Obama’s Address Makes Clarion Call for Education Investments

Education was one of the stars – if not the star — of President Obama’s State of the Union address last night. The president spent a large segment of the first half of the speech talking about investing in education in tandem with research and innovation to bring jobs back.  

His words signaled that the Administration’s budget request to Congress, expected in mid-February, will likely protect federal education programs even as it pushes for “sacrifice” and cost-cutting measures in other areas to reduce the deficit.

“Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education,” Obama said, “is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you’ll feel the impact.”

Unfortunately, early childhood was not specifically mentioned in this year’s State of the Union. The image of children in their youngest years came up twice and briefly in each case:  “It’s family that first instills a love of learning in a child,” Obama said. He also made reference to raising expectations for children and giving them “the best possible chance at an education, from the day they’re born until the last job they take,” evoking the birth-through-career pipeline that has been championed in several of the Administration’s education initiatives.

Much of Obama’s speech touted why the United States is special, and at one point he tied American individualism to the way American students learn. “We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea – the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny,” the President said. “It’s why our students don’t just memorize equations, but answer questions like ‘What do you think of that idea? What would you change about the world? What do you want to be when you grow up?’|”

Here are a few other highlights from the address and a couple of Early Ed Watch’s questions:

• Obama called Race to the Top “the most meaningful reform” in a generation and reiterated his desire to use some of the same approaches in reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, such as providing incentives for states to lead education reform initiatives as long as they stay within parameters set by the federal government. Q:  Not everyone in Congress is thrilled about the idea of including Race to the Top in a new ESEA, and close observers point out that its too early to see any actual impact on student achievement. Still, could the Administration be poised to gain more support for the grant program? And if so, could there be opportunities to  spur the creation of early learning systems that span the birth-to-8 continuum?

• Teachers got some real airtime. “In South Korea, teachers are known as ‘nation builders,’” Obama said. “Here in America, it’s time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect.” A few moments later he urged young people to go into teaching as a profession. Q: Shall we assume he was including teachers of all stripes – including early childhood programs as well as those in public schools? We need to remember that many of those teachers are not paid in education budgets but in social service or human services budgets that are in jeopardy because of state budget shortfalls and could be subject to cuts in federal programs as well.  

• Obama announced plans to train 100,000 new teachers in mathematics, science, technology, and engineering (STEM) over the next 10 years. Q:  Will this new teacher initiative include preschool and kindergarten science teachers? Children’s curiosity in the early years runs rampant – skilled teachers can tap into their wonder about the world and help them build critical thinking skills and habits of scientific inquiry. Let’s hope that this STEM initiative is seen as a preK-12 program and not just a K-12 one.

What questions are on your mind after hearing last night’s speech? The Administration plans to keep up the emphasis on education over the next few days., and U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan will be taking questions on the Web and via twitter (#edchat) on Thursday  at 3:15 PM ET.  Let us know what you would want to ask him.