What Obama Did -- and Didn't -- Say About Education in 'State of the Union'
Blog Post
Jan. 27, 2010
President Obama said relatively little about education (and nothing about pre-k or early childhood) in his State of the Union address last night—and most of that focused on higher education—disappointing some education observers who had expected to hear more about the administration’s agenda for Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization. D.C. insiders, who have already been skeptical about the odds for passing reauthorization this year, took this as further evidence that we’re not likely to see reauthorization completed until after November’s election.
As we’ve noted previously, ELCG is an important step to help states build early childhood systems. It’s also a fitting complement to the Race to the Top education grant program, which the President did mention last night. Both R2T and ELCG set out specific reform components that states should have in place, and they offer competitive grants as both an incentive for states to implement such reforms and a boost to help them take reforms to the next level. The reforms sought are different: In the case of R2T, those reforms include high-quality student longitudinal data systems, ensuring teacher effectiveness, turning around chronically failing schools, and committing to adopt common standards. In ELCG they include quality rating and improvement systems, systems of professional development and credentialing for early childhood educators, and systems to collect data and measure early childhood outcomes. But the strategy is the same.