Obama's approach and other items of business

This week, I found a few articles that interested me. One article in particular was called "Obama says he worries about enthusiasm to learn." On his 100th day in office, Obama made a town-hall appearance in Missouri. There, he was asked about the challenges in education and how he'd make things better. He spoke again about having quality teachers in the classroom, a solution that I have already agreed with in the past. He also spoke about how he is worried that the country may be giving up on the idea that it's "cool to be smart." Obama shared his thoughts that its up to the parents and the community to help foster the idea that being smart is cool by giving as much attention to the science award winners, as they do to the star basketball players. I think that throughout his first 100 days, Obama has made many important strides in displaying the importance of education to this country. I think it is wonderful that such a figurehead is willing to tell parents to be active in their children's lives, even when he has such other important things to worry about.

The second article I found that interested me was entitled "High court looks at who pays for special education." This article discussed the fact that the Supreme Court is again trying to decide when taxpayers must foot the bill for private schooling for special education students. There is a case in Oregon where this became an issue:

In the Oregon case, the family of a teenage boy diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder sued the school district, saying the school did not properly address the student's learning problems. The family is seeking reimbursement for the student's tuition, which cost $5,200-a-month. The family paid a total of $65,000 in private tuition.

I personally believe that students should try public education before sending their child straight to private institutions. However, I also believe that taxpayers are paying their good money to the government in order to supply adequate educations for all students, including those with special needs. Therefore, public schools should be held accountable for all of the services that they are supposed to be giving every child.

The third and last article of the week is one entitled "Stimulus Money May Fund Summer School, Teacher Pay." This article discussed how, my favorite man, Arne Duncan, is giving schools systems suggestions on how to spend the money that they receive from the Stimulus Package. The nation's schools will be receiving nearly $100 billion, which is double the amount of money spent on education under George W. Bush.

"You can identify your best teachers and pay them to coach their colleagues who are having trouble," Duncan said in prepared remarks. "You may have to scale this down after two years, but it can really help your younger teachers get up to speed."

His ideas included not only the mentoring program, but also recommended: adding afternoons, weekends, and summer days to the school calendar. He also mentioned many ideas that have been proven to actually help children learn. These included: sophisticated evaluation systems for teachers and principals, extra pay to reward excellence in teaching or to lure teachers and administrators into struggling schools, new charter schools, closing failing schools and reopening them with new staff, more technology for classrooms along with training for teachers, and modernized science labs and other facilities. All of these ideas are ones that I also greatly believe in. I am more and more impressed with Obama's education administration the more that I hear about their ideas and I look forward to seeing what they are capable of accomplishing over the next four years.