NEA President Dennis Van Roekel on Final Debate
Posted by NEA on October 16, 2008, 5:30 PM
Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday in the third and final presidential debate that a cornerstone of any long-term economic plan must be an investment in quality public schools. His comments—focusing on early childhood education, professional pay, and college affordability—made it strikingly clear that only his administration would prepare American students to compete in a global economy.
Obama's vision for the future of this country, and the future of the American economy, couldn't be more different than McCain's. While Obama calls for early childhood education, professional pay, college affordability, parental involvement and full funding for critical education programs, McCain calls for more of the same, including voucher schemes and rolling back teacher certification standards.
McCain's spending freeze would, as he said, be a "hatchet." But the Bush administration has been hacking away at public education spending for the last eight years, and America's public schools are struggling. In this economic crisis, we need a president who will invest in quality public schools, invest in our teachers, and invest in the future leaders of this country.
Paid for by the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education, www.neafund.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
7 Comments
Leave a comment
0 TrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://educationvotes.nea.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/144
Listed below are links to blogs that reference: NEA President Dennis Van Roekel on Final Debate.
Latest News
View AllTen Things You Should Know About Barack Obama
Meet the candidate who embodies the promise of America for so many....
How Obama Became NEA's Recommended Candidate
After reading through questionnaires and interviewing the presidential contenders more than a year ago, the...
Get Involved
Election Events
Click on link to see posts from each event.
All the money going towards education would sound great as an educator, but his record on education is not very strong. If you look back to the days that Barack Obama was in Chicago you would see he did very little for education. I am not convinced by his political rhetoric that he will do any more for education if he gets into office.
I bet the NEA doesn't say anything about Obama's support for Charter Schools. I recently received a mailer from the NEA,(my wife is a public school teacher), and there was a list of reasons why the NEA is endorsing Obama. One of the reasons:He does not support charter schools. That was obviously a type-o, right? Based on the last debate, I would say that he does in fact support them.
Andy, I can appreciate your skepticism. Neither candidate is the ideal I would like him to be. However, faced with the choice between McCain and Obama, it's clear to me that Obama is better for education. At least Obama is pledging to support investment in education and being forward-thinking in trying to make college more affordable and support early childhood education. These are wonderful goals that will benefit society down the road. I'm not hearing anything from McCain that sounds like a workable, forward-thinking solution to any of education's problems. I'm willing to give Obama the chance to put his money where his mouth is.
Hey NEA---Did you know Obama supports Charter Schools. Bet he didn't tell you that when he sought your endorcement. Just a long line of things we can not trust about him. Look at his history... He is a big talker...but does he do anything?
Teachers cant trust Obama!
Lot of misinformation about NEA's position on charter schools floating around out there it looks like. They support charter schools if they're held accountable. They came out and praised him when he said he wanted to increase funding for them a few weeks ago. Obama and the union aren't at odds on this people.
One problem I have is that it is not the federal government's job to make college more affordable. They already give federal loans at a discounted interest rate. That is one of many reasons I can't vote for Obama. He is making promises that we can't pay for. Personally, I don't believe that he will do anything to improve education. Like most politicians, he is just telling people what they want to hear.
I am feeling better after reading these comments. I was beginning to believe that I was an odd teacher out struggling to predict Obama's future behavior regarding educational policy based on his past performance.