[frankjr]

The article tries to say Obama has learned from Annenberg (good, because the school kids didn't). The article also says "In the two decades since Mr. Obama arrived in Chicago, its public schools have undergone a sweeping turnaround, from an education wasteland to a district that, while still facing major challenges, is among the most improved in the nation."

Obama had nothing to do with any improvement in the schools. In fact Mayor Daley was against the type of local control that was killing the schools: "The Challenge through a multi-million dollar Leadership Development Initiative intervened in the School Council elections in the middle of what was known as the Chicago School Wars. At the same time Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was pushing, successfully, to gut the power of the Councils." Source: http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/08/obama-ayers-top-ten-10-highlights-of-20.html

Annenberg was a total disaster with Obama at the helm. Obama would bring his Chicago failures to the Nation if elected.

[AmericaUnited]

Talk about spin... “I screwed it up so bad that I’m now the leading expert on how to do it right...”

[Blood of Tyrants]

The lesson he learned was that if you are a liberal, you can be a complete a utter failure and waste MILLIONS of dollars and not be held accountable.

[Mikey_1962]

Obama’s answer? More spending!

Tax Tax, Spend Spend, Elect Elect.

Democrats being Democrats.

[what's up]

Obviously, a Pres should be someone elected because he has SHOWN he can do something, not someone who has “learned” from mistakes so may do it better next time.

[popdonnelly]

In other news, there is no famine in the Ukraine and the North Vietnamese are just defending themselves.

[FreedomProtector]

"Supporters of Mr. McCain have been trying to taint Mr. Obama by highlighting his ties to William Ayers, a member of the violent Weather Underground in the 1960s, by pointing out that they worked on the Challenge project together. "

It isn't just Mr. Ayers----also Mike Klonsky and others...

Mike Klonsky, former Communist party chairman, Obama supporter and former best friend of the Weatherman terrorist group founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, received a $175,000 grant from the William Ayers/Barack Obama-led Annenberg Challenge to run the Small Schools Workshop.

Klonsky belonged to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and was best friends with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who later became famous for their acts of terrorism when the SDS broke up and the Weathermen terror group was formed.

Between 1979 and 1981, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CPML) [not Communist Party USA] chairman and Obama supporter Mike Klonsky was repeatedly feted with state-dinner-level visits to Beijing.

Klonsky was posting a blog on the Obama website:

Comrade Klonsky is no longer on Obama's site for obvious political reasons

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-throws-maoist-hardliner-and.html

[SeafoodGumbo]

What Has Been Found In Obama Ayers Annenberg Challenge Documents!

[frogjerk]

Obami got the right guy in Biden to help shore up the Education problem in this country:

In what the Washington Post is describing as a “stumble,” Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said in an interview with the paper Wednesday that Washington’s high minority population is one of the reasons for the city’s education problems.

Explaining why schools in Iowa are performing better than those in Washington, D.C., Biden told the Post, “There’s less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.”Oct 24, 2007

[TexasCajun]

Ahhhhhh.... I know what don't work!

[EagleUSA]

This is just a RADICAL SOCIALIST trying to heap on the RADICAL SOCIALISM. He would have your children wearing little grey tunigs and caps with red stars on them....if you let him get away with it.

Karl Marx without the beard....

[RC2]

“early childhood classes” No way. They want the kids in schools this early, at 3-4 years old because they know that at this age, their minds are wide open to learning. They can indoctinate them at this age to believe what they want them to believe. Let the children be children and grow up in the home and not in their schools.

[arkady_renko]

that spent $150 million on Chicago’s troubled schools and barely made a dent.

Where did the money go? They still want MORE money from us. I'm sorry, the Times can put lipstick on a pig, but... You get it. Saying the Chicago School system is improved BECAUSE of Obama and Ayers is rich. Last week we had a state Senator busing students out of the city to the the suburbs just to prove a point.

Then, we had the Chicago Superintendent of Schools blaming the problems in CPS on guns! Guns! This is the dysfunction that Obama will bring to Washington.

To cop a line from Dante, "Abandon hope all ye who enter here..."

[cookcounty]

FANTASTIC!! Annenberg is finally on the playing field. What an abysmal day for Obama! First the lipstick double-fumble, and now we're finally going to talk about his only executive experience, which was a complete diastser.

[CarryingOn]

American's that have children in government schools, that want them to succeed, understand that more money does not equal a better education. Politicians that make their millions off of the tax-payers use “education” to get their hands on money used to enrich themselves and their allies.

[norwaypinesavage]

I think I understand now. We should elect Obama not because he is a lefty elitist, we should elect him because he is a lefty elitist FAILURE.

[albie]

WOW! Only 18 billion!? That’s 1/200th of his proposed budget. Plenty left for other BS.

[Lurker]

Frankly I'm stunned the NYT would even mention Chicago Annenberg. It was by all accounts an umitigated disaster that wasted $150 MILLION dollars and accomplished absolutely nothing other than enriching a few Obama pals.

L

[cookcounty]

From the article:

"One of the biggest lessons Mr. Obama drew from his experiences in Chicago, associates said, is that student achievement is highly dependent on teacher quality."

It took Obama $150 million to figure out what the rest of the world already knew!

Last man in America to figure out that Jeremiah Wright was a hater.
Last man in America to figure out that the Surge is working.
Last man in America to figure out that educational success is highly dependent on teacher quality.

No wonder he chose Slow-Joe Biden.
.....he needed somebody he could keep up with.

[PhiKapMom]

Bravo Sierra about Chicago education. A very close person to me is an adjunct professor at one of the private colleges in Chicago while working on his PhD at another University. He teaches remedial English — three classes so I asked how many classes there were and he said 53 and they are adding a few more. Looks like teaching remedial English is big business in Chicago, home of ZERO!

This is an example of the Annenberg Education Plan by Obama and Ayers. The reason they graduate more from High School is that they are not allowed to fail them even when they don’t show up to class. The Junior Colleges don’t want anyone flunked either so they can keep getting student aid and why he wouldn’t teach at them. You were not allowed to flunk for any reason.

[Eva]

Performance pay? I’d like to hear exactly what king of performance pay the Alinsky organizer would propose. You and I both know that Obama would not propose merit pay for teachers. So, is he proposing to pay schools more money if the perform well? If that money would not go to the teachers, then where would it go?

I think that the writer of this article should have consulted Obama before he wrote the article.