Inauguration and education
So here I was fixing up a nice blog post about President Obama’s inauguration speech and education when I see a much more entertaining post on that subject has already been written.
Associated Press
Me? I perk up when I hear the president talk about education. After all it seems education is so infrequently the topic of the national dialogue. It’s all jobs, deficit, debt ceiling these days. I understand these are important issues and I’m not minimizing them. I’m just pointing out when national folks talk education it’s a good thing. It was so disheartening to see education play such a small role during the presidential campaign.
Anyway, as the president was talking about the need for science and math teachers apparently not everyone was a riveted as yours truly.
It was the mention of science and math teachers that caught my attention.
“No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores.”
The President also of course touched on school safety.
“Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.”
Both issues have had no shortage of attention here in the Roanoke area. School security has been discussed at length in recent weeks.
You’ll also recall Gov. Bob McDonnell has talked about the importance of STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) teachers and has plans to offer incentives to attract those educators to Virginia’s middle and high schools. There’s also a new STEM academy in Roanoke County, which is one of 15 across the state, and talks of one in Botetourt County.
So, what did you think of the speech?
January 23, 2013 - 6:30 AM
Well Annie, I just looked back to your first post and if I counted correctly there have only been 8 posts total over all subjects. That sort of suggests that Roanokers don’t really get very excited about education. Keep pounding away. It won’t come easy but without people willing to make the effort nothing good will happen. As far as the prez’s comments I HOPE you are aware that politicials have a way of making all these profound statements which have completely no value. He has to say something. What you need to do is look back at what he has DONE. Fours years in office, what gains have been made?
Annie: Maybe one reason you don’t see more comments is that you do not appear on the regular “blog” page. I had to stumble around and finally located your “blog”
Now, since you, nor anyone else, has commented on BO’s educational achievements I did a little research and found this. Guess he has not done much in this area. But he had not done much in any area except spend lots of money the govt does not have and blame Republicans for every problem.
1.BROAD POLICY:
2.Enacted largest reform of student aid in 40 years. ref, ref
3.Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010. ref
4.Established President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial education for all Americans. ref, ref, ref
5.FUNDING:
6.Increased funding for land-grant college. ref
7.Provided means for students struggling to make college loan payments to refinance. ref
8.TARGETED ACTIONS:9.Expanded Pell grants for low-income students. ref
10.Expanded Pell grant pool by eliminating private lender subsidies for student loans. ref
11.Section curators: ^ejoyce ^Kroth
You can find the “achievements” here:
http://obamaachievements.org/list