President Barack Obama gave another great speech last night. What made it great was its honesty and directness. Rather than looking for scapegoats (OK, he did scapegoat Wall Street executives a bit, but we can forgive him that), he spoke candidly about the fact that we're all responsible for the mess we're in:
Our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.
In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.... People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.??
Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.
Nor was that the end of his tough talk. Banks will be held "fully accountable" for any assistance they receive. The "days are over" when CEOs could use bailout funds for "fancy drapes" or a "private jet." And he discussed working toward "efficiencies" in our health care system that are "long overdue."
So when he turned to education, did his tough talk continue? At first I was hopeful, as his rhetoric did a good job framing the international argument for education reform:
In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity--it is a pre-requisite. ?? ??
Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma. And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education.?? We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.??
This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow.?? That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education--from the day they are born to the day they begin a career.??
OK, so far, so good. But then he turns to happy talk:
Already, we have made an historic investment in education through the economic recovery plan.?? We have dramatically expanded early childhood education and will continue to improve its quality, because we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life. We have made college affordable for nearly seven million more students. And we have provided the resources necessary to prevent painful cuts and teacher layoffs that would set back our children's progress.??
And what are we getting in return for preventing these "painful" (if necessary) cuts?
But we know that our schools don't just need more resources. They need more reform. That is why this budget creates new incentives for teacher performance; pathways for advancement, and rewards for success. We'll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we will expand our commitment to charter schools. ??
And, soon thereafter, the president set a goal that "by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world." And he promised to "end education programs that don't work."
Now, I understand that I'm supposed to swoon at the combination of the words "reform" and "teacher performance" and "innovative programs" and "high standards" and "achievement gaps" and "charter schools" and "college graduates" and "end education programs that don't work." He hit all the bases, right?
Well, I'm sorry. Perhaps President Obama is suffering from the soft bigotry of high expectations, but in the course of such a frank and direct speech, I was prepared for him to speak some truth about the reasons our education system is lagging. It doesn't need "more resources," it needs more "efficiency"--like our health care system. It's not an accident that our schools aren't producing enough well-educated graduates; it's because the system has been designed to put the needs of adults over the needs of kids.
In the spirit of truth-telling, why not talk about our country's obsession with smaller class sizes over the past thirty years, which has made education dramatically more expensive and gotten us nothing in return, achievement wise? Why not discuss the pension promises we've made to teachers, and how we can't afford them? Why not talk about seniority protections and tenure rules and "last hired, first fired" policies that keep our schools from laying off ineffective instructors when times get tough?
In other words, for all of the "pain" he's asking us Americans to share, where's the pain for the education system? What sacrifices is he asking of the NEA, other than to accept the radical notion that some of its members will get paid more money? He'll propose in his budget to scrap a few little education programs, and Congress will ignore him. Then what? When will the "day of reckoning" arrive for our schools?
I'm looking for substance, not sound bites. From where I sit, it looks like the education system just walked away with $100 billion in new federal spending, and all us reformers got in return was some poll-tested language. So I'm turning our Reform-o-Meter to Cold for this speech. ??What do you think? Cast your vote below.*
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* In terms of importance, I rank the speech a 5 out of 10. That's a lot for "just a speech," but then again, this was a key bully pulpit moment.
Photo from The New York Times.
