President Barack Obama takes to the pages of the Washington Post today to defend his stimulus plan . I don't quarrel with his larger points???that the economy is tanking and now is the time for action???but I found his education passage extremely disappointing:
Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries, and labs; by training our teachers in math and science; and by bringing the dream of a college education within reach for millions of Americans.
We're going to give our children ???every advantage??? by upgrading their school facilities? I can't think of a single serious, credible study that says that an upgrade of school facilities will be the cure for what ails our schools. Now, if you want to launch public works programs to infuse the economy with cash, I'm fine with rebuilding schools instead of rebuilding roads. But let's get real about the likely impact on learning: nada.
And I'm totally perplexed by the line about ???training our teachers in math and science.??? That's a fine idea, but somehow, with $140 billion in new spending, I don't think it found its way into the bill! If someone knows what he might be referring to, please let me know.
Here's the President's dilemma on the education piece of this bill: most of this money is designed to keep school districts from making budget cuts. It won't actually spur much of anything ???new??????it will just keep teachers from losing their jobs. But it's not very fun to make the argument that we should spend $100 billion in order to pay for the same old lousy schools we've had for decades. Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps these few lines ARE the best that can be said about this portion of the stimulus. And how telling is that?
