Obama K-12 Education Act Analysis

Not only do students lose opportunity in learning from these areas, but the law is also underfunded which the defeats the purpose as well as contradicting itself in the sense that students won’t be achieving the goals set by this law. By 2011, more than 50% of schools were labeled “failing”, and lawmakers saw the need for a change, but weren’t able to produce a bill. That year, the Obama administration offered states a reprieve from many of the law’s mandates through a series of

Education in America is one of the most important issues that face our nation. If the education in America is not thought of one of most serious issues we face, our nation as a whole will fall. There are many debates and they seemly extend to all walks of life. The debates range from the decline in education, school vouchers, and the no child left behind law. As a nation, the United States is ranked above others. We must search for that solution to all of the pro’s and con’s in education. The solution should allow all walks of life to excel in the education realm. After all, the children of today will be the leaders of tomorrow.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), brain child of President Johnson, was passed in 1965. ESEA was intended to mitigate disparities in access to quality academic services and learning outcomes endured by underprivileged and minority students by federally funding schools serving their communities. ESEA, later revised as No Child Left Behind, was to be one element in a larger reform agenda focused on urban redevelopment, vocational training and “EDUCATION AND HEALTH” (Thomas & Brady, 2005). In his 1965 State of the Union, Johnson proclaimed, “No longer will we tolerate widespread involuntary idleness, unnecessary human hardship and misery, the impoverishment of whole areas… ” Nevertheless, this intractable problem remains, as illustrated by recent National Assessment of Educational Progress findings:

The education system is deeply flawed. It does not fight social injustice, but rather exacerbates the issue. The majority of people in the U.S are blind to the fact that there are still inequities within the education system, much less everyday life. A system based on standardized test scores inadvertently oppresses poor people. The Governments ' decision to judge a schools ' success by its test scores evidently created a faucet of running water for systematic oppression. The flowing water of oppression floods poor schools; drowning students with dreams, and giving no mercy. The only ones safe from the water are the privileged, who are oblivious to the fact that it exists.

During his presidential campaign, President Obama critiqued the accountability system based on testing which created hope about the possibility to modify the NCLB legislation (Ovando & Combs, 2012). Conversely, President Obama reinforced NCLB by making teacher qualifications more rigorous and promoting the adoption of national academic standards (Dillon, 2009). In order to help the country to overcome the economic crisis, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 (Baker, 2011; Ovando & Combs, 2012). President Obama’s idea was that by improving education the American economy could be rebuilt (Baker, 2011). Obama’s administration also instituted, as

When President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law in 2002, the legislation had one goal-- to improve educational equity for all students in the United States by implementing standards for student achievement and school district and teacher performance. Before the No Child Left Behind Act, the program of study for most schools was developed and implemented by individual states and local communities’ school boards. Proponents of the NCLB believed that lax oversight and lack of measurable standards by state and local communities was leading to the failure of the education system and required federal government intervention to correct. At the time, the Act seemed to be what the American educational system

The most interesting parts of Obama’s speech, to me, were the clarifications on his educational policies. His plans for higher education, such as halting student loan payments after 20 years or 10 years for public servants, seemed pretty cool to me. I’m not sure if taking government money to be used for student loans and giving it to parents while simultaneously stopping loan payments after 20 years is such a good idea. Pissing off the entire banking system might not be such a good idea in the long run. Grunts will be fired before CEOs cut their own bonuses, and I really don’t feel like that is particularly conducive to a good financial system.

During President Bush’s term, government became aware that American schooling needed major improvement. There was a need of a law which would improve the system while using scores to evaluate students as well as their teachers. "The fundamental principle of this bill is that every child can learn, we expect every child to learn, and you must show us whether or not every child is learning," (Secretary, 2002) President George W. Bush said on Jan. 8, 2002, signing ceremony of No Child Left Behind Act. However, this one size fits all approach revealed not be resourceful. "The goals of No Child Left Behind, the predecessor of this law, were the right ones: High standards. Accountability. Closing the achievement gap, but in practice, it often fell short. It didn 't always consider the specific needs of each community. It led to too much testing during classroom time. It often forced schools and school districts into

On February 9, 2012, Minnesota Public Radio reporter Kimberly Hefling, with assistance from Ben Feller and Ken Miller of the Associated Press published an article entitled “Minnesota among 10 States to Get No Child Waiver”. This piece dealt with the fact that President Obama was using executive action to free ten states from the strict requirements of No Child Left Behind. Hefling and her associate report that the move is a subtle jab that Bush’s goal, while noble in its intent, was horrendous and poorly thought out in its execution. The governor of Minnesota, Democrat Mark Dayton, supported the president’s action along with Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius – stating that the action would help the families of the state have better schools and more fair accountability. The article also details that a vast majority of the states have signed up for the waivers offered by Obama and his allies, a signal that the amount of pressure put on the states was too much for them to bear. The piece states, as usual, that Congress was locked in partisan bickering, which was a key factor in making Obama take the action that he did. The piece concludes with a few lines from the Republican opposition, which thought that the president was imposing his will on other people which, as we all know, the Republican Party would never do. Education is the foundation of our society and we should do everything within our power to nurture it and make sure that it is there to benefit all those who

2001- The president George W. Bush signed “No Child Left Behind” into law. The law increased federal funding for education and ushered in standards-based reform.

George W. Bush signed the no child left behind act , which includes a variety of specific

Every Student Succeeds Act was a new law that was signed into legislation in 2015 by President Barak Obama. ESSA is a biparty educational reform law was designed from several aspects of No Child Left Behind. The United States Department of Education (2015) stated that ESSA focuses on factors such as, advancing equity for the nations disadvantaged students by investing more in preschool programs, local innovations, reporting student progress on all high stakes assessments to all stakeholders and promoting of college and career readiness by increasing rigor and reporting student progress on all high stakes test and assessments to all stakeholders. Furthermore, it replaced NCLB that was signed into law under

The role of the federal government in setting education policy increased significantly with the passage by Congress of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a sweeping education reform law that revised the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. "Federal policy has played a major role in supporting standards-based reform since the passage of the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) of 1994. That law required states to establish challenging content and performance standards, implement assessments…hold school systems accountable…" (Goertz, 2005, pg. 73)

President Obama’s next issue in the State of the Union Address was the need for education reform. President Obama talked about the need to improve the quality of education. Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country introduced a plan last year called Race to the Top; to summarize it states “If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we'll show you the money.” The President supported Race to the Top by giving an example of a high school in Colorado rated to be one of the worst in the state; after the first year the school went through rectification ninety-seven percent of the seniors graduated.

President Obama makes the argument that education will lead students to a brighter future and a successful career. Students should strive for a successful future because with that they learn responsibility, whether they pay attention in school or obtain a suitable job that will give them benefits because of their high education. Barack Obama states, “But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world- and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed” (Obama 2). Thus demonstrating that President Obama himself believes that by having responsibilities as such listed,