My Response To The President's Address Today

You don't have to read here long to know that I don't feel either of the political parties in America are doing right by our children when it comes to education. Both parties seem to view public education exclusively in economic terms, they appear hell-bent on privatizing as much of it as possible, and there is a strong push to drive down costs by busting unions and de-professionalizing the teachers. Public education is getting hammered from both sides, with conservatives both at the state and federal level using the meat-cleaver approach of slashing budgets, then leaving school districts to deal with it, while liberals are trying to social engineer the whole thing through high-stakes standardized testing, mandated core curricula, and uneven playing field "competition" between teachers and schools. Yes, I know there's no ideological purity in this mess, but I do know that one is hard pressed to identify a single prominent public official above the level of school board who stands with us: parents, teachers and children.

This morning President Obama's weekly address focused on education. I've embedded the video if you're so inclined, but below it you'll find the full transcript broken up with my commentary.

Hi, everybody. This week, I spent some time traveling across Iowa talking with folks about rebuilding our economy where if you work hard, you and your family can get ahead.  And along the way, I stopped at Cascade High School to thank the teachers there for doing such a great job -- and wish the luck as they head back to the classroom for this school year.

See how that happened? Right from the start he pivots from the economy to education, equating the two. We're told that employers are hungry for educated workers, but is that really the job of "We the people?" Remember, we're talking about public education here and the purpose of public education in a democracy is to educate its population in the habits, skills, and knowledge necessary for self-governance. This has been true since the beginning of our nation's experiment in democracy and was an important point for the founders.

In order to self-govern, above all else, we require a population of critical thinkers, people capable of thinking for themselves, of rejecting nonsense, of demanding honest answers to challenging questions, of seeing through the lies and rhetorical trickery of politicians. This means an education in which questioning authority is not just allowed, but encouraged. This means an education in which citizens (in this case the children) are ultimately in charge of their own learning. This means an education in which children are invited to explore their interests, ideas and passions, rather than be forced into chairs, lectured and drilled in the minutia of a standardized curricula. This means an education that steps back from worshipping at the alter of literacy and math, and treats the humanities, physical education, science, music, economics, art, political science, performing arts, and everything else under the sun as equally important educational pursuits.

Preparing our children for a job, in fact, is in many ways the exact opposite of preparing citizens for democracy. Most corporations after all are islands of dictatorship that we allow to exist within our democracy. Whereas, ideally, self-government is a bottom-up proposition, with active, engaged, educated people, through representatives or not, making their own decisions about their own lives, working for a corporation is a top-down operation, which requires taking orders and not rocking the boat.

It is our responsibility to educate citizens and it's something we ought to do together. Let corporations train their own damn workers.

There's nothing more important to our country's future than the education we give our kids. And there's no one more important to that education than the person at the front of the classroom.  Teachers matter. Most work tirelessly, with modest pay, sometimes digging into their own pocket for school supplies -- just to make a difference. They give everything for our kids -- and in return, we should invest in them.

Removed from the context of his previous remarks about the economy, this makes a decent political sound bite, one I might even support. Most of us agree about the importance of education for our country's future, and while research shows that parents are more important than teachers in this equation, teachers certainly do matter. I like that he's included the "work tirelessly . . . modest pay" line in there as a push-back against the union busters who insist that the teaching ranks are full of lazy, over-paid, tenured dead wood (a patently false generalization). And he's not exaggerating about the tireless dedication of most teachers, especially those in schools serving poor communities.

That said, here we again find the top-down corporate pyramid idea shot right through this statement. We "give our kids" an education? Sorry, but we owe our children an education. We owe them the opportunity to hone their critical thinking skills even if it means they'll grow up to disagree with us and overthrow everything we hold dear. Teachers don't belong at "the front of the classroom," like a boss, but rather down on their knees, eye-to-eye with their educational partners. Sure, everyone would like more than "modest pay," but really, what most public school teachers I know are after are smaller class sizes and fewer mandates passed down from on high, from people who have never set foot in a classroom, about what trivia the kids need to learn and by when. Teachers do matter: they are the ones down on their knees giving "everything for our kids."

And as for the call to "invest" in teachers. What does this mean? As far as I can tell this is code for union busting through such supposedly "liberal" ideas as Teach for America which minimally trains young people in classroom skills and sends them out there to "prove" that teaching isn't really a profession at all, but rather a "mission" that can be done by eager-beaver young people for a year or two as a kind of public service that will look good on a resume.

But here's the thing: this year, several thousand fewer educators will be going back to school. Since 2009, we've lost more than 300,000 education jobs, in part, because of budget cuts at the state and local level. Think about what that means for our country. At a time when the rest of the world is racing to out-educate America; these cuts force our kids into crowded classrooms, cancel programs for preschoolers and kindergarteners, and shorten the school week and the school year. That's the opposite of what we should be doing as a country. States should be making education a priority in their budgets, even in tough fiscal times. And Congress should be willing to help out -- because this affects us all.

Yes, states should be making education a priority in their budgets, it's a crime that we've lost 300,000 education jobs, and it does affect all of us, but this hysterical Oh No, The Chinese Are Beating Us nonsense is a pure scare tactic. The rest of the world is not racing to out-educate America, although many of them are outperforming us on standardized tests, a piss poor way to measure education in my book. But since that's what we're using, let's compare the US to the highest performing nation: Finland. Where nations like China, a fascist dictatorship, have essentially turned the entirety of their "educational" efforts over to prepping for standardized tests, the Finns take a decidedly non-economic, democratic approach, one that much better matches the ideals of American self-governance. And besides, since we are going to discuss test scores, if you remove scores of schools that serve populations  in which over 10 percent live in poverty, we have the best scores in the world, "out-educating" the Chinese, the South Koreans, and yes, even the Finns.

If we really want to beat the Chinese, we'll only do it by tackling poverty.

That's why part of the jobs bill that I sent to Congress last September included support for states to prevent further layoffs and to rehire teachers who'd lost their jobs. But here we are -- a year later with tens of thousands more educators laid off -- and Congress still hasn't done anything about it.  In fact, the economic plan that almost every Republican in Congress voted for would make the situation even worse. It would actually cut funding for education -- which means fewer kids in Head Start, fewer teachers in our classrooms, and fewer college students with access to financial aid -- all to pay for a massive new tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. That's backwards. That's wrong. That plan doesn't invest in our future; it undercuts our future.

Okay, so this is mostly Presidential campaign rhetoric designed to show differences between the President's party and the loyal opposition. I'm all for more money for education, of course, but since the Obama administration's education department is tying those funds to states agreeing to pledge themselves to their "Race To The Top" program, which is in it's particulars exactly the same as the Bush administration's equally mis-guided "No Child Left Behind," it really all boils down to the "meat-cleaver" approach vs. the "social engineering" approach, both of which lead to the same "backwards," "wrong" results for education.

(And note, once more education funding is wrapped up in a "jobs bill" where it has no business being. How about an "education bill?")

If we want America to lead in the 21st century, nothing is more important than giving everyone the best education possible -- from the day they start preschool to the day they start their career. That's why we launched a national competition to improve our schools. And for less than one percent of what our nation spends on education each year, we've encouraged almost every state to raise their standards -- the first time that's happened in a generation. That's why we've invested in math and science education, and given states more flexibility on No Child Left Behind.

Education is not a competition. Marginally higher standardized test scores is not the same as better educated. And that vaunted "flexibility" is only a mirage, granted only after states agree to tie themselves to NCLB 2.0: "Race To The Top."

And that's why we've reformed the student loan program to put students before big banks, and increased financial aid for millions of young people -- because in America, higher education cannot be a luxury; it's an economic necessity every family should be able to afford.

It's not right that we've privatized the profits from student loans while socializing the risk, letting banks rake in huge profits for merely administering loans, while leaving the taxpayer on the hook should these loans head south. To be honest, I don't really know what the Obama administration is doing about this. It sounds good (other than the persistent insertion of "economic necessity") but I'm going to need to learn more before I commit myself -- that's part of what it means to be a critical thinker.

This is a country where no matter what you look like or where you come from, if you're willing to study and work hard, you can go as far as your talents will take you. You can make it if you try. I am only the President of the United States today because of the chance my education gave me. I want every child in America to have that chance. That's what I'm fighting for. And as long as I have the privilege of being your President, that's what I'm going to keep fighting for.

Great! I want my president to fight for better education. Sadly, from where I sit he is fighting against reason, he is fighting against research, he is fighting against the kind of education our democracy needs. Please, Mr. President, if you really want to fight for America's children, please start by going back and taking a look at what guys like Thomas Jefferson had to say about the proper role of education in a democracy. Please understand that drill-and-kill is a corporate approach designed to maximize profits, turning children into worker bees, with education being, at best, a side-effect. Please challenge your education secretary Arne Duncan to present you with actual research that supports his approach: he cannot because such data does not exist.

If you really want to fight for our future Mr. President, you will fight for an education that teaches creativity and critical thinking skills, the talents necessary for self-governance. And you'll leave employers to train their own damn workers.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

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