If you have children in the public education system, you should vote for Obama.
Out of all the political candidates in the primaries, Obama has the clearest picture of what it is like to work in the dregs of the nation's public school system. I am an inner city high school teacher. I have stuck it out for four years. In the inner city, most teachers quit after three years -- that's the national average. He knows what I go through, I think, because of his time as a community activist in Chicago. He understands the needs of teachers in the nation's poorest schools.
What people forget about is that schools that are struggling do not just exist in our nation's cities. A lot of rural schools are also facing the same challenges, especially concerning equipment and supplies.
The Republicans think that the way to improve our schools is to take money away from schools that are struggling, because supposedly less money will make all the teachers want to work harder. The money that is taken away doesn't necessarily come from our salaries (which, even four years later, doesn't equal the cost of my college education -- which I must continue to pay for out of my own pocket in order to stay certified), but it comes from the fund for the building and the books and the technology that we use to teach with. I don't know how anyone can teach for the 21st century without computers and internet access and science laboratory supplies and textbooks with the latest research, and yet, some schools still do not have these things. We don't even have enough heat in the winter; our school windows are single-paned, 80 years old and have no weatherstripping. How can kids learn when they are concerned about freezing in the winter (and being overheated in the summer)?
Teachers have gone along so long funding their classrooms out of their own pockets, and yet, we don't make enough money to itemize on our tax returns and the government only rewards us with a $200 capped tax break on supplies we purchase ourselves. It's sad that the government provides us with hardly anything, expects us to pick up the tab on the rest because we "care so much about kids we'd do anything" and then complains about test scores and reduces the money we get even further.
(I'd like to go on the record just to say that, despite the odds, our school is beginning to turn around. Our ACT scores have climbed steadily for the past three years. So don't say I'm another whiny teacher making excuses for poor performance. Let's just say that there are two ways to dig a ditch; the government hands us a hand shovel when they could give us a power shovel if they cared).
When I read Obama's beliefs on education reform, I thought, there is a plan that is both doable and is fair to both the teachers that put in the hours and to the parents that don't get much of a choice about where their kids go to school. If you can only afford to live in a poor district (foreclosures, anyone?), you can forget the swimming pool and any of the "extras" your kids have enjoyed elsewhere (where all the politicians send their kids to school). Your kids might not even have a science book published in the last ten years.
A vote for Obama is a vote for a smart outlook on education reform, and an investment in the future of our nation.
For a look at the specifics of his plan, click here: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/#k-12
Out of all the political candidates in the primaries, Obama has the clearest picture of what it is like to work in the dregs of the nation's public school system. I am an inner city high school teacher. I have stuck it out for four years. In the inner city, most teachers quit after three years -- that's the national average. He knows what I go through, I think, because of his time as a community activist in Chicago. He understands the needs of teachers in the nation's poorest schools.
What people forget about is that schools that are struggling do not just exist in our nation's cities. A lot of rural schools are also facing the same challenges, especially concerning equipment and supplies.
The Republicans think that the way to improve our schools is to take money away from schools that are struggling, because supposedly less money will make all the teachers want to work harder. The money that is taken away doesn't necessarily come from our salaries (which, even four years later, doesn't equal the cost of my college education -- which I must continue to pay for out of my own pocket in order to stay certified), but it comes from the fund for the building and the books and the technology that we use to teach with. I don't know how anyone can teach for the 21st century without computers and internet access and science laboratory supplies and textbooks with the latest research, and yet, some schools still do not have these things. We don't even have enough heat in the winter; our school windows are single-paned, 80 years old and have no weatherstripping. How can kids learn when they are concerned about freezing in the winter (and being overheated in the summer)?
Teachers have gone along so long funding their classrooms out of their own pockets, and yet, we don't make enough money to itemize on our tax returns and the government only rewards us with a $200 capped tax break on supplies we purchase ourselves. It's sad that the government provides us with hardly anything, expects us to pick up the tab on the rest because we "care so much about kids we'd do anything" and then complains about test scores and reduces the money we get even further.
(I'd like to go on the record just to say that, despite the odds, our school is beginning to turn around. Our ACT scores have climbed steadily for the past three years. So don't say I'm another whiny teacher making excuses for poor performance. Let's just say that there are two ways to dig a ditch; the government hands us a hand shovel when they could give us a power shovel if they cared).
When I read Obama's beliefs on education reform, I thought, there is a plan that is both doable and is fair to both the teachers that put in the hours and to the parents that don't get much of a choice about where their kids go to school. If you can only afford to live in a poor district (foreclosures, anyone?), you can forget the swimming pool and any of the "extras" your kids have enjoyed elsewhere (where all the politicians send their kids to school). Your kids might not even have a science book published in the last ten years.
A vote for Obama is a vote for a smart outlook on education reform, and an investment in the future of our nation.
For a look at the specifics of his plan, click here: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/#k-12
