U.S. Sen. Obama: A New Vision for 21st Century Education

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama flew to Dayton, OH, today to discuss one of the more important issues facing our country – public education.  Like Sen. Obama, NDN believes that any economic strategy must include a core commitment to educating our future workforce. Learning how to read, write, and add is simply not sufficient if we hope to compete against the rising giants of India, China, and others.  Addressing the issue of education and a prepared workforce is not new to Sen. Obama -- recall that last November, he embraced NDNs’ proposal to provide IT skills and training to our adult workers at local community colleges.

In his speech today, Sen. Obama laid out his arguments for improving U.S. education:

We need a new vision for a 21st century education – one where we aren’t just supporting existing schools, but spurring innovation; where we’re not just investing more money, but demanding more reform; where parents take responsibility for their children’s success; where our schools and government are accountable for results; where we’re recruiting, retaining, and rewarding an army of new teachers, and students are excited to learn because they’re attending schools of the future; and where we expect all our children not only to graduate high school, but to graduate college and get a good paying job.
 
It’s time to ask ourselves why other countries are outperforming us in education. Because it’s not that their kids are smarter than ours – it’s that they’re being smarter about how to educate their kids. They’re spending less time teaching things that don’t matter and more time teaching things that do. Their students are spending more time in school, and they’re setting higher expectations.
 
That’s what we need to be doing – because America isn’t a country that accepts second place.

Sen. Obama also hit on McCain’s record on education, saying he’s done “nothing” to improve the quality of U.S. public education. Sen. Obama said he would double funding for charter schools and work with teachers to design performance pay plans.  To read Sen. Obama’s speech, click here.

Sen. Obama’s message on education went beyond his speech this morning. He has also released a new ad, "What Kind?" suggesting that, as with other issues, McCain is out of touch with what our country needs to succeed.