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Speaking at the Urban League's convention marking its 100th anniversary, President Obama explained today how his administration's policies have helped reduce the achievement gap between African-American and white communities, while also stressing that both families and the government must work harder to ensure that minority students have the same educational opportunities as all other children.
The president told the audience at the Washington Convention Center in DC that his administration made reforming the health-care system and the financial industry some of its top priorities, to stem a recession that “has an especially brutal impact on minority communities that were already struggling before the financial crisis hit." He said the health-reform law will "narrow the cruel disparities between Americans of different backgrounds" by giving consumers more control over their health care.
Part of Obama's explanation of these efforts highlighted a persistent challenge for his administration: its difficulty in effectively explaining how its initiatives are helping communities in need.
"This is something a lot of you may not be aware of," Obama said, "but we've added tens of millions of dollars that were going to bank middlemen" to federal aid for schools.
Obama also spoke to the audience about the Department of Education's $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" initiative, which provides grants to schools that improve their performance based on the program's standards.
He acknowledged that there is "often a controversy about national standards," which many state officials claim "violates the principle of local control." Obama countered that as an elective program, "Race to the Top" does not impose on state authority.
"Instead of Washington imposing standards from the top down, let's challenge states to adopt common standards voluntarily from the bottom up that doesn't mean more standards; it means higher standards," Obama said. "We're investing over 4 billion dollars to help them. Which even in Washington is real money," he added, chuckling with the crowd.
He also pointed out that minority students will benefit particularly from the program's goal of targeting the 5,000 lowest-performing schools in the country. "I don't think it's any secret but most of those are serving African American and Hispanic kids," he said.
He also took a quick jab at his predecessor's administration, drawing a comparison between his education program and George W. Bush's. "Unlike No Child Left Behind, this isn't about labeling a school a failure then throwing your hands up and saying we give up on you. This is about investing in a school's future."
As he has several times in the past, Obama exhorted African-American parents to get more involved in their children’s education.
"In the past, even that statement has provoked controversy," Obama said. "Folks have said, 'Why are you talking about parents? Parents need help too. I know that. Parents need jobs; they need housing; they need in some cases social services; and they have substance abuse problems. We're working on all those fronts," he said.
He also shot down what he called suppositions that he only speaks about parental involvement to African-American communities. "I talk about parental responsibility wherever I talk about education," he argued. "Michelle and I happen to be black parents so ... I may add a little oomph to it when I'm talking to black parents," he added, laughing with the crowd.
Paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Obama said education "isn't an either-or proposition; it's a both-and proposition. It will take both more focus from our parents and better schooling," he said, competing with applause and cheers from the audience. "It will take both more money and more reform."
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They can take my money, they can take everything else I have but they will never take my education away from me. A free society must have educated people and most who commit crimes are poorly educated. These are well known facts. To emphasize education and encourage families, communities and individuals is the right thing to do.
I don't know Adler - seems to me that we have had our fair share of crooks on Wall Street that are educated.
Last school year, the Low-Information Repubs heads were exploding when My President gave the uplifting and encouraging "back to school speech".
"Indoctrination"......Yes, you're right, trying to encourage kids to do their best, and stay in school, sure sounds like indoctrination to me.
You, Repubs, have the right to remain low-informed and ignorant!
Chilled - I agree with that. Down here in Texas I had to send a signed letter asking to let my child listen to Obama's speech.
In I'm sure a totally unrelated item an Arlington Texas school agreed to bus students to see former President Bush at the Dallas cowboy stadium two weeks after people down here were demanding that their child's learning time shouldn't be interupted by Obama. Can you say hypocrisy?
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/09/obama-bush-bus/
It's not hypocrisy to want to see Bush and not Obama. It's a choice.
My daughter is in college and if you ask her how it was possible(because I could not afford to send her), she has said and will say again and again that " I'm going to college because President Obama made it possible".
From the bottom of my heart "Thank you President Obama!"
Hey Ben in Oil City PA - well said friend! I'm sure glad that Obama was able to help your Daughter get into college and that she knows who made her college education possible. I have a Granddaughter facing the dilemma of a college education next year after she graduates from high school and it's just so costly. I'll try to help her as much as I can because I know that investing in her future is more important than me living it up high on the hog.
I remember going to college on the GI Bill and with very little financial help from my parents because I didn't want them financially burdened putting me through college. I shudder to think it costs over $35,000 per year on average to go to college now when I went through college back in the late 70's for a mere $3,500 per year, including housing and food, and I walked out of college with a degree and not a single penny of student loan debt.
Ben, that is wonderful. I am so happy for you & your daughter.
Ben! Thanks for sharing... you're daughter is a bright young woman!
Where's the stuck on stupid crowd? Ohhhh thaaaaat's right.... this thread is about EDUCATION!
They won't come anywhere near it! lol
Ben - that's an OUTSTANDING story. You have a very intelligent - and shrewd - daughter and I am confident she will do well in whatever she chooses.
You also need to pat yourself - and your wife - on the back for raising your daughter to be THAT thoughtful and intelligent. That's A job well done by BOTH of you.
This is proof positive that the 'Hopey, Changey' thing is WORKING for all of us!!
Thanks again for a GREAT story.
Hi Ben, could you elaborate on how Obama made it possible? I'm just curious, because my parents could not afford to send me to college, and I did it, and that was way before Obama.
Congrats to your daughter for furthering her education, and congrats to you for encouraging her to do so. We need more parents who take an interest and an active role in their children's lives, as you seem to have done, in this country. Kudos to you.
Congratulations to both you and your daughter. It is great to hear from someone who has benefited from the President's efforts.
While it is true that she will be burdened with a mountain of debt when she graduates, as my parents told me and I tell her"they can never take away your education and with it you will live a better life"
It's been true for me and it will be true for her and that is all that matters to me.
That and getting rid of the GOP from our lives!!!
Thank you for your kind words.
Hey Clara... l@@k who's here.... :0)))
Jill F., Tulsa, OK
Hi Ben, could you elaborate on how Obama made it possible? I'm just curious, because my parents could not afford to send me to college, and I did it, and that was way before Obama.
Last year her Freshman year our gap(that's what left to pay after grant and loans are disburst) our nut was $8,000. We used our savings and she worked a fourty hour a week job( which was unsustainable this year for the whole family). This year the President's increase in Federal funding and changes in eligablity have made it possible for us to borrow more and close the gap.
It still won't be easy, but it is possible!!! It's made all this difference!!!
Ben:
So glad you guys and your daughter were able to receive more help for her college education costs. Unfortunately I know of some kids (neighbor kids) whose parents cannot afford the costs of tuition or any gap so the kids thinking they could work and get some kind of assistance to pay for college took 40 hour jobs during the day so they could attend classes at night. But because they work full time jobs their annual incomes were determined by the federal programs to have been too high for them to receive the assitance they thought they were going to get and that they needed. When asking how could this be because their annual incomes only totaled less than 20,000 they were told the best thing for them was to quit work. So here we have the federal government telling kids willing to work and put forth the effort to work full-time and attend college full-time that they could not get any help.
I'm sure the system and these programs help many kids but it screws many others.
Two of my sons previously had Bill Clinton and George Bush to thank for going to college. One undergrad degree from Clinton and one plus a masters from Bush. We were really disappointed that neither one accepted our invitation to graduation. We sent them a thank you card but would have liked to thanked them in person.
Our third son did, however, receive his degree from President Obama.
Ok, I'll be a little more serious.
Ben, you talk about being able to "borrow" more to close the gap. We also, the kids and their mom and me, had to borrow. Between what they were eligible for under Stafford loans and what we were eligible for under the "Plus" program, there was enough to cover our "gap" a couple of times over.
The borrowing component of student aid was, in my experiences, never short of being enough. The programs are always happy to help you borrow more.
I hope at sometime in her future, Ben's daughter can sit down with her and connect the dots as to who actually is making her education possible.
Great for your Daughter, how did Obama do this may I ask?
Education is an important issue, but a disturbing trend I have seen is that an education doesn't guarantee gainful employment like it did a few years ago, that 4 year degree that cost $80,000 is hard to pay back working some low paying service sector job, it could be argued pretty strongly nowadays that money could be spent other ways more beneficially. One thing that is very prominently missing from all the chatter in D.C. is how any decent middle class jobs can be created in this country, I think they know they can't and won't, it would take restructuring of the tax code closing the loopholes that make it more attractive to send jobs overseas than to invest here, and there seems to be no one on either side of the aisle in D.C. with the stomach for that, so I guess the recovery is over, and I must say that Wall Street, Corporate America, and the big banks have made one hell of a come back, looks like Main Street is being silently left behind to do the best they can with nothing, now it will be interesting to see how long it takes people to realize they have been abandoned, and how they react.
My son graduated from college in 2007 - economics major/math minor. He is now working at a broker dealer private sector job for - $14.50 an hour. He made more money an hour as a swim coach for a private swim team.
But the bottomline is for me - he has a job!
Good to see he has a job, my oldest son graduates next spring with an accounting major, he started up a roofing/painting business a couple years ago and intends to pursue that full time after he graduates, which if fine buy me, at least with the accounting degree maybe he can figure his own taxes, but the 65k I borrowed on a Parent Plus Loan could have been better spent elsewhere probably, I have a feeling that the four year degree is going to be scrutinized more closely by people in the coming years, I personally don't see that it's that great of an investmate anymore, guess it depends on the situation, I have another son that will be graduating High School in a couple of years and I guarantee you I will be evaluating the situation very closely before I pull the trigger on another college loan.
I think it depends. The economy has a lot to do with finding the job you want. Sometimes, kids just aren't sure yet when they're 17 or 18. I think community colleges are a better and far less expensive alternative for those who are unsure. Not every child is geared for the academic world or desk jobs. But every person who wants college should have the opportunity. Your son may have changed his career path but he will always have that degree, the experience and the knowledge. Good for him starting his own business.
w bush, for years, the vocational experts have been saying that at about this time we'd begin to see a two-tiered employment situation: technical jobs and service jobs. Technology has and will continue to take out many of the "middle" jobs. We have not changed our approach to education to accomodate the "real world". A four year college degree doesn't fit well into the two-tier employment strata. Instead of pushing people to traditional college, we need to be encouraging technical, trade education.
We also need to be re-thinking our primary and secondary educational systems which we know are woefully lacking now. The system we have was based on a manufacturing-industrial society. All we wanted was that folks got do basic reading, add and subtract. Now that our manufacturing society is gone and we're facing the technical-service model, our system needs to adjust/adapt to accomodate those needs.
Plus, people should never look at a college education as a guarantee for some high paying job. It's never been a guarantee of that. For me, the true value of higher education is that it, hopefully, makes us a better people, society.
Great to see Obama trash the repugnant ones for not wanting to help our public schools better educate our nation's children. Ofcourse a well educated electorate is the worst enemy of the repugnant ones, the party of the least educated no information voters. Let's not forget that the dopes of nope gave us the No Rich Brat Left Behind education boondoggle that only helped create more high school dropouts.
Considering how the texas board of miseducation is trying to pervert our textbooks with their filthy rightwing lies thus perverting our nation's children into believing a bunch of rightwing lies just for political advantage it's no wonder our ranking in education worldwide is dropping like a stone. We need Obama's Race to the Top education help program to ensure that we don't become like Afghanistan where the vast majority is illiterate and our military advisors have to teach the Afghan soldiers simple math.
Ofcourse the corrupt conservative christian fanatics want to dumb down our children to only study their worthless unholy bible of lies because they fear that smart children will grow up to be smart adults who can grow out of having to need an imaginary friend in a false god.
I agree Eric it is imperative that every child that is willing to put forth the effort to acquire a meaningful education get that chance. But the point I raised in an earlier post is even with that education if there are no good paying jobs with benefits what is that education worth? when I graduated High School years ago me and my girlfriend got married and both got decent manufacturing jobs near by, mind you we were not rich by any measure but we paid the monthly bills and made ends meet, lived a life that was tolerable with at least the hope of being able to better our situation , that's all gone for kids now, those jobs are in China or some other far away land, I just don't see how kids graduating High School nowadays have a chance to enjoy even the meagerest of existences, everyone in D.C. knows it but they dare not mention it, this is not the land of opportunity it is said to be, they should say it "used to be" the greatest nation on Earth cause it ain't anymore unless you are one of the few that are born wealthy, they have destroyed the very foundation of a strong Middle Class and are apparently they are content to see it gone.
"I talk about parental responsibility wherever I talk about education," he argued. "Michelle and I I realhappento be black parents so ... I may add a little oomph to it when I'm talking to black parents," he added, laughing with the crowd.
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Wow, no truer words can be spoken!
Ben In Oil City PA.
It really makes my heart happy to here such uplifting stories such as yours.
Allow me to share my story. My grandson is 7 years old and on Aug 4th (President Obama's birthday coincidentally) he will be 8. He says I want to be a President like Obaaaama when I grow up. He will tell me if I'm on the computer too long I should get off it. One day he wanted me to help me with his homework; which I usually do. This particular time I told him a little later. because I was tired He went to the fridge, got a power-aide drink, came back and told me here granny this will give you energy. I want to study like the President says we should. I apologize if I'm boring any one.
I thought that was so cute. More importantly, it's inspirational for our children to have a President who genuinely as a father and president cares about our future, our children. If this is indoctrination , I'll take it. I do see the extra oooomph our President is making though the eyes of my grandson.
May our President's efforts for all of the children in our country not be stymied . The dummies in our society will be effected by their environment. I mean they will be inspired by our children leading the way.
Our President proves himself at all times to be the President of all people; even when he has to give a little extra ooomph.
How long will it be before the reptilian brain 1890 Tea Partiers and Briebart come out with another doctored video and accuse the Urban League of racist?
I'd cool it on the videos if I were Breibart since Sherrod Shirley, is suing him.
I enjoyed the story. Your grandson is probably one of thousands influenced by Pres Obama's story. My favorite WH photo was the little boy touching Obama's head to see if it felt like his.
Beverly:
This is a serious question. In your scenario, where do your grandson's parents fit in?
Obama really wants to help the schools. I remember right after he was sworn in, one of his first acts were to make sure the poor, mostly black, children had their vouchers which helped them to go to a good school instead of the failed public schools in DC taken away.
Great post Ben, I also have two children benefiting from POTUS's and Dem programs despite the dopes of nope GOBP who today held up the small bus. bill. Does everybody understand how much further down the road to recovery we would be if the dopes of nope we participate or at least get out of the way. The Dems in the house have set a legislative record only to be stymied by the GOBP dopes of nope filibusters in the senate, what a shame. We need to beat the nope out of these dopes come November.
Although glad Obama has his sights on improving education and educational opportunities, the opportunities for middle class kids are still limited regarding the ability to find funding to attend college at today's tuition and housing prices. Wealthy children's parents can pay for college tuition. Those kids from poorer backgrounds are able to receive various forms of educational assistance from the government (and that is good, very good). But many middle class kids are limited to few if any federally assisted programs because according to the income standards, the parents (who are not able to pay for college tuition for their children) still make too much money for the child to be eligible for federally funded educational assisted programs. The income cut off levels for parents (in order for a child to be eligible for such assistance) are so low that many many middle class kids are being shut out of higher education. In many cases those students you see attending Universities and other secondary schools and colleges are either driving Mercedes or they come from very low socio-economic backgrounds. More needs to be done for middle class kids as well.
It was a terrific speech, too. The Obama administration is serious about improving schools and fixing what doesn't work in schools. Providing more money for student loans by eliminating outsourcing to banks who were paid a fee; eliminate the fees nationwide and you have substantially more dollars for loans.
The administration also increased assistance for community colleges to help families with costs for a couple years before heading to the more expensive university.
Much more needs doing to make college affordable for everyone who wants it but it is a start.
I would have liked for the president to mention what happened in DC last week. they fired over 200 teachers for not performing up to standardsand put 700 more on notice that there next. i wish he would have thanked that superintendent in DC for doing what has needed to be done for years. GET RID OF BAD TEACHERS.
Jody, that's how my kids are benefiting, great post
Top 5 Social Security Myths
Myth #1: Social Security is going broke.
Reality: There is no Social Security crisis. By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.6 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a 'T'). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever.1 After 2037, it'll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits—and again, that's without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers' retirement decades ago.2 Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.
Myth #2: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.
Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts. Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s. The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than they did 70 years ago.3 What's more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly—since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half.4 But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.
Myth #3: Benefit cuts are the only way to fix Social Security.
Reality: Social Security doesn't need to be fixed. But if we want to strengthen it, here's a better way: Make the rich pay their fair share. If the very rich paid taxes on all of their income, Social Security would be sustainable for decades to come.5 Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their income.6 But conservatives insist benefit cuts are the only way because they want to protect the super-rich from paying their fair share.
Myth #4: The Social Security Trust Fund has been raided and is full of IOUs
Reality: Not even close to true. The Social Security Trust Fund isn't full of IOUs, it's full of U.S. Treasury Bonds. And those bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.7 The reason Social Security holds only treasury bonds is the same reason many Americans do: The federal government has never missed a single interest payment on its debts. President Bush wanted to put Social Security funds in the stock market—which would have been disastrous—but luckily, he failed. So the trillions of dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund, which are separate from the regular budget, are as safe as can be.
Myth #5: Social Security adds to the deficit
Reality: It's not just wrong—it's impossible! By law, Social Security's funds are separate from the budget, and it must pay its own way. That means that Social Security can't add one penny to the deficit.8
Defeating these myths is the first step to stopping Social Security cuts. Can you share this list now?
Thanks for all you do.
Richard, Washington State
Beverly:
This is a serious question. In your scenario, where do your grandson's parents fit in?
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Richard
WTF do you mean idiot?
What I mean is:
You mention that you help him with his homework most of the time. And Barack Obama is his inspiration for education.
Do his parents have a role in his education?
Maybe they are both in Afghanistan.