The following is a brief comparative analysis of the pedagogical platforms of both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.

SENATOR OBAMA

Early Childhood Education

1) Implement a “Zero-Five” program of universal pre-school for all children. This will be accomplished through “Early Learning Challenge Grants” which will be used at the state level to allow states to voluntarily adopt universal pre-school. 2) Quadruple funding for Early Head-Start and increase Head Start funding. 3) Will provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.

Number 3 is incredibly ambiguous and 1&2 are not much clearer, but whatever plans Obama may have to improve Early Childhood Education, it is clear that he intends it to increase the authority of individual school districts through state-centered programs. Rather then working through the U.S. Department of Education, Obama seems to favor returning the issue of public education back to the states. For a young senator with a career disproportionately rooted in state government, this is hardly surprising.

K-12

1) Would “reform” No Child Left Behind: “Obama believes teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama will also improve NCLB’s accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.” 2) Make Math and Science a national priority by recruiting math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession. 3) Address America’s unusually high drop-out rate by funding intervention programs and adopting strategies such as “personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math instruction, and extended learning time.” 4) Double Federal Funding for afterschool programs – including the 21st Century Learning Centers program. 5) A “STEP UP” plan to address the achievement gap through summer-learning programs. 6) “Support” outreach program to encourage young people from low-income families to consider and pay for college. 7) Supported limited bilingual education with the understanding that such learning be transitional and not an alternative to learning and becoming proficient in English.

Senator Obama’s plan for K-12 Education is a robust 14 page document that skims a myriad of topics. It offers few inspiring changes to the present education system, but, as with Obama policy in general, it does present modest improvements.

Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America’s Teachers

1) Create a new Teacher Service Scholarship that would cover either four years of undergrad education or two full years of graduate school. This scholarship would be awarded to students willing to teach for at least four years in a “high need field or location.” 2) Obama will standardize and regulate every school of education in the country. He has further suggested that he would implement a national assessment program for new teachers prior to receiving their accreditation (sort of like a WASL for teachers). 3) Stresses the importance of “mentoring” programs for new teachers as crucial for retention. 4) Endorses a pay-for-performance system that seemingly fly’s in the face of the teacher’s unions who support him.

In his Audacity of Hope, Obama says: “There’s no reason why an experienced, highly qualified, and effective teacher shouldn’t earn $100,000 annually at the peak of his or her career. Highly skilled teachers in such fields as math and science – as well as those willing to teach in the toughest urban schools – should be paid even more. There’s just one catch. In exchange for more money, teachers need to become more accountable for their performance – and school districts need to have greater ability to get rid of ineffective teachers. So far, teacher’s unions have resisted the idea of pay for performance…” (p162-163)

Last December Tacoma Education Association President Derrick Hartman responded that this is because teachers should be focused on providing a community service – namely educating our children – rather than treating their profession like a business, whereby they are expected to compete with their colleagues for pay, rather than work with them for results.

Higher Education

1) Create an annual $4,000 American Opportunity Tax-Credit. 2) Simplify the application process for receiving financial aid by eliminating the FAFSA in favor of checking “a box” on student’s income tax forms that would automatically send their paperwork to the relevant aid departments. 3) Expand Pell grants for low-income students from $4,050 – to a new maximum of $5,010. 4) Strengthen community colleges (whatever that means) 5) By far Obama’s most progressive idea for higher education is to eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan Program, which uses private government subsidized lenders to provide the same sort of loans the government-backed Direct Loan system offers, but at a higher rate of return.

In his Audacity of Hope Obama does suggest that states “can limit annual tuition increases at public universities” but does not seem to support any action by the Federal Government in controlling the costs of education.

There’s not much substance behind Obama’s statements for making college more accessible to students. His College Affordability Plan, as presented on his website, is only two pages long (shocking, considering that Senator Obama is a former college professor) and is far less progressive than anything offered by John Edwards, who recently endorsed Obama following Senator Clinton’s victory in West Virginia. Nonetheless, from what we can gather after reviewing his education policy, we may assume the following.

1) Senator Obama supports standardized testing for students, teachers, even school systems.
2) Senator Obama supports “taking the teaching profession seriously” but feels that with increased pay must come greater oversight and expectations – plus a universal system of evaluation that could demonstrate the kind of results that would justify a six-figure-salary.

3) Senator Obama believes that the business of funding higher education should remain principally in the hands of the states. He is enthusiastic about passing tax-credits and eliminating wasteful programs but we are unlikely to see significant improvement in our student’s struggle to finance their collegiate experience. Nonetheless, Obama will make modest improvements for millions of America’s young people.

4) Obama believes that the key to making college affordable to students rests in high-schools’ ability to educate students about scholarships and government programs well before they even apply for a higher ed program. Obama feels that government efforts should be principally focused on helping students plan for their collegiate experience, rather than pay for it once they arrive.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 10:45 am and is filed under Politics, Politics & Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.