America needs to get back to basics, like education

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.

--JFK

New Jersey passes the toughest anti-bullying law in the country

Good for New Jersey. Similar laws will be enacted soon throughout the U.S. Rightfully, mothers are up in arms about their kids being bullied for all sorts of reasons.

The documentary "Waiting for 'Superman'" shows the urgent need for significant education reform. This is a must-see movie for all citizens

On Monday night, I went to an early screening of the controversial and much-anticipated documentary, "Waiting for 'Superman'", at an event graciously sponsored by the Bay Area United Way. This movie is a must see, and will outrage most thinking citizens, including progressives like me who have tended to cast a blind eye at the influence of teachers' unions on our education system and the policies of the Democratic party. As a son of two former teachers, I feel we must reform our education system NOW or seriously risk losing to China, India, Europe and the rest of the world in the global economy.

Fortunately, the President has bravely led the way on education reform (and taken on the teachers' unions with his visionary "Race to the Top" program, which is part of the stimulus plan. In addition to providing much needed money to innovate in education, the program encourages states to eliminate tenure for K-12 teachers. Tenure guarantees teachers a job for life, no matter how they perform. While most teachers try to do the right thing for their students, the bottom 20% of teachers are seriously bringing down the quality of our education, encouraging high drop-out rates, and producing no or low skilled workers. Time for a big change!

Go and see this heart-breaking movie for yourself. And then get involved in the reform movement!

Melody Barnes, Obama's domestic policy advocate on education reform. The President shows courage in taking on the teachers' unions, but not on DADT

Watch Melody talk about Obama's education reforms, which offends the Democratic Party's biggest financial contributors, teachers' union. That takes guts. (You don't see the GOP voting to rein in Wall Street, the greedy and reckless bankers who the U.S. government had to bail out to avoid another great depression.)

I am encouraged by the President's "Race to the Top" program and the favorable advance reaction to the documentary, "Waiting for 'Superman'". Too bad Obama doesn't show more leadership on marriage equality and DADT. But I will keep pushing him on these issues.

What every child needs for learning: love and stability

I agree with a reader at Andrew Sullivan's blog, who writes:

I'm a foster parent, in a school district that still engages in integration motivated busing. Our black foster child was behind grade level when she came to us last summer, even though she was coming from a suburban school with very high test scores. We live in the significantly more affluent (predominantly white) neighborhood of the two this school serves. The other neighborhood is low income and a mix of Latino and black families. The test scores from our neighborhood match the high scores of our school district, while the test scores from the other neighborhood fall well below acceptable levels.

To give her an opportunity to catch up, our daughter was placed in a class with one of the top teachers in the school and in a reduced sized classroom (16 kids). This classroom was divided between kids who were performing well (majority white) and kids who needed work (mostly students of color). Over the course of the year, our daughter made significant strides in her test scores, reading ability, and math skills. I do not believe the other struggling children who entered her class saw the same level of success.

It was clear to me that as beneficial as the smaller class size and skill of her teacher were, they would have all been wasted had our foster daughter not been getting four simple things from us:

1. A regular bed time
2. Regular meals
3. Set time to do homework every night
4. Parental involvement and expectation

I'm a huge liberal, who believes in proper school funding and smaller class sizes. However, I'm tired of the belief that schools are failing simply because of underfunding.

This documentary is going to be the talk of this fall: from the makers of "An Incovenient Truth," it shows the failings of the U.S. education system

Obama pushes America to become #1 again in % of college grads. More recovering from the Bush years