Small Business
Business Groups Cautiously Optimistic on Obama's Education Plan
They like the focus on improving standards and holding teachers accountable.
By Jonathan N. Crawford, Reporter, the Kiplinger letters
April 2, 2010
- Comments
- Email This Article
- Print This Article
- Order a Reprint
Advertisement
Business groups are warming to education reforms that Obama is proposing. In their review of the president’s outline for revamping No Child Left Behind (NCLB), several business advocacy organizations, including the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sounded a positive note.
“It includes many of the priorities in our principles,” says Susan Traiman, director of public policy of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies.
Business groups say they like the idea of doling out aid in a competitive fashion, instead of relying on a formula, because they believe competition is an effective tool for influencing state policy whether or not states actually get the money. “By making it competitive you have the opportunity to get the best ideas and only pick the best,” Traiman says.
For its part, the administration complains that the current law leads states to water down their academic standards so their schools can meet federal benchmarks, that it focuses too heavily on punishing schools instead of providing support and that it lays down a one-size-fits-all antidote for turning around schools that are failing.
Business groups say they are also pleased with plans to get tough on poorly qualified and ineffective teachers. One scenario under Obama’s plan to turn around low performing schools involves firing all a school’s teachers and allowing no more than half of them to be rehired by the school.
Another area of agreement is Obama’s focus on career readiness of students. The administration’s proposal calls on states to adopt standards aligned with college and workplace needs. And beginning in 2015, formula funds would be available only to states that implement assessments based on the college- and career-ready standards.
Teacher accountability and charter school support get a thumbs-up, too. States and districts would be required to put in place evaluation systems to gauge a teacher’s effectiveness and provide feedback for improvement. The administration’s blueprint calls for supporting the expansion of high performing public charter schools and for failing schools to be converted to them.
But business groups say that more could be done to improve student performance in science, technology, education and math, which they say is urgently needed if the country is to remain competitive in the 21st-century global economy. Of particular concern is a massive shortfall of qualified science and math teachers at the secondary level. Another area of contention is the loss of some supplemental education services, such as tutoring, which is available under the terms of the current law.
It’s mostly Democrats who’ll give the president grief in getting approval for his changes. Teachers unions -- and their Hill allies -- are up in arms over the drastic remedies proposed for underperforming schools.
Critics of Obama’s plan say teachers should be given more support in carrying out their duties. They also say that teacher evaluation systems shouldn’t be given so much weight in matters of hiring, firing, promotion and compensation.
Traiman says that the blueprint for reforming No Child Left Behind is encouraging. “We would look at it as an opening gambit,” she says. “It’s an excellent framework to get the conversation going.”
Topics:
- Comments
- RSS
Permission to post your comment is assumed when you submit it. The name you provide will be used to identify your post, and NOT your e-mail address. We reserve the right to excerpt or edit any posted comments for clarity, appropriateness, civility, and relevance to the topic.
View our full privacy policy
Reader Comments (3)
Posted by: Norm at 04/02/2010 10:15:12 PM
If states, school districts and businesses wish to see more talented STEM teachers, they need to make the curricula more appealing while being flexible with the teacher applicants. Many qualified teachers are screened out for scoring a few points too low on a Praxis test even though they are competent teachers who could offer a great deal to their students. Others applicants don't bother to apply to teach STEM courses either because every aspect of the course is pre-ordained with little wiggle room for teachers to explain topics in their own way. The courses are often technology based with little emphasis on the great masters like Newton, Faraday, Maxwell and others. This drives away the teachers who have spent years fine-tuning their understanding of the laws, theories or intuitions of the most talented researchers throughout history. Instead, they are forced to endure the arcane, overly simplistic rhetoric of contemporary corporate icons. In my opinion, STEM subjects need to be deeper and more rigorous without being top-heavy in technical or trendy, technological, fad science. If it has lasted longer than a hundred years or so, it is probably worth teaching as a core subject. If not, make it an elective. Regardless, leave teachers an option to stress the great thinkers before you decide their merit. Don't drag them down a few notches with contemporary minutae, holding them accountable by prevailing norms and practices.
Posted by: Nomen at 04/14/2010 06:54:56 PM
What a bunch of bull. It's no wonder things keep getting worse instead of better. In many school districts the kids are in one parent households and often raising themselves. The teachers are no longer able to enforce discipline because some parent or another is going to sue the school district. Kids are no longer flunked because that might affect their ego. Scholarships go mainly to the athletes who can barely read or write rather than to the best students. Disinterested parents, drugs, politically motivated administrators and politicians have created a very difficult learning environment. Almost all of these problems are outside the teachers control but look who's catching the blame. Now as to the business group PR campaign. THEY DON'T EVEN WANT TO HIRE OUR BEST STUDENTS because they want the cheaper H-1b or illegal workers. They seem to have no problem at all outsourcing jobs to third world countries where many of the workers are children who should be in school or adults that have only a few years of education(think World class quality). I remember when companies trained their skilled workers(apprentice programs) but now expect the government and the taxpayer to train them to work for near poverty wages. Our schools could certainly do better but nothing will improve if there isn't a realistic evaluation of where the true problems are.
Posted by: Henry at 05/15/2010 11:38:41 PM
"Obamas plan to turn around low performing schools involves firing all a schools teachers and allowing no more than half of them to be rehired by the school". Is he serious? If we were able to hold Congress as accountable, as they expect our schools to hold teachers accountable, then we too should be able to terminate all of Congress. Given this scenario (which is exactly what they want to do to the teachers), we would then only rehire 1/2 of Congress. Sounds too good to be true. Then next year when expectations aren't met again, we fire all of Congress again. This time we rehire only half of Congress again, but not the ones we let stay from the previous year. Now you have an entirely new Congress who will reconsider how we determine who stays and who goes based on performance. We've supported Congress for over 200 years, while they tried to straighten things out. Not to mention their salary and benefits they received while in office. Instead they continually worry about other countries, and supporting them. It's time for Congress to focus on supporting and investing in their own country, and the people in this country that elected them to office. It's time to get our priorities straight.