Promises Made: Childhood education
WASHINGTON - Throughout the campaign, Barack Obama made many promises to the American people. Msnbc.com has chosen 14 of these to explain, explore, and track. See if the new president keeps his word, and vote on his progress during the first 100 days.
Obama’s words: “I think it's important to foster competition inside the public schools. And we also agree on the need for making sure that if we have bad teachers that they are swiftly — after given an opportunity to prove themselves, if they can't hack it, then we need to move on because our kids have to have their best future.”
The issue: A recent study by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center showed that the average public school graduation rate is 58 percent. The study also revealed that graduation rates are 15 percent lower in urban schools compared to suburban schools.
During the campaign, President Barack Obama embraced several education ideas considered generally more popular with Republican candidates including extra funding for charter schools, performance-based pay for teachers, and layoffs for educators with poor performance evaluations.
Obama’s words: “I think it's important to foster competition inside the public schools. And we also agree on the need for making sure that if we have bad teachers that they are swiftly — after given an opportunity to prove themselves, if they can't hack it, then we need to move on because our kids have to have their best future.”
The issue: A recent study by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center showed that the average public school graduation rate is 58 percent. The study also revealed that graduation rates are 15 percent lower in urban schools compared to suburban schools.
During the campaign, President Barack Obama embraced several education ideas considered generally more popular with Republican candidates including extra funding for charter schools, performance-based pay for teachers, and layoffs for educators with poor performance evaluations.
:.