Obama seeks money, interventions to stem dropouts

Associated Press ^ | March 1, 2010 | Darlene Superville

[reaganaut1]

President Barack Obama took aim Monday at the nation's school dropout epidemic, proposing $900 million to states and education districts that agree to drastically change or even shutter their worst performing schools.

Obama's move comes as many schools continue to struggle to get children to graduation, a profound problem in a rich, powerful nation. Only about 70 percent of entering high school freshmen go on to graduate. The problem affects blacks and Latinos at particularly high rates.

Obama described the crisis as one that hurts individual kids and the nation as a whole, shattering dreams and undermining an already hurting economy.

"There's got to be a sense of accountability," Obama said in announcing his latest get-tough school proposal at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The president's plan would seek to help 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools over the next five years.

"In this kind of knowledge economy, giving up on your education and dropping out of school means not only giving up on your future, but it's also giving up on your family's future," Obama said. "It's giving up on your country."

Obama has been pushing schools — using federal money as his leverage — to raise their standards and prod them to get more children ready for college or work. It is a task that former President George W. Bush and Congress, along with many leaders before them, have long taken on, but the challenge is steep.

Obama's 2011 budget proposal includes $900 million for School Turnaround Grants. That money is in addition to $3.5 billion to help low-performing schools that was in last year's economic stimulus bill.

To get a share of the new money, states and school districts must adopt one of four approaches to fix their struggling schools:

[reaganaut1]

In some neighborhoods, mandating that every youth graduate from high school means that nobobdy gets an education (even if they get diplomas), because the youths who don't want to be there will ruin the learning environment for others. Educational triage -- the recognition that not everyone is smart/motivated enough to get a real high school education -- is too ugly and realistic an idea for our deep-thinking leader /s.

Obama is continuing GW Bush's mistaken NCLB policies.

[TSgt]

Simple fix.

No High School Diploma or GED no welfare.

[STONEWALLS]

“The problem affects blacks and Latinos at particularly high rates.”

...not all cultures share a reverence for education...that’s just the way they are.

[ClearCase_guy]

Cut off the funding.
Close the government schools.

Tell people to make education a family responsibility.

We'll have smarter, better behaved kids.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Obama seeks money, interventions to stem dropouts

There's a new way to stop dropouts. It's called parenting.

[sfimom]

Get the government out of our schools AND our families. Give parents back their right to actually parent.

[laweeks]

“No High School Diploma or GED no welfare.”

Hey, I like that. Actually, I love what the school did in Rhode Island. That was cool!

[Obadiah]

Obama seeks money...

Yeah, so what's new?

[Oldpuppymax]

Oh please. It’s simply another billion dollar slush fund for the NEA and ardent leftist followers.

[Brugmansian]

Another jobs program for adults. Never in history have so many adults feed off children.

[mrsmel]

Yep, throwing more money at the unmotivated has been working so well. Here we go with the bribes for votes in the upcoming elections.

[Huskrrrr]

to drastically change or even shutter their worst performing schools.....

In Republican districts

[Mr. K]

Hand out summoh’ o’ dat “Obama Money”!

[ComputerGuy]

$900 million
Mo money, mo money, mo money.

[Tax-chick]

Because we’ve never tried money or interventions to improve the education of youth before now ...

Goodness gracious, 0bama is such a brilliantly original, out-of-the-box thinker. I’m in awe!

[FrankR]

I agree, but would extend that to no C-average or better, no welfare. You get those "mamas" worried about losing their money, they will get on some butts to study and graduate.

Actually, the GED is a farce. The test is very easy, and it supplants four years of high school? WTF.

I remember in high school, the ones who quit, and later regretted it had to spend months in night school to get a diploma. The course was intense, and was not a substitute, it was just accelerated, but the graduates got real diplomas...not GED's.

These were typically folks who had quit and tried working for a while, had been in the military, or married, and saw that they needed to finish their education.

The classes were held at night, at the high school, and taught by various high school teachers.

Because these were more mature people, they would cram say 4 years of high school into one year of night classes, but they typically had to pass the same tests as the regular high school graduates.

I went to one of their graduations, and I have never seen a group more proud of their accomplishments...and they deserved it for the worked hard.

The GED is a study booklet and a small, multiple choice test...whoopee. It's really an insult to those students who perservered and stayed in school to get their real diplomas.

And, it's a big incentive for slackers to quit school, taking the easy way out.

So, obama, if you want to cure the problem of drop outs, make welfare dependent on grades/graduation, and do away with the GED program, reinstitute night school...hey, it'll create JOBS.

But, saying "jobs" to obama is like waying "work" to Maynard G. Krebbs.

[jessduntno]

“There’s got to be a sense of accountability,” Obama said in announcing his latest get-tough school proposal at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.’

Irony, thy name is Obama...

[kabar]

The problem is that by 2023 half of the children 18 and under in this country will be minorities, as defined by the USG. Our future is at stake if we can’t improve education and graduation rates.

[Carley]

We see how well Obamao administered those Annenberg Challenge hundreds of millions.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Privatize the whole public system. To prove that privatization is cheaper and superior begin with the worst inner city districts like New Orleans and the South Bronx.