Obama defends education initiative

Jul 29, 2010 — The Hill

Sam Youngman

President Obama challenged teachers and students alike to be accountable Thursday, defending his Race to the Top program he acknowledges is controversial.

Civil rights leaders and black groups have criticized the program as punishing schools in poor, African-American areas, but the president appealed to them in a speech to the National Urban League "as a president, and as a parent."

"For anyone who wants to use Race to the Top to blame or punish teachers – you’re missing the point," Obama said. "Our goal isn’t to fire or admonish teachers. Our goal is accountability. It’s to provide teachers with the support they need to be as effective as they can be. It’s to create a better environment for teachers and students alike."

Obama, according to excerpts released by the White House, noted that his critics say he should stick to focus on the struggling economy, arguing that education is "the economic issue."

"But education is an economic issue – if not the economic issue of our time," Obama said. "It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have.

Black leaders have charged that by firing teachers or closing schools that are considered to be failing, the president is only making a bad situation worse.

Obama, in addressing critics of his program, said that part of the controversy surrounding Race to the Top "reflects a general resistance to change; a comfort with the status quo."

"But there have also been criticisms, including from some folks in the civil rights community, about particular elements of Race to the Top," Obama acknowledged.

While Obama has not directly taken on the Shirley Sherrod episode in a speech designed to focus on race, he did say Thursday that some young black men and women will "feel the sting of discrimination."

"They may feel trapped in a community where drugs, violence, and unemployment are pervasive, where they are forced to wrestle with things no child should have to face," Obama said. "There are all kinds of reasons for our children to say, 'No, I can’t.' But it’s our job to say to them, 'Yes, you can.' Yes, you can overcome. Yes, you can persevere. Yes, you can make of your lives what you will."

Thus, the president said that by investing $4 billion in his program, he is "challenging" about 5,000 schools, "so many of which are in minority communities," to do a better job of preparing students for the future.

Obama said his program will be more productive and less punitive than former President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program.

"Unlike No Child Left Behind, this isn’t about labeling a troubled school a failure one day, and throwing up our hands the next," Obama said. "It’s about investing in that school’s future, recruiting the whole community to help turn it around, and identifying some viable options for how to move forward."