The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, passed in February, allocated over $100 billion in federal funds toward reforming public education. In addition, since the United States has continued to perform poorly on international-comparison examinations in math and science, President Obama has announced the Educate to Innovate plan, a campaign to push science and math education. The campaign will focus on furthering science and math education outside the classroom and will seek funds from private companies and non-profit groups.
Although Obama is spending far more on education that his predecessor, President Bush, some are still criticizing the math and science program for not confronting problems with classroom teaching methods. Mark Schneider, a vice president at the American Institute for Research, a non-profit research organization based in Washington, D.C., stated, "I think a lot of this is good, but it is missing more than half of what needs to be done. It has nothing to do with the day-to-day teaching."
Indeed, there is much more work to be done. But let us not forget that Obama is spending a record amount of federal funds on education under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In an overview of the act issued by the White House, it was stated that $77 billion would go specifically toward "reforms to strengthen elementary and secondary education," as well as toward improving teacher effectiveness and accountability, supporting and improving low-performing schools and compiling data to better student education and teacher performance. All of these components of the plan are directly aimed at improving classroom education methods.
Furthermore, the Educate to Innovate campaign is bringing education from the classroom into everyday life. Private companies and public groups are creating programs to encourage children to continue their education outside of the classroom. According to the New York Times, "Discovery Communications has promised to use two hours of the afternoon schedule on its Science Channel cable network for commercial-free programming geared toward middle school students. In addition, according to the report, there will be "a two-year focus on science on Sesame Street." This campaign promotes the idea that education, specifically science and math education, is not and should not be restricted to school, but should be a part of children's daily life.
Obama is coupling the Educate to Innovate campaign with a government-funded program called "Race to the Top," which also targets math and science education. Race to the Top is essentially a competition between states for a slice of the $4.65 billion allocated to the program. States are to submit innovative education-reform ideas to the federal government, and the Department of Education will divide up the money between the states according to the quality of their plans. States that emphasize math and science education will receive extra points.
Obama has undeniably put a hefty emphasis on education, and he is pooling all of his resources to create complex, broad-sweeping education reform. Obviously, Obama cannot fix America's education system only with reform bills, but combining government funds with the support of the private sector is an effective start toward reshaping the United States' education system, leveling the playing field for America's underprivileged youth population and bringing the country to the level of its foreign competitors.
