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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- During his first stop on a four-state swing aimed at revving up Democratic voters, President Obama sought to make the case for keeping his party in the driver's seat in the next Congress.
This backyard discussion at a home in a rural area here was meant to provide the president with a more intimate backdrop to discuss the steps his administration has taken, with the help of Democrats in Congress, to get the economy back on track and to draw a distinction with the opposition. He held similar events in Fairfax, VA, last week and in Columbus, OH, last month.
With just five weeks to go before the midterm elections and polls still showing Republican voters with the enthusiasm edge, the president has hit the campaign trail to try to close the gap.
Here, he focused in part on steps his administration has taken to improve America's education system, from increasing access to early childhood education and making college more affordable through increased Pell Grants, to the "Race to the Top" competition, which provides states additional education funding if they put together a set of reforms to improve performance.
"The No. 1 issue in terms of us succeeding as an economy is going to be how well we educate and how well we train our kids," Obama said. "Nothing else comes close."
In mounting a rebuttal to the GOP's "Pledge to America" platform, the president said the Republicans' top economic priority was borrowing $700 billion to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of the population.
"That's their main economic plan," he said. "One way they would pay for it is to cut back our education spending by 20% and eliminate about 200,000 Head Start programs and reduce student aid to go to college for about eight million students."
Obama urged people heading to the polls in November to think about which party was going to prioritize young people.
The president spoke briefly, before taking questions from the group of 35 or so people gathered at the home on topics like immigration -- an issue he said was "being demagogued" -- the housing crisis, abortion, his own religious faith, small business lending and veterans' affairs.
Later on Tuesday, the president was set to travel to Madison, WI, to rally young people at the University of Wisconsin. On Wednesday, Obama planned to host two more backyard events in Des Moines, IA, and Richmond, VA, respectively.
On hand for the Albuquerque event were New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. Heinrich is facing a reelection fight, and Denish is running for governor.
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No offense to any Wisconsinites, but rallying liberals in Madison is as difficult as taking a piss after an all-night drinking binge. That is a freaky goddamn city.
For the information of your writers: Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico.
It is not a "...at a home in a rural area here...."
Madison, Wis is not a rural area either. It is the state capital.
Neither Des Moines nor Richmond are tank towns, either.
Kind of hard to believe anything else written in this article after those boners.
BTW, New Mexico has all it can do to graduate 50% of the high school students. And the carpet bagger governor wants to be known as the "education governor". I apologize to all the other states for our governor. Mea culpa.
The Prez has chosen a joke to back here. It's a shame.
I've been to Madison several times, thanks.
That's it GOPers cut back even more on education. Ya gotta keep them ignorant and stupid as they are easier to rule over. Thinkers and scholars see through the lies and ridiculousness of right wing tactics, ideas, and attitudes so it makes sense the Republicans, now controlled by the right wing extremists, would want to gut education spending.
Exactly where are the cutbacks? Certainly not in the teachers' salary and benefit packages. I'd love to see a comparision of teacher's salaries today v. 20 years ago.
Of course I'm sure the fine students in the LA school district will do really well in that school that cost $1.2 Billion. If the repulicans are cutting back they suck at it.
That's right Dem's keep sending the kids back to the same old failing public schools, while your liberal elite send thier kids to private schools. Keeep sending more money to the teachers unions, and keep the masses ignorant and stupid, that way they will keep voting for inexperianced Democratic candidates, who have never had a real life job, who have lived off the hard work of private citizens.
Just check out the High School graduation rates in the south – the GOP stronghold.
http://www.higheredinfo.org/dbrowser/index.php?measure=23
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_baeo_t1.htm
Wow the south beats the states of NY and CA. not really a surprise though.
Frank misses the whole point – The South is, on average, far less educated than the rest of the country.
that way they will keep voting for inexperianced Democratic candidates, who have never had a real life job, who have lived off the hard work of private citizens.
So what about the inexperienced repugnants who have never had a real life job (you know, George Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain)?
Dennis,
Well why don't you break it down further and compare what states that have Republican Govenors and which ones have Democrat Governors. I guess you can focus on one area. You can also focus on the Top 10 American cities and see what their graduation rate is?
Those with the lowest graduation rates include Indianapolis (31 percent), Cleveland (34 percent), Detroit (38 percent), Milwaukee (41 percent), Baltimore (42 percent), Atlanta (44 percent), Los Angeles (44 percent), Las Vegas (45 percent), and Columbus (45 percent). So out of those cities listed, which one as a Republican Mayor? I see the city where you're from made that list too?
Adler-273784
That's it GOPers cut back even more on education.
Um, excuse me Adler, but the Dems have been in control of this state for many, many years. And we rank 49th in the continental U.S. for education for our young people. If it wasn't for the Fed Goverment's funding of institutions and air bases I doubt if we'd even show up on the bottom of the income scale.
In fact, our Albuquerque newspaper put a story worrying about possible closure of our biggest Air Force base here in Albuquerque. Right above the story about the President's visit. Hmmmmm.
And what have the dems done to help education? Helped the teachers unions keep unqualified and inept teachers in their jobs? Education should be a state and local issue. We should dismantle the DOE and let the school boards decide what is best for their respective areas.
My only problem with that is you start to run into problems with local districts reinforcing erroneous beliefs or re-writing history to be commensurate with local views - like presenting ID as a legitimate scientific theory or claiming John Calvin was somehow an Enlightenment heavy-weight on par with Thomas Jefferson instead of a fringe religious lunatic.
And unfortunately it boils down to electing sane people to the school boards and that doesn't happen often, either.
On the other hand, having a "one size fits all" approach ala the feds hasn't worked either.
I suppose the answer is somewhere in between, but I thank God I don't have any kids in school anymore.
I would have to agree with Exodite,
We can't have the Liberal states teaching the absurd theory that Bill Clinton was a good president.
Nor can we have conservative states saying the same of Reagan and Bush, Frank.
Now, Kirby, I don't think a one-size fits approach all is the best notion, either. Case in point: in seventh grade I had to take an entire year of Texas history because, apparently, being your own Republic for a decade gets you your own required course. In retrospect I appreciate the local flavor and culture this represents and really feel schools in particular districts could use more of that - appreciation of regional cultural differences in tandem with the unifying elements of broader American culture. There is that problem I mentioned and how to balance the issue, well. I guess I just haven't had my requisite amount of coffee for the day. I'm having some problems figuring a good proposal. :/
Education should actually be locally controlled but there should be some accountability on a Federal level if the state receives Federal Funding.
But the accountability should be on teachers and the Principles. No Child left behind had some good parts, but the only accountability was to close the school. As if it was the buildings fault the kids were failing.......
Frankusa -
The problem is though, that when federal funds are in the mix so is the federal nose. That is why we need a DOE even though we don't have federal schools. Too much federal involvement.
I don't know what the answer is, but I do know it isn't working as presently configured.
No one seems to recognize that Pres Obama is fighting the teacher unions on several issues such as teacher accountability, getting rid of bad teachers and fighting for innovation. Unions have a purpose, to protect teachers from the whims of a prinicipal or school board with their own agenda. That said, unions cannot continue to protect bad workers and they are beginning to realize that protecting bad teachers is not right. When we demonize the unions, we fail to recognize that whether it is in the corporate world or public education, every person should have someone to fight for their rights. The difficulty is in knowing when someone is simply a bad employee or a bad teacher.
Teachers should be paid excellent salaries just as doctors, engineers, scientists because they are the ones who teach the next generation of doctors, engineers and scientists.
he also just spent 50 billion in TARP money on teachers and cops to keep them employed.Guess you missed that,huh!!!
Any bets on whether our good friend Bill was in attendance? ;0) lol
Acutally Kirby the Democrats in Tennessee have done quite a lot to help working class people achieve an education. Our own Democratic governor, Frank G. Clement is the person responsible for the fact that our children do not have to purchase their school books in public schools.
So, tell me, what have the repugnants ever done to help working class people achieve an education in public schools?
...you know, uh, Texas is predominantly Republican and we guarantee college entry to any public school student who graduates in the top 10% of their class. Last I checked the public schools here weren't at risk of forcing students to buy their textbooks, either.
Sounds to me that its time to take the schools back and make them private.Instead of paying taxes to keep them going u pay for your kids to go to the school u want and pick. Because a lot of the schools have so many people that dont do anything in school but start trouble . And wityh the libs you cant get rid of them U dont get that in private schools thats why u dont see our politians kids in our schools do u lol wake up people
Tom, the liberals didn't screw up the schools, it was the "no dime left behind" crap that diverted millions from the schools to the testing and assessment companies. Money and time for learning got turned into money and time for testing - another great Repub idea
Tom Blair --
"Sounds to me that its time to take the schools back and make them private.Instead of paying taxes to keep them going u pay for your kids to go to the school u want and pick. Because a lot of the schools have so many people that dont do anything in school but start trouble . And wityh the libs you cant get rid of them U dont get that in private schools thats why u dont see our politians kids in our schools do u lol wake up people"
From the poor use of English (and the horrendous abbreviations, punctuations and misspellings) in the above it seems that you are either very young or could stand some remedial classroom instruction.
Oh, by the way, on the top line of the comment form, way to the right is little icon showing ABC over a check mark. That is a spelling checker and using it will avoid your getting notes like this.
Best wishes.
Too close for comfort, dont come to Arizona, we dont want you here.
Msedivy - yeah he shouldn't go to AZ, you might mistake him for an immigrant and shoot him with all your NRA approved rifles!!
Notice how the immigration reform element does not get any coverage. I guess it is too difficult for the liberal media to connect the fact that problems with education and public schools are directly correlated to, and add extra strain on the public school system. If there was competition for teachers and students in the public schools systems, survival of the fittest would fix the problem over time. Weak schools and weak educators would deservidly be added to the unemployment rolls and strong schools and strong educators would reap the rewards for a higher performance.
FrankUSA needs to go back to Russia where he came from, cause he sure has no idea what's going on here!