The President wins. Does education win, too?
President Obama won re-election Tuesday. What does it mean for education?
One of the least discussed issues in this presidential campaign was education.
Beyond sharing their respect for teachers, the two candidates gave few details about their education vision or plans. Education was never discussed with much depth at any of the debates.
With the re-election of President Obama, we can presume a continuation of Race to the Top type strategies where reform is incentivized.
Not all educators are happy with that model, as reflected in the anxiety over the direction that Race to the Top is taking states, including Georgia. Race to the Top requires extensive testing and ties teacher evaluations to test results.
But the re-election of President Obama is prompting positive statements from education organizations, including the National Education Association.
Here is a press statement from the NEA:
Students and children scored major victories throughout the United States today, as voters took to the polls and made their point: it’s time to focus on what’s important here at home. In addition to reelecting President Obama, voters elected friends of education to every level of government and rejected ballot measures that attacked educators and public education.
“President Obama’s re-election is a victory for students and their educators,” said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. “Americans have spoken and they’ve chosen to continue moving forward. Voters made clear that they value public education, workers’ rights, health care, women’s rights and a strong middle class.”
Over the past four years, the Obama Administration fought to keep class sizes small, and protected more than 400,000 educator jobs. He also doubled investment in scholarships and financial aid so more middle and working-class families can realize the dream of a college education.
“Throughout the campaign, the President pledged to invest in education—especially in early childhood education—and to make higher education more affordable,” said Van Roekel. “He and his congressional and gubernatorial colleagues also promised to protect women’s rights and rebuild the middle class from the inside out—and that obviously resonated with voters, especially educators.”
And here is the statement from the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten:
“The importance of this election was far greater than casting a ballot for one candidate over another—as important as that exercise in democracy is. The American people voted today to create opportunity and shared prosperity by sharing responsibility, and to reject the cynical ‘you’re on your own’ philosophy. The results of this election are a declaration by the American people that to rebuild a strong and vibrant middle class and ensure a voice for all, we all have to be in this together.
Americans voted for a vision for our nation that says government has an essential role that includes protecting our families in times of crisis, investing in public schools as a foundation of our democracy, guaranteeing access to affordable healthcare, and ensuring retirement with dignity after a lifetime of hard work.
Election night also was a victory for people power over money power. I witnessed the hard work of our union’s volunteers firsthand as I moved through Ohio, Florida and other states on the AFT’s ‘Your Vote—Your Right—Their Futures’ bus tour. Thousands upon thousands of our members made phone calls, knocked on doors, and reached out in every way they could to get their families, friends and neighbors to the polls on Election Day—an effort that contributed not only to President Obama’s re-election, but also to victories in key Senate, House and gubernatorial races across the country.”
.–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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Daily Headlines for November 7, 2012
November 7th, 2012
11:16 am
[...] The President Wins. Does Education Win, Too? Atlanta Journal Constitution Blog, GA, November 7, 2012 One of the least discussed issues in this presidential campaign was education. Beyond sharing their respect for teachers, the two candidates gave few details about their education vision or plans. Education was never discussed with much depth at any of the debates. [...]
another angle
November 7th, 2012
12:17 pm
I HAVE A DREAM…that the teachers union collapses, that the teachers re-unite in favor of what is best for the kids instead of self-preservation, that apathetic and ineffective teachers get pushed out, that the layers of school administration go away, that posters think about their positions rather than just mindlessly reiterate their positions. I HAVE A DREAM
Private Citizen
November 7th, 2012
12:18 pm
Mountain Man You’re so provincial. Hmm let me think of the last people I have known who smoke dope or did. One is a .phd in psychology and directs a program at a university with 50k students and a 3 billion dollar endowment, one has a Master’s degree from UGA, one owns a research company and has a .phd in their field (science), and one completed a little old lowly engineering degree from a program that would have broken me in two, and he has a metal plate in his head from a bicycle accident when he was a kid. Where do they get their money? They work for it. A lot of students like to smoke dope and eat pizza to relieve stress, socialize, and have a little down time while watching Seinfeld. Not my way and I don’t even like the smell of the stuff but I sure respect the work these persons do.
note: There is so much expression of bigotry and anonymously scape-goating people. It is really bizarre. ‘Probably get a lot more accomplished if you stop spending so much resources trying to categorize and judge human beings. FoxNews does it and many in the general public do it and it is clearly an American thing that has developed. Most people probably do not realize how much people model what is broadcast on the media. Adults repeat the bigotry and pushiness of the corporate news services and the children want to be the wrestlers and gangsters in the movies. The adults are occupied with scapegoating, blaming, and the children are occupied with fantasy. No wonder you’ve gone broke and broken. Mountain Man Stop being a bigot. Maybe you should make a list of the people you like and do not like and make a pie chart of who gets what. That seems to be what is happening. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The chicken, dummy. Anyone with chickens know that. So people even go to a lot of trouble trying to get their chickens to lay eggs. It’s called cause and effect. Don’t blame the effect.
Private Citizen
November 7th, 2012
12:30 pm
another angle In Georgia, there is no teacher union to collapse. Places with teacher unions tend to have higher performance because of worker protections. Dream is right. There is so much ignorance here without a nod to case studies and reality. Maybe that’s the problem, no one knows how to read a case study or that such a thing even exists. It is basically a complete lack of critical thinking. I called the county today on official business, and after getting through five phone numbers and some electronic, BRRRRRR busy signals, once I got to who I needed to speak to, the lady on the phone quoted scripture to me.
Top School
November 7th, 2012
12:44 pm
Half of the posts on this Blog have nothing to do with the topic,
Private Citizen
November 7th, 2012
12:46 pm
engineering student: okay. smoke some dope and make a spiral staircase using autocad. Due at 7 AM. One reason I believe in the existence of God is that there is no human being that can successfully model turbulence in fluid dynamics. And there’s not going to be, either. But a 20 year old can make a spiral staircase in autocad. (acronym: AUTOmated Computer Aided Design)I’ve seen it done. 2 dimensional spiral staircase. Looks like a pretty standard assignment for undergraduate engineering. http://www.bibliocad.com/library/spiral-staircase_31147
Tutorial – how to do it – from a student in Pakistan – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJhhpqaPie8
Georgia coach
November 7th, 2012
1:06 pm
Private citizen troll, good to see you remain off topic and thus irrelevant.
Private Citizen
November 7th, 2012
1:17 pm
It’s okay, coach. The French are willing and able to come over here and help you. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=6386
Beverly Fraud
November 7th, 2012
1:27 pm
Does anybody else notice that Weingarten’s statement says NOTHING about supporting teachers in the classroom, or asking Obama/Duncan to have ANY accountability about the dismal state of teaching conditions currently in America?
Beverly Fraud
November 7th, 2012
1:40 pm
From the NEA
Students and children scored major victories throughout the United States today, as voters took to the polls and made their point:
My God, these FECKLESS people are the ones the “anti-union” crowd is so worried about? These people are “standing up” for better teaching conditions?
Mountain Man
November 7th, 2012
3:45 pm
Private Citizen – when you say “smoke dope”, I am assuming you mean partake of marijuana. There are lots of types of “dope”. I don’t have a problem with legalizing marijuana; we can just regulate it like alcohol, since we do such a good job of regulating alcohol – no one is ever killed in wrong-way driver incidents. Do we legalize opiate painkillers – that would help Rush out? How about crack cocaine? Or Methamphetamine? Overdoses could get rid of some underclass of society. By legalizing it we would drop the price so the working people could afford it and we don’t send money down to Mexican cartels.
Just don’t apply to work at our company, since we test for drugs.
Private Citizen
November 7th, 2012
7:02 pm
Mountain Man Hey, sounds good. Yes, I used the term “dope” as specific to marijuana. You have good sense of language and are exactly correct. Dope could also mean airplane glue or “doping” as in Lance Armstrong scandal. I’m trying to think, somebody went and made a documentary of third world urban homeless kids living in little packs and using airplane glue to forget their troubles. It was really horrific. The current U. S. legalization ,movement is specific to marijuana. As I have before posted to you, and you may wish to note these very different concepts and categories, “soft drugs” = do not injure the user, “hard drugs” = injure the user. I think marijuana is the only “scandal” (i.e. illegal drug) considered to be a soft drug, hence practical reasons for legalization plus exploiting tax / regulate monies + reduce arrests / incarceration. At this time, I would think the real question is what the fed is going to do and if they want to get real or play Ruby Ridge, pardon me. Course thing to say, but that same lady is in charge of this stuff and I think she is same one harassing people at airports, talking baby formula, and making people stand in the plexiglass humiliation cage (have you seen it.) I’ll go ahead and show you. Be prepared, abuse of power warning. There it is, the TSA plexiglass public humiliation box. It even has air holes in it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XhnZlmLGK8
And yes, legalization of marijuana is pertinent to education because this is a lot of money going out of the country and a lot of money to be brought in to the tax base due to tax/ regulation and savings due to changes in law enforcement /incarceration. I already told you the story of one young man Georgia resident who was put in jail for 6 months due to one joint (marijuana cigarette) in his vehicle. H?ow much does it cost to put a young man in jail for six months? Here’s some information (2011) “Georgia lawmakers, for example, dole out almost $18,000 a year to house one inmate in a state prison. But the National Education Association says the state spends about one-third of that to put a child through the public education system.”
Beverly Fraud Randi Weingarten seems to know what is going on and had made sensible calm grounded critique of calling RTTT problematic, even bad, but yes she does seems to tread lightly. Kind of like the official policy of the FCC is to “encourage competition.” This is a big difference from taking a stand and enforcing anti-trust laws (are there any left?). Sometimes I call Obama “the marshmallow.” GW Bush was pure corruption. Obama is the band-aid man while the wound fills in. Meanwhile, the corporations are still writing the laws and are pretty much unregulated. RTTT is feeding a lot of corporations, doing saturation testing and the tests cost money. It is completely crazy. Weingarten goes soft and makes a statement, a burble, a hint. PS It was good to see that union lady in Chicago laying it out. She knows what’s up. Big Mama came out to the gate and said “Oh no you don’t,”
Private Citizen
November 7th, 2012
7:31 pm
Mountain Man, you’re right. We’ve got a public health problem. A lot of south Georgia hillbillies are playing around with “meth” and apparently that stuff eats you up like a fungus in short order. These people need help. Stay tuned because it looks like the next political dilemma is Obama’s healthcare plan is moving into the part of it where everyone is supposed to be insured and the state is responsible for it. I don’t know much about it and looks like a complete boondoggle (money coming in) for insurance companies, drug companies, and hospital administration. Let’s see where this tsunami of legal code specified corporate profits is going to go. It is really nuts. Meanwhile, please enrol in Corporate Citizen’s AutoCad and Graphic Novel Academy. Are you a corporate citizen? Looks like we all are. Stay tuned because it is going to get windy. Better get some tie-downs for the trailer and hide. Humana/United/Wellpoint/Kaiser/Aetna/Wellcare/Carefirst/BCBS is coming after you!
bob
November 7th, 2012
11:17 pm
I have often thought that this election would be pivotal in the direction that our nation, and our world, would move in the 21st century because the choice of President Obama by the American people means that we as a race, a human race, are evolving toward greater consciousness of inclusion and egalitarianism in how we perceive one another.
=================================================================
Wait, what? Obama is part of the crowd that excludes everyone besides rich people, I dont get how people feel he is for the middle class when most of the guys who work for me have been hurt the most during his term. Contracts have dried up, work is scarce, and we have had to cut people to remain profitable, its amazing people refuse to see how much damage has been done in the past 4 years. If bush were still in office everyone would be posting bush=dofus pics all over the internet, or how a village in texas is missing its idiot but for some reason all of you champion a guy who has a worse record at creating sustainable jobs than carter.
The public is blind, feed them what they want to hear and they beat down their detractors for you. Simpletons, every one of you.
AlreadySheared
November 9th, 2012
8:50 am
@bob,
Of course Obama’s re-election is a sign of evolved consciousness – Obama is a light bringer, as you should be aware.
Mrs. J
November 9th, 2012
11:21 am
I find the derogatory comments toward the parents ironic.
“The biggest problem with education isn’t because education isn’t there. It’s because kids in schools don’t care and their parents are idiots.”
Do remember that the idiot parents of these kids are products of the public school system. The longer our children are stuck in the outdated machine that is public school, the worse the “product” will be. The schools have told the parents for years that they need to butt out, that the parents aren’t capable of teaching or training their own children. Parents are only good for bringing cupcakes to bake sales & cutting out bulletin board decorations for the teachers…leave the teaching to the experts. Well, you got what you wanted. Lots of parents who don’t care because you’ve trained them to drop their kids off & walk away. Children who don’t care because they are forced to be educated & no longer see it as a privilege. The parents who DO care about what goes on in the schools are mocked for it.