In his weekly address on March 13, 2010, President Obama said he plans on overhauling the education system and the No Child Left Behind program. President Obama said he intends to send a new blueprint for national education to Congress this week that will “improve schools, support teachers and set standards that will give high school graduates ‘the best chance to succeed in a changing world.’”

President Obama said this redraft was necessary to combat the trend of lowering education standards in America. He pointed to the past few decades as an example of how American students are not as competitive as foreign students.

“Unless we step up, unless we take action, there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential,” President Obama said during his weekly address. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a certain level of disconnect with reality in the citizenry of the United States. We pat ourselves on the back, proudly boasting that we are “the best country in the world.” And while that may be true to some extent – people have amazing opportunities and freedoms here – an inability to see that it might be possible that we aren’t always the best in everything we do may be holding us back. Nowhere is that more true than the United States’ lagging educational system.

According to a 2006 investigation by the ABC program 20/20, a Gallup Poll survey showed that 76 percent of Americans were completely or somewhat satisfied with their kids’ public school.

Now, here comes the disconnect:

In 2002, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued a report on the state of education in 24 industrialized nations. The United States ranked 18th out of 24 nations. The report was based on results from three surveys that tested 14- and 15-year-old’s literacy and their abilities in essential mathematics and science.

“A child starting school in Canada, Finland, or South Korea has both a higher probability of reaching a given level of educational achievement and a lower probability of falling well below the average,” UNICEF said in a written statement.

Let that sink in for a moment. We’re in the bottom 25th percentile for education. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes it is hard to break out of a cycle, especially when the cycle is one your family or you have been living for years. But a non-profit organization called the Harlem Children’s Zone does just that for children and families who live in one of the most impoverished cities in the country.

The Harlem Children’s Zone’s mission is breaking the cycle of generational poverty for the thousands of children and families it serves by focusing on urban education. The organization was established in the 1970s and has helped tens of thousands of people since it was founded. Read the rest of this entry »

Science and math are two academic fields where the U.S.  faces tough challenges from other countries. Now, President Barack Obama, as part of his efforts to improve education in America, is striving to make these fields more appealing to students.

A new campaign called Educate to Innovate was announced in late November to promote science, technology, math, and engineering. The campaign will ask companies and nonprofit groups to donate time and money to encourage students to study in these fields.

Read the rest of this entry »

President Obama’s health care program may not be popular among certain Americans, but his desire to eliminate summer vacation will render him an easy target among all American school children.

Earlier this year we reported that President Obama proposed longer school days, and recent buzz indicates he’s still at it. The President wants American children to be better prepared to compete with children worldwide who spend on average 30 percent more time in school than American kids. Along with his Education Secretary Arne Duncan, President Obama believes that the current American academic calendar year is antiquated and was created when the country was primarily an agrarian culture; but since very few families toil in the fields all day, the Obama Administration is on a quest to develop the minds of American children by extending their time in school in order to keep them on par with the minds of millions of children around the globe. Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday, September 8, President Obama will address the nation’s school children. Obama is a consummate proponent of education, proving himself the benefits that a dedicated education can offer. During his candidacy and continued as president, Obama has urged students, parents and educators alike to make their education a priority, as it’s a person’s only true opportunity for advancement and keeps the next generation of Americans competitive in a growing world economy.

While there appears to be nothing wrong with these motives – encourage students to think, try hard, and study – some parents are outraged at Obama and his speech. During a segment on Friday’s Anderson Cooper 360, some parents being interviewed were moved to crying as they talked how this speech invades their rights as parents and that it is nothing more than the President pushing his agenda on children. The speech is being shown by schools nationwide on Tuesday, and many parents across the country have every intention to keep their children home.

The speech, in its entirety, was made available today at WhiteHouse.gov, as a preemptive measure to ease worried parents’ minds and let the public see exactly what it is he is discussing.

Early in the speech he reminds students that he has urged educators, parents, and the government to take responsibility for ensuring our nation’s youth has the best educational opportunities and tools available to them. Then he explains the purpose of this speech.

“But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.”

We want to hear from you? Why is this speech striking such a negative chord? Why shouldn’t students hear from the country’s president and hear his encouragement? And what lesson are parents teaching their children, or should they be teaching them, if they decide to keep them home from school? Please leave your comment below, and continue reading to see Obama’s speech in its entirety.

Read the rest of this entry »

By now it’s completely clear that President Obama makes education a high priority. Right along with jobs. So it should come as no surprise that Obama has proposed a plan that could benefit both of those efforts. His proposal is for the feds to spend $12 billion during the next 10 years in community colleges, focusing on:

• Modernizing community college facilities
• Increasing quality online courses, including making those free to the public
• Improving program completion rate

Colleges most interested in “trying something new,” according to James Kvaal, the president’s special assistant for economic policy, will get the bulk of the money. About $9 billion has been marked for “encouraging two-year colleges to experiment with strategies to create and improve programs that prepare students for good jobs,” according to an article at USA Today. Read the rest of this entry »

I had to fill out the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, when I was a high school senior. It had 153 questions and took me several hours to complete. Many of my friends did not even bother filling it out just because it was too complex. It was a nightmare!

President Obama must also see the FAFSA as a monstrosity. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are recreating the form to make it more “user-friendly.” By doing so, they hope to make it easier for more students to apply for and receive financial aid, therefore enabling more students to attend college. Duncan said the goal is to increase college enrollment levels among lower income students. Read the rest of this entry »

In stadiums and auditoriums across the country, graduates are joining for the pomp and circumstance that grants them their hard-earned degrees.

President Obama at the Naval Academy commencement. via Chicago Tribune

Much like the hours spent in lecture halls, graduates must wait through just a couple more speeches before their caps are tossed to the air and their diplomas rightly earned. Every graduation has a guest speaker, some more memorable than others. For the class of 2009 at many notable colleges and universities, these famous commencement speakers are certain to be a memorable closing to their college careers.

President Barack Obama
The President spoke at Notre Dame, U.S. Naval Academy, and Arizona State University, where he implored the graduates to see our troubled economy as an opportunity, not a hurdle. “I know starting your career in troubled times is a challenge. But it is also a privilege. Because it is moments like these that force us to try harder, dig deeper, to discover gifts we never knew we had – to find the greatness that lies within each of us.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The average student graduates college with over $4,000 in credit card debt.

It is so incredibly easy to apply for a credit card. Companies set up booths during move-in-days at college dorms, send out applications in the mail, and bombard email inboxes with credit card offers. Many credit card companies offer incentives, like a free T-shirt or a free pizza, to those who apply and are approved for a card. This all sounds like a good deal for students; sign up for a Visa and dinner is free! However, a few months later, you open your credit statement and find you owe way more than you are able to pay back. Then, your interest rate goes up and your credit score goes down.

Why is your credit score important? If you have a low credit score, you might not be able to buy a car, rent an apartment, or even get a job. Read the rest of this entry »