Obama has good ideas for reform

President Barack Obama obviously isn't out to win any popularity awards -- from either political party.

In his first address on his plans for education reform, Obama proposed something for everyone to hate. Teacher unions, which are usually in the Democratic camp, traditionally resist merit-pay plans and are often less than enthusiastic about charter schools. He favors rewarding excellent teaching with larger paychecks and supporting charter schools that "work."

Republicans often underfund or vote down early-childhood education, including government-funded preschool and all-day kindergarten. Obama says those programs have proven to help low-income children, immigrants and children who don't get academic assistance at home. He wants to increase funding.

Somewhat out of character, Utah's predominantly Republican Legislature considered slapping a moratorium on building new charter schools, and at least considered increasing teacher merit pay before reducing it because of a budget shortfall.

Obama's economic stimulus plan has earmarked billions for schools that adopt plans to boost teacher quality, hike test scores and come up with innovative ideas to help young children. He wants to expand Head Start and programs for young children with special needs. The stimulus fund offers Early Learning Challenge Grants for schools that identify new ways to improve early-childhood education.

We agree that merit pay for teachers can encourage
Advertisement
excellence, but only if it is reserved for truly exceptional teachers and not simply divided up among all teachers who promise to do better or who already meet standards that are set too low.

Past attempts in Utah to reward only the best teachers have been watered down by districts and schools because nobody wants to single out certain teachers at the expense of others. Teacher unions and associations say there is no fair way to determine who deserves extra pay, and schools end up dividing merit money nearly equally among faculty members.

That's not the way it should work.

Charter schools can help innovation flourish when the bureaucracy of the regular public school system might squelch it. But we also agree with Obama's qualifer. Only charters that work as well or better than traditional schools should get added funding. Obama's education plan looks good, and we urge Congress to support it.

Source