Understanding President Obama's Speech

WASHINGTON, - Parents should talk to their kids about issues surrounding the President's speech to the nation's school children Tuesday, such as the role of the federal government in education, the state of our nation's education crisis, and how they can elect officials who will make critical changes, according to Making Sense of President Obama's School Speech: 10 Things Parents Should Share with their Kids, released today by the Center for Education Reform.

"Parents are not only the first line of defense when it comes to their family's education, they should be the first line of offense as well," says Jeanne Allen, president of the Canter for Education Reform. "Parents can be assertive and effective change agents in improving schools and using this occasion to help their young understand how to right education's wrongs is a big first step to reforming our schools."

The Center for Education Reform has for 16 years helped parents become better advocates for their children, and given policymakers the tools they need to succeed. Thus CER brings its broad and unique expertise to the controversial discussions surrounding the president's speech by offering parents a variety of topics to cover to help educate their children about why President Obama is speaking to them, what his role is, and what other issues this nation faces in bringing excellence to all schools.

"Above all parents should remind their children something that schools often neglect -- that they live in the land of opportunity, the best nation on earth, and that along with making sure they receive a great education, they must always seek to learn from history and to advance the principles upon which this country was founded," added Allen.

10 Points of Concern

1) What was the purpose of President Obama's speech?

President Obama, like all presidents who care about the progress of the US, is concerned that the quality of our schools today is just not good enough. In some places, it's very bad, and even in our community (if you live where there are generally good schools) there are students who have needs that are not being met. A president should reinforce how important education is.

2) What does the president have to do with our schools?

Presidents should care about education, but it's the state's responsibility, not the federal government's, to create and manage school policies that help us succeed. Our governor, our state legislators and school boards are elected to do the job we want them to do. So, we must make sure we elect people at the state level who know how to make difficult decisions about programs that work, which to fund and which to remove.

3) So the federal government doesn't have much to do with school policy?

Actually, today the federal government does have more control than it used to over what and how schools operate, and that's because states like ours for a while allowed too many bad schools to remain open. Our nation's Founding Fathers intended for education to be a state issue, and the Constitution makes states responsible for all things not otherwise specified in the Constitution (Article 10). We have to make sure our state officials do the right thing so that the federal government doesn't need to get involved in our local affairs again.

4) How are schools doing in America?

Just like the economy is in need of reform, so are our schools. While our school may or may not be the best in our community, more than half of all students nationwide are not reading or doing math at grade level. Millions of students are in schools the government considers failing, and US schools rank 21st out of 29 industrialized nations internationally.

5) Is there something the president wants us to do?

Well, his administration has supported the idea of having more charter schools: public schools that are like our public schools used to be, with teachers, principals and parents in control, and accountable for results. They are also open by choice, so parents can choose a different school for their children than the one assigned by the district.

Some are also very glad that the president talks about performance-based pay for teachers, though it will take tough changes in law at the state and district level to get rid of union contracts that pay all teachers the same regardless of how well they do.

The president does not support more comprehensive school choices, like programs in DC, Florida and Pennsylvania, for example, that allow scholarships for kids, particularly poor children, to choose private schools.

6) Why are some people so mad about his giving the speech?

Some people think this is another attempt by the president to take over an issue that's historically been a local one. Clear authority for school improvement needs to be made at the state level. The federal government can provide support or incentives, but we'd prefer that decisions about how we operate schools and what kinds of reforms we adopt be made closest to where we live--by state legislators that we elect from our communities. Local decisions are not always the best, but we can monitor them more easily and they reflect the unique differences of each state. As long as we all recognize that, no one should be threatened by the president's speech.

7) What's being done to fix bad schools, and to help children most in need?

Some states and communities are moving to close failing schools. Giving parents options to "buy" their way out of failing schools (through vouchers, scholarships, charter schools) is also a strategy that most Americans think would be the quickest and most quality approach to getting all kids the education they deserve.

8) What are some other things we can do to help the schools, the teachers, etc?

Making sure every teacher that we have is evaluated fairly and rewarded for good performance is important. Making sure schoolbooks and programs reflect the best of the currently available research on how kids learn, and promoting approaches that work. Making sure there are options within as well as outside district schools. Making sure money flows to schools, not to districts, to spend money wisely. Having high standards and tests that help assess your performance day to day... these are all important to do - simultaneously.

9) What do we support?

(This is an opportunity to talk about some of these proposals, to learn more and to find out if any are going on in your community, city or state).

10) How can we help improve education?

Working hard is important, but to make that hard work meaningful, students need access to schools with great books, great teachers, high standards and strong programs that instill a strong sense of learning among all kids. Learning a lot comes from more than just working hard - it requires us to have such schools around us. That means that we probably need to change at least one thing - if not more - about the way our whole school system operates. We may have to change the way contracts with teachers or principals are written, how we decide our curriculum, what options we provide to parents, whether we have uniforms or not, how we spend money. In other words, it takes a lot more than going to a PTA meeting. It takes learning about education reform, educating our friends and family about it, and electing people in our states who are willing to pass such reforms into law and give us the power to reform on our own, too. Like by starting charter schools, getting scholarships for our kids to go to other schools when the ones available to us don't work, and more.