In his weekly address, President Obama stressed the need for Education as it relates to job creating and maintaining oureconomic edge in the world. The President also spoke of the failures of No Child Left Behind, and detailed his Administration’s efforts to make sure education is a priority for students, and the American people.
While the goals behind No Child Left Behind were admirable, experience has taught us that the law has some serious flaws that are hurting our children instead of helping them. Teachers are being forced to teach to a test, while subjects like history and science are being squeezed out. And in order to avoid having their schools labeled as failures, some states lowered their standards in a race to the bottom.
These problems have been obvious to parents and educators all over this country for years. But for years, Congress has failed to fix them. So now, I will. Our kids only get one shot at a decent education. And they can’t afford to wait any longer.
The President also spoke about the flexibility he’s given to the states, to do what is necessary to improve education in their schools.
And that’s why instead of just pouring money into a system that’s not working, we launched a competition called Race to the Top. To all fifty states, we said, “If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we’ll show you the money.”
