Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Barack Obama on Education

http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Education.htm

With the democratic primary coming to down to the wire, many people want to know how each candidate feels on topics such as education. In an interview with Obama, he was asked many questions pertaining to education and his views on it. Barack was asked about the pay of teachers as well as free college tuition for students who attend a public university and maintain a B average. One question was how he felt about performance based pay for teachers. His response was that teachers who help out throughout the school by helping the younger teachers, participating in activities, and really adding value to the school that they should be paid more. Personally, I sort of agree with him on this issue. I think that the U.S. should find a way to offer teachers more money for the more experience they have teaching. The only problem is there will always be the teachers that have worked at a school for many years but according to the students, they are not a very good teacher. I think that we should be able to determine who gets paid more by doing exactly what Obama suggests.

Another question that Obama was asked was if a public university should provide free tuition for a student who maintains a B average throughout college. Obama said that as long as the student maintains that B average, they should be awarded free tuition. Personally, I like the idea of rewarding a student for doing well in school, but I think this is a very farfetched idea. I don’t think it is possible to give every student who free tuition just for maintaining a B average. I see what Obama is thinking and why he would think this way, but I think that this just would not ever be able to happen. The only way to do something of this sort would be to provide some financial aid for students who maintain a B average.

One final question he was asked was about hiring a million teachers over the next decade. Obama said that we are going to need to put teachers in the places they are needed most. Also, the U.S. is going to lose many teachers over the next decade because the baby-booming generation is retiring. I think that we as a country should put teachers where they are needed, but the only problem is that with the low pay for teachers, not many people want to become teachers. If there was a way to increase teachers pay, I think it would increase the amount of people that want to be a teacher.

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