Education reform..

[R13]

When the bare-knuckled brawl over health care reform finally wraps up and the Obama Administration pivots to less divisive topics, education reform may be one of the few issues capable of drawing bipartisan support. The Administration's proposed overhaul of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act could resonate with Republicans, many of whom have been disappointed with the results of George W. Bush's signature education initiative. President Obama's blueprint, which was sent to Congress on Monday, sets forth an ambitious national standard ? to have all students graduate high school ready for college or a career by 2020 ? but leaves the specifics on how to achieve this goal up to state and local authorities. "Yes, we set a high bar," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "But we also provide educators the flexibility to reach it."

With more than 1 million high school students dropping out every year and the U.S. lagging behind many of its competitors on achievement benchmarks, no one can argue with the need to better prepare students for college and beyond. NCLB, which earned broad bipartisan majorities when the legislation passed in 2002, has drawn praise for shining a light on achievement gaps by forcing the nation's 99,000 public schools to disaggregate student data. But the legislation's emphasis on accountability and standardized testing has had some unintended results. By requiring schools to demonstrate adequate yearly progress ? toward a goal of 100% proficiency in reading and math by 2014 ? Bush's landmark bill has led many districts to narrow their curricula and some states to lower their standards in order to meet annual targets. (See pictures of homeschoolers.)

The Obama Administration is trying to remove NCLB's "perverse incentives," as Education Secretary Arne Duncan has termed them, and measure school performance against a new yardstick: improvement among individual students. "NCLB says that a fifth-grade teacher who helps a student reading at a second-grade level reach a fourth-grade level within one year has missed their goal," Duncan said in a statement unveiling the proposal. "In fact, that teacher is an excellent teacher and should be applauded." (Comment on this story.)

Obama's proposal, which calls for increasing federal aid to schools by 16% in 2011, to $29 billion, would leave identifying and fixing chronically low-performing schools to officials on state and local levels and curtail federal intervention in most others. The plan would also swap out NCLB's sticks for carrots ? a strategy that Duncan is already using in his $4.35 billion Race to the Top initiative that encourages states to pass education reform so they can be eligible to compete for grant money. (Watch a video about reforming America's schools.)

But as Duncan prepares to testify before the House Education and Labor Committee on Wednesday, he's facing fire from all sides. The committee's ranking Republican, John Kline, issued a tepid appraisal of the proposed changes, applauding Duncan for "his bipartisan approach to reform," while noting that "there are clearly still major differences from across the spectrum about the best path forward."

But although Kline voiced concern about "federal intrusion into our schools," Mike Petrilli, vice president for programs and policy at the Thomas E. Fordham Institute, an education-reform think tank, argues that Obama's blueprint outlines a hands-off approach that would allow states to craft standards and liberate teachers from the test-heavy focus that became a hallmark of NCLB. "This should be a huge victory for many of the education groups that for years have been complaining about the onerous accountability burden coming from Washington," says Petrilli, who served in the Bush Administration's Department of Education. "I think this is a more humble and realistic federal role." (See the 10 best college presidents.)

Rick Hess, education-policy director at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, agrees with Petrilli. "The proposal is a big win for the teachers' unions frustrated with NCLB's Rube Goldberg?esque interventions, heavy-handed reliance on math and reading tests, and byzantine [adequate yearly progress] rules," Hess said in a blog post.

But union leaders ? perhaps still reeling from Obama's recent support for the decision to fire 93 teachers at a struggling school in Central Falls, R.I. ? skewered the new White House plan, charging that it shifted an unfair burden onto educators. "We were expecting to see a much broader effort to truly transform public education for kids," Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement. "Instead, we see too much top-down scapegoating of teachers and not enough collaboration." The plan puts "100% of the responsibility on teachers and gives them 0% authority," says Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

The unions, which have long been a key Democratic constituency, issued such scathing assessments of Obama's education-reform blueprint that even some fellow party members were mystified. "It's like they didn't read the document," says Charles Barone, director of federal policy at Democrats for Education Reform. "Apparently their definition of a partnership is that they're the bully and you're the weakling on the playground."

Observers of all political stripes seem to agree that Obama's plan is ambitious but short on specifics. For starters, it's unclear how quickly states would be able to codify collective standards for college- and career-readiness ? which would most likely require new exams and curricula ? and already Alaska and Texas have signaled that they don't intend to cooperate in the effort. Education-reform experts have also expressed reservations ranging from the feasibility of the plan's college-and-career-ready timeline to its ability to motivate schools that fall in the middle of the pack in terms of performance. But by both limiting the scope of federal involvement and sketching out sweeping reforms, Obama is attempting to position education reform as an issue both parties can line up behind. "It is a dramatic revolution in the way we do school," says Amy Wilkins, vice president at Education Trust, an advocacy group that works to bridge achievement gaps. "Nobody could disagree with the aspiration. The problem is the connective tissue to get us there."

Read more: Education Reform: Will Obama Plan Get Bipartisan Support? - TIME

[1inStripes]

That more than 1 million HS students dropping out every year seems a little high I would think. Very shocking if true.

[sup-rbeast]

There's more dropouts than you would think...but the US tests all of its school kids...in many nations we are compared to, the kids are weeded out by the time they are in secondary school and only the top achievers remain. Taking an average score for comparison use is skewed because of this.

[1inStripes]

There's more dropouts than you would think...but the US tests all of its school kids...in many nations we are compared to, the kids are weeded out by the time they are in secondary school and only the top achievers remain. Taking an average score for comparison use is skewed because of this.

I know theres plenty of dropouts and I agree that the educational testing is skewed between us and other countries, but 1 million still seems high. Its quite astonishing to me.

[R13]

This program and others like it need a lot more funding. With what Obama is doing dismantling No Child Left Behind, it's a big step, plus the 4 bil more for education...which I think Tenn. got a massive chunk of that along with Delaware, wish it would have been VA, esp. with what Bobby was proposing.



____________________________________________
WASHINGTON ? With her husband deployed in Iraq with a Stryker brigade from Washington state's Joint Base Lewis-McChord, 20-year-old Lauren Silva isn't your typical college student. But when it comes to finding money for tuition, books and other expenses, she's not so different.

Silva has scrambled to apply for scholarships and loans to pay for classes at the University of Washington-Tacoma , where she's a junior studying social work. She thought part of her financial problems were solved when she learned of a Defense Department program that pays military spouses $6,000 to help them with their education. Yet just as Silva prepared to apply earlier this year, the military abruptly shut the program down.

The Pentagon was overwhelmed by the number of applicants, which had grown from an average of about 10,000 a month to 70,000 in January alone as the nation's economy continued to sputter. Money for the Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts program, known as MyCAA, was rapidly running out. Rather than ask Congress for more cash, Pentagon officials decided to close the program to new applicants and stop payments to those who were already enrolled.

"This was probably, in my view, a mistake," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee last week, adding that while he expected the program to resume, it eventually could end up costing $1 billion to $2 billion .

Gates said the Pentagon had budgeted $61 million for the program in the current fiscal year and had requested $65 million in the next fiscal year.

"This is one of those cases where we had a program that ramped up slowly and then it exploded in popularity," Gates said. "We are looking for a path forward."

Sen. Patty Murray , D- Wash. , who raised the issue with Gates at the hearing, said the Pentagon should have come to Congress .

"How they have handled this is infuriating," Murray said in an interview. "This is crazy."

Silva is just trying to take it in stride as she worries about her husband in Iraq and the mounting debt as she continues her education.

"It's nerve wracking," Silva said. "It's not like you have money laying around. I can continue without it, but I am applying for more loans, and that means more debt."

The program, begun in 2009, was designed to help the 1.3 million spouses of active-duty personnel and spouses of reservists called to active duty. The $6,000 was to help pay for college tuition or to cover the cost of attending a professional or trade school. The money was intended to help spouses land in high-demand, high-growth fields in which there would be jobs regardless of where they were stationed. It also was to help spouses land better-paying jobs.

In a survey conducted by the Pentagon , 77 percent of spouses said they wanted to work.

In February, however, without warning or notification, the program was shut down. More than 136,000 people had been accepted into the program and about 98,000 had actually received their benefit checks.

Julia Aten was among those who were already enrolled in college, only to find she was going to be short of tuition money. Aten's husband is serving in Afghanistan with units from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. She lives in Puyallup, Wash. , and has a son attending Pacific Lutheran University .

Aten, 42, who is also studying social work at the University of Washington-Tacoma , said she was stunned the military had halted the program without any notification. She said she learned about it on Facebook .

"You don't promise 130,000-some people something and then don't follow through," she said. "The MyCAA money is critical. I would have gone to the UW-Tacoma anyway, but it would have been hard. We aren't getting a free ride."

Though she isn't particularly political, Aten and thousands of other spouses who had been counting on the MyCAA money banded together to convince the Pentagon to change its mind. More than 1,200 military spouses joined a Facebook group to protest, and plans were developed for a rally in the nation's capital.

Aten and others also lobbied their members of Congress . Sixty-seven lawmakers sent a letter to Gates.

"Halting this program without notice is not the way to support those who sacrifice so much to make our military what it is," the letter said.

Less than a month after the program was "paused," the money started flowing again. However, the program isn't accepting new applicants. The Pentagon said it's reviewing long-term plans for the program.

Abrupt end of college tuition help angers military spouses - Yahoo! News

[R13]

HAMPTON, Va. – President Barack Obama, addressing graduates at historically black Hampton University on Sunday, said that it is the responsibility of all Americans to offer every child the type of education that will make them competitive in an economy in which just a high school diploma is no longer enough.

Obama told the nearly 1,100 graduates assembled in the university's sun-splashed Armstrong Stadium that they have the added responsibility of being role models and mentors in their communities.

Clad in a blue gown, Obama recalled the university's humble beginning in September 1861 as a school for escaped slaves who sought asylum after fleeing nearby plantations in the Confederate South. Obama said the founders recognized that, with the right education, such barriers as inequality would not persist for long.

"They recognized, as Frederick Douglass once put it, that 'education means emancipation.' They recognized that education is how America and its people might fulfill our promise," said Obama, the first black U.S. president.

Drawing parallels to current challenges, Obama noted that Hampton's graduates are leaving school as the economy rebounds from its worst downturn since the 1930s, and with the U.S. at war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Obama said education can help them manage the uncertainties of a 21st century economy.

For much of the last century, a high school diploma "was a ticket to a solid middle-class life," he said. But no more, as jobs today often require at least a bachelor's degree — or higher. To that end, Obama is pouring tens of billions of dollars into K-12 and higher education with an eye on raising standards and building the future workforce.

"The good news is, all of you are ahead of the curve," Obama told the graduates. "All those checks you wrote to Hampton will pay off." But too many others, he said, including disproportionate numbers of blacks and Hispanics, are unprepared and are outperformed by their white classmates in the U.S. and around the world.

"All of us have a responsibility, as Americans, to change this, to offer every single child in this country an education that will make them competitive in our knowledge economy. That is our obligation as a nation," the president said.

Obama said the graduates also must be role models and mentors in their communities. And they must pass the sense of an education's value on to their children, as well as the sense of personal responsibility, self-respect and the "intrinsic sense of excellence that made it possible for you to be here today," he said.

Obama's speech was one in a series by top administration officials at historically black colleges and universities this year. In all, 11 of the nation's more than 100 "HBCUs" will have an administration official speak at graduation.

First lady Michelle Obama was the commencement speaker Saturday at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which began as the only state-supported institution of higher education for blacks in Arkansas.

Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett was scheduled to speak at Morgan State University's commencement ceremony on May 15, followed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at Morehouse College and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice at Spelman College, both on May 16.

Earlier this year, Obama named Hampton University President William R. Harvey to be chairman of a presidential advisory board on historically black colleges and universities.

Obama also received an honorary doctor of laws degree. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he quipped that the honorary degree "is much less expensive than my last law degree."

Obama has two graduation speeches left to deliver this year: at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., on May 22, and at Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Mich., on June 10.

Obama: Education a responsibility of all Americans - Yahoo! News