Barack Obama believes that top-down government regulation is strangling innovation inside schools. For him, Washington’s role should focus on setting good learning standards, tracking student progress and helping states recruit a stronger teaching force. Obama wisely proposes attacking structural constraints that keep highly qualified college graduates from pursuing careers as teachers and spurring a mixed market of diverse schools. Obama emphasizes the phrase “responsible charter schools” to underscore the fact that unregulated, fly-by-night charter schools in states like Arizona have failed and closed, leaving children and parents in the lurch. Obama has amplified his pitch to expand preschools that include working with parents to improve early literacy practices. He said that he would rely heavily on churches and other community groups to run new preschools in order to avoid sluggish school bureaucracies. — Bruce Fuller, University of California at Berkeley professor
Barack Obama’s proposals fall short of John McCain’s call for systemic change in the form of school-choice vouchers and greater competition between the public and private sectors for the delivery of education services. Take Obama’s proposal to better use technology in the classroom. Most people would probably say that technology in the classroom improves student learning and achievement. But the evidence is far from clear. Even Obama’s call for added charter-school funding is problematic. Charter schools are supposed to be local efforts free from bureaucratic red tape. More federal money and the ambiguous “accountability” strings that Obama has mentioned in his speeches could undercut charters’ raison d’etre. — Lance T. Izumi, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy
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