
This bipartisan focus on kids is critical, because current law subjects children to serious hardship and harm. As Michigan State Law School professor David Thronson recently wrote, today’s immigration law “devalues” children. He concludes that it treats children as objects, instead of people with rights and a say in their own lives. Not surprisingly, when children interact with the system, the outcomes are not good. For example a person inadmissible to the U.S. can qualify for relief by showing hardship to a U.S. citizen spouse or other close adult relative, but the law systematically ignores the same hardship to a U.S. citizen child. Similar double-standards for deportation routinely subject kids to harm, by ignoring the common-sense reality that children experience traumatic separation in more damaging and lasting ways than adults.

When it comes to math and science the United States needs to do its homework. Currently, less than one-third of eighth graders in the U.S. are proficient in science and mathematics and only nine states allow computer science courses to count towards graduation requirements.
 
These statistics are a stark reminder that while the U.S. is a global superpower in every definition, our country’s leaders and educators can’t sit on the sidelines when it comes to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) related fields.

The future of the American Dream depends on what we do at this decisive moment. As an educator of more than 30 years, I know the dream is first ignited in the classroom. Education is the origin of opportunity in our cities and towns, and it is the engine of exceptionalism on the world stage. Now, more than ever before, the attainability of the American dream is imperiled by an opportunity gap in public education — a gap exacerbated by wealth disparities at the local level. Our nation’s global leadership is also threatened by widening disparities between American children and students from other developed nations, as our children and families fall further below the poverty line.

The Afghanistan orchestra that recently appeared at the Kennedy Center represents the future of our country. A future based not on hatred and war, but on a life full of harmony and joy promoting the highest human values of tolerance, culture and education.  

While extremists and others are trying to tear us apart, these youth are demonstrating the wishes of the Afghan people and the future they envision for themselves complimenting one another and working together to create a strong Afghan voice combining Eastern and Western tools while appreciating the international director assisting them with taking the best of the Western culture and merging it with the Afghan culture in a beautiful collaboration. 

At first glance, it may seem curious that a state President Obama lost by 8 percentage points got a shoutout in this week’s State of the Union, but there Georgia was, in all her glory.
 
On a day deemed ‘Georgia Day’ by Governor Nathan Deal, a celebration of James Oglethorpe’s initial landing, the commander-and-chief recognized the state for its lauded Pre-Kindergarten program, which provides free preschool for children in the state.
 
Obama used the example to call for universal preschool for all children, through the federal government “working with” the states.
 
He’s following that up with a trip to Atlanta, where it’s largely expected he’ll tout the Pre-K program yet again.

Earlier this week, President Obama delivered his State of the Union address before a Joint Session of Congress. In a speech outlining many of his priorities for America, the president identified early childhood education as a critical investment to make in our children. Not only do children perform better in school after early education, they go on to lead richer lives and achieve greater success. We know now that the early years of life are critical to cognitive and social development, and we applaud President Obama’s choice to emphasize the economic growth we can guarantee with stronger early education investments.
 
Presenting a bold plan that could transform the nation's education system, the president made clear that all children should have access to early education. Those of us who have dedicated our lives to providing early learning services to at-risk children agree wholeheartedly.

In Tuesday's State of The Union address, President Obama reasserted his support for rebuilding the middle class, doubling down on his promise to create more jobs and get America’s economy back on track. With 12 million people unemployed, another 2.5 million under-employed and millions more suffering from prolonged economic stagnation, the President’s remarks are welcome. 
 
During the address to the nation, the president said, “Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores?  How do we equip our people with the skills to get those jobs?  And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?"