Forum

Post edited 3:09 am – August 20, 2009 by ellen

Vice President Joe Biden spoke today at the Jackson Middle School, located at 6000 Stonewall Jackson Road in Orlando, about the states share of the education stimulus package which is being used to fund Florida  public schools and support teacher funding.  Along with the Education Secretary, Arnie Duncan, a former basketball player, who attended an ivy league school where he achieved honors, and who was asked by Mayor Dally, of Chicago, to run the whole school system of the 4th largest school system in the United States, the Vice President laid out a 4 point plan that will take the future of education, in not just  Florida, but throughout the country, to a higher standard of excellence and achievement.  The Recovery Act money, that portion of the stimulus package earmarked for education, enabled 26,000 jobs to be saved in the State of Florida.  Secretary Duncan remarked, however, that quite honestly this has not been enough.  In order to provide “a child with a world-class education, we must be willing to break the mold and make tough decisions, and be willing to push to places where we have not pushed before.”    We are kicking off a 4 billion Race to the Top Fund that will challenge the status quo in four fundamental ways: First by raising the bar so that students will be college ready, career ready, and will meet international benchmark standards. Second, comprehensive data systems are needed to track students throughout the educational trajectory, tracking students back to teachers, tracking teachers back to the schools of education, so we can understand which schools of education are producing the teachers that are producing the students that are going to learn the most and show the most gain. Third: Talent matters tremendously, great teachers, great principals make an extraordinary difference out of students' lives.  And fourth, Duncan feels that education is the civil rights issue of our generation; the dividing line in our country around education opportunity.  When children have a chance to go to great schools with great teachers they go on to great things.  We need to focus on the opportunity gap.  How to turn around schools that are struggling.  We need to build upon best practices.  “What we want to do with unprecidented discretionary dollars  through the stimulus package, through the Recovery Act, we want to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in states, in districts, in non-profits, that want to challenge the status quo in all four of those areas: great teachers, great data systems, high standards, and the turn around of failing schools.”  We have never had a President, Vice President, bi-partison Congress  so supportive of the changes we need to make.  Money is tight, ladies and gentlemen, there is 100 billion dollars in the money for education: 5 billion for early childhood, 70 billion for k-12, north of 30 billion for higher education.  We have never had those kinds of opportunities.  Over 100 billion dollars has to be disseminated over the next 7 months.  This is one seventh of the Recovery Act. 

     President Biden stated, “Make no mistake about where Barack and I are.  I know we get criticized for it.  It is not just about whether or not we are  going to restore the economy in terms of the GDP.  Growth in the GDP is necessary, but not sufficient to lead this country in the 21st century.”  In the end though,  it is the teachers who are going to get us out of the doldrums we found ourselves in; where our economic standards were slipping, where the middle class was slipping, where we found ourselves in the position that we are not as competitive around the world.  Where 15 countries maybe 16 are graduating more college graduates that we were, finding ourselves in the position we once had the highest percentage of college graduates.  It all comes back to you.  We're going to be asking more of you.  If you don't were in trouble.    If we don't put you in a position to be able to produce we literally not figuratively are in trouble.