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The sport of lobbying for changes within our government may be older than Plato in ancient Greece.
However, clever ways to reach your legislators are anything but static. At Pelopidas, we recognize that your passion, your policies, and your politics must be put into motion in order to realize your vision.
That’s precisely why we maintain a whole team of advocates trained in the finer details of getting ideas done – in your city, in your state, and in Washington, DC.
Promoting change while defending freedom is never easy, simple, or friendly to challenge by yourself.
With Pelopidas, we can achieve the change you want to see in the world together.
Our twitter team (www.twitter.com/pelopidas) is standing by 24-7.
It has been no secret that I have lobbied to make online public schools as useful, effective, and transparent as any other classroom in Missouri. It likewise may come as no surprise that I am an avid user of twitter to provide government transparency (having completed my 3,000 tweet recently).
As technology expands into communication and business, it is encouraging to see that some public school teachers are looking at ways to integrate it into classroom experiences in a positive way. It seems inevitable that digital natives would expect and thrive off curriculum approaches fluent in their digital devices and media.
EdWeek Magazine examines several classrooms that are using Twitter in particular to supplement their curricula.
American History teacher Lucas Ames has his students tweeting articles about Constitutional issues, old and new. @coolcatteacher shares resources between colleagues to get and give feedback about technology in the classroom. Yet another teacher in Houston is hoping Twitter will help her bilingual class to learn about other cultures and customs by partnering with other classrooms around the country.
Some critics wonder if it’s really appropriate to use social networking in the classroom. And it’s not just the stigma that video games and social networks are toys and typically distract from learning, but also because there is little to no data about these tools helping or hurting achievement. Daniel Willingham, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia-Charlottesville notes the lack of research, but goes on to say:
“Like any other tool, the way we make it useful is to consider very carefully what this particular tool is very good at, rather than simply say, ‘I like Twitter, so how can I use it?’ ”
So what is useful about Twitter in this context?
It can improve the speed by which we get information. Homework help, project collaboration are possible ways for students to integrate technology into time-management.
Downside: easing a manner to cheat, or providing shortcuts to research
It can present information in a more useful or appropriate format.
Peer reviews or ongoing class discussions where students can integrate, say, news stories into their feed to support their point could be useful in teaching analysis, debate, and how to use resources.
Downside: disadvantage for kids who may not have Internet access at home.
It can connect you with experts. You can follow @NASA, search for Ayn Rand, follow elected officials, journalists and researchers.
Downside: It can also connect you with spammers and people with bad information.
Crowd-sourcing the best ideas. For teachers, Twitter is beginning to be a way to share ideas, lesson plans and class notes. For students, it could be asking a question or asking for opinions and learning how sharing ideas produces better results and sparks creativity.
Twitter is merely one example among thousands that have the potential to enhance a lesson, show the possible practical uses of a “social” network, and get students used to integrating technology into their work. One objective of administrators and teachers could be to create methods to learn about technology and reap the benefits while avoiding some of the pitfalls.
One leader in the national conversation about technology in education will be Karen Cator, a former executive at Apple, as she joins the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology.
“We need to craft an entirely new research agenda around this issue so people can’t write that technology doesn’t work,” said Cator to Edweek. “We know it works…but we need to get good at saying and articulating what exactly technology can do.”
If Americans seek to improve the competitiveness of our next generation, then it is vital to embrace this challenge to define better experiences.
Otherwise, I am sure that tweet feeds like this one will regulate our future.
Photo by Kevin Zollman under a Creative Commons license.
Charter school proponents have had faith that their model of increased flexibility and autonomy can offer solutions for kids in underserved communities. They’ve been able to see anecdotal improvements, but studies published this month offer proof of the incredible potential of Charter schools to improve student achievement.
New York was the subject of a study by Stanford professor Caroline Hoxby. By comparing the progress of students who were accepted to a Charter school by random lottery and those who were not accepted and remained in public schools, Hoxby was able to create a reliable comparison between similar students.
The results showed children who attended Charter schools performed better in math and English. The key component of Hoxby’s study is that the school is the only difference between the two groups she studied. Parents were equally motivated, the children were equally qualified, and the lottery was random.
For Charter founders, teachers and board members, these findings reinforce their day-to-day experience working with individual students. The research dispels the myth that Charter successes have only been because they “cream” the best students. But research is not only valuable to prove a theory true, but also to direct next steps.
Missouri is one of the states that Dr. Hoxby’s study identifies as hosting Charter schools whose students showed significantly higher gains than their public school counterparts. This kind of definitive research is vitally useful in crafting a good education policy – one that produces measurable results.
But how will this information filter into policies, especially considering Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s (@arneduncan) recent tour promoting swift, serious education reforms on the state level? A study conducted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory specifically examined how policymakers access and apply research evidence. Through focus groups and surveys, they found that research played a minor role in policy-shaping discourse.
“Study participants asserted that political perspectives, public sentiment, potential legal pitfalls, economic considerations, pressure from the media, and the welfare of individuals all take precedence over research evidence in influencing decisions. In focus groups and interviews, participants did not mention any ‘breakthrough research’ nor did they cite any findings that they felt had a dramatic effect on practice or policy.” ( p. 0iv)
Part of their research examined how researchers might present their findings to policymakers in a more useful format. Participants identified a lack of sophistication in finding, analyzing and applying data, as well as an apprehension about the accuracy of research. That is certainly understandable in a culture rich with data and research: sifting through a great wealth of often dense, technical research to find applicable, trusted, complete research requires rigor and time.
“Both policymakers and practitioners expressed a preference for brief reports (no more than one to two pages), in a larger font, and written in nontechnical language. They also identified a need for research that is locally relevant and credible, includes case studies, and offers analysis across multiple studies.” (p. Oiv)
The authors stressed that research has many auxiliary or indirect paths to influencing public policy. For instance, there is a heavier reliance on research by school administrators as they form local policies. Research may be highlighted by the media, or used by the reform-minded to frame a policy conversation. But in any of these scenarios, policymakers stressed that in order for it to be useful in sculpting reform policies, they had to receive that information from a trusted intermediary.
The Hoxby study in particular is a seminal piece of research that has already found a life in the reporting of major national newspapers, such as the New York Post, the Washington Post and the New York Times. The challenge in Missouri will be to help explain how this study applies to Missouri students: what the current Charter school environment looks like in Missouri, and how we can use policy as a bridge to increased achievement.
“Clearly, the formulation of policy is a balancing act among what is right, what is known, what is desired, and what is possible,” (p. 1) note the study’s authors, and good research can fortify that framework to result in truly effective reforms.
Additional Resources:
Caroline Hoxby was in St. Louis earlier this year to talk about her research on Charter School performance.
The Missouri Supreme Court upheld today the circuit court ruling on the long-contested Funding Formula Adequacy Trial, definitively establishing that Missouri’s current public school funding formula meets the state’s obligations and dismissing arguments brought by almost half of Missouri’s public school districts that funding was unconstitutionally distributed and inadequate, and that additional spending was needed.
In 2007, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan ruled against the school district plaintiffs in favor of the state and 3 taxpayer-intervenors. Today’s concurrent ruling comes after the school districts appealed that decision to the State Supreme Court, and ends the long, expensive court battle.
The decision that Missouri is meeting its obligation to fund public schools is prudent and saves taxpayers from shouldering billions of additional blank-check state spending for public education. It has, however, cost both taxpayers and students. School district plaintiffs spent taxpayer dollars, and taxpayers also support state legal services that defended Missouri’s formula. Students lost out on millions of dollars that could have been spent in a classroom, but were instead spent in the courtroom.
This trial and the resounding dismissal of the plaintiff districts’ claims offer several distinct lessons as Missouri pursues excellence in education.
The State Supreme Court will not be the “good cop” and circumvent the powers of the legislative branch to appropriate funds. When local tax levies and lobbying efforts failed to change the funding formula to the extent that these school districts desired and they turned to Constitutional arguments to secure more funding, the court had this to say:
“Notably, the introductory clause… concerning the ‘diffusion of knowledge’ outlines the purpose and subject of Missouri’s public education system. But, it provides no specific directive or standard for how the State must accomplish a ‘diffusion of knowledge.’ Plaintiffs are attempting to read a separate funding requirement into [the clause] that would require the legislature to provide “adequate” education funding in excess of the 25-percent requirement… Such language does not exist….
Reading a free-standing obligation to provide certain school funding into the introductory language… would be contrary to the specific flexibility afforded the legislature…”
More money does not equal better education. Missouri cannot spend its way to excellent, or even adequate performance. State funding is merely one aspect of the framework set up to house public education: it is how we as a state move resources toward the goal of educating our children. Those resources can be spent wisely or poorly. They can be spent on programs, materials and staff that educate effectively, but they may be spent on methods that don’t work. The structure into which we put our resources is at least as important as how much we spend.
A new era of education reform is coming. Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke in St. Louis last week, and presented a new way of thinking about funding education: tie it to reforms that work.
Announcing billions of dollars in grants available for education, Duncan gave caveats that grants would be awarded where innovation was the driving force. He stressed that Missouri should consider having a portfolio of options to offer children with different needs and strengths.
“In St. Louis, the city and Missouri the state has a chance to compete for unprecedented discretionary resources,” said Duncan. “In every one of the those applications, we’re going to look for capacity, we’re going to look for a visionary plan, we’re going to look for someone who wants to challenge the status quo and we’re going to look for folks who are willing to collaborate, and if St. Louis and Missouri can do that, you have the chance to do something very special in the years ahead.”
More than anything, the conclusion of the Adequacy Trial offers us a clear opportunity to shift our focus to a new way of thinking about improving Missouri education and also the way we can fund that goal.
This week, a Washington Post article about the risks that air medical emergency response teams face reminded me how often state & federal healthcare lobbyists forget the vital role that pilots with paramedics play. The focus of that story had to do with the family lives lost to tragedy and inclement weather in duty – something that all private pilots know deserves more attention for the work that they do.
Maybe it’s just my love for general aviation that captures me to the beat of their rotors. Maybe it’s my decade of experience lobbying for healthcare matters. Every time that I see a BJC helicopter coming in or leaving out from Barnes-Jewish Hospital, I think about the times that I have known someone on that flight, or someone who needs it the most at that very moment. Recently, it was my father-in-law being air-lifted to University Hospital, when an extensive crew did everything that they could to ease his pain. Decades ago, I recall being near a fatal car accident in Perry County when it only took 15 minutes for an air evac ambulance to arrive from St. Louis, MO. Even in rural mid-Missouri near Jefferson City or Columbia, I often see life flights to transport vital organs, blood supplies, and unique services across our river’s edge throughout the night.
I strongly recommend every child having a chance to see a helicopter team like this in a non-urgent situation. In 1999, in Springfield, MO, I toured a hospital during the State Chamber of Commerce Leadership Missouri grassroots issue tours around each region. Sometimes, healthcare facilities offer open houses where such tours are offered on site. In order to understand how and why costs can be so high, it takes some first-hand knowledge of what this kind of operation crew requires to function.
As a border to many states, Missouri’s export of healthcare services is often extended by air in this fashion. Many citizens may not take time to realize that access to care from top notch physicians – including anesthesiologists, cardiac surgeons, neuro surgeons, and trauma physicians – depends upon air lifts to urban core areas.
So, as we reconsider how our state laws, regulations, and practices related to adverse events might be improved in the next year’s legislative session, we should remind each other of the techniques like this that make our access to care uniquely-possible between our urgent care, surgery centers, & major hospital networks. When we limit our reimbursements for how doctors can see patients, someone on the other end of that 911 call may not get the urgent help that they deserve.
Today marks the first day of public school in the newly-inspired Innovation Concept Academy. The St. Louis community, and America-at-large, owes a lot to the courage of one man – Judge Jimmie Edwards. In less than six months, he has embarked on what others might say would be nearly impossible: 1) to assume ownership of a new community school that exists outside the lines of a public school, 2) to unite a diverse coalition of public and private interests together to enrich the learning environment, and 3) to lobby for real, no excuse community change for youth who need it the most.
From a political perspective, the Innovation Concept Academy hits on all five of the recommended steps on which now Governor Jay Nixon campaigned last year. His five points were: to invest in public school options using public-private partnerships, to recruit talented teachers to challenged districts, to reduce class size, to re-establish local community support, and to make sure that alternative schools are available and effective. The Academy seeks to challenge all of the obstacles facing those children who often get lost in the public school system without effective mentors, dedicated instructors, and guardian engagement.
This Tuesday, we accompanied Rex Sinquefield with Judge Jimmie Edwards on a walk-through of the Blewett school facility. We are excited to report that the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis will be partnering with the Academy to build a dedicated room to teach chess with its curriculum. It is our hope that students can improve their math, science, reading, and critical thinking skills using a life sport like chess in a variety of environments (for classroom instruction, after-school partnerships, supplemental learning, and as a means to connect to our greater community). If successful, such a model might provide a road map for urban progressives, mayors, governors, and civic patrons to do the same around the country.
In the coming months, Room 103 will transform itself with the opening fall classes into a dynamic place to learn the game of chess. Public school teachers, including educators as part of the AFT Local 420 Teacher’s Union have agreed to fill the classroom with ambitious goals of instruction (and smaller class size). The Metropolitan Police Department of the City of St. Louis are moving in a sub-station to assist the facility with mentoring and community needs. The community arms have even opened to accept other instructors from a wide variety of parish school environments. The manner by which so many organizations, from MERS Goodwill to local celebrities, have come together, can help pave the future of new school design.
Good luck Judge Edwards and Innovation Concept Academy. Our children, our entire community, and our nation of neighborhoods, needs your model to succeed.
Rex A. Sinquefield with Judge Jimmie Edwards
Judge Edwards shows new classroom monitors to Rex Sinquefield
Alan Klapmeier, former CEO of Cirrus Designs, may be right: perhaps promoting general aviation, or what he calls Flying 2.0, is truly missionary work. With everything at stake inside the next FAA reauthorization bill in Congress, now is the time for every AOPA pilot to tell their story to the public.
Fortunately, private pilots are not doing it alone. Thanks to the AOPA campaign “General Aviation Serves America,” famous pilots and celebrities like Harrison Ford and Morgan Freeman are providing us a stabilized approach towards effective issue advocacy. Just in case you haven’t seen either of these short ads, both are included here.
It Starts with Your Personal Story:
For several years now, I have enjoyed the privileges of my private pilot certificate as a direct part of my frequent travel, across Missouri and all over this great nation. Staying sharp as a pilot is an awesome personal freedom given to Americans, as well as an incredible responsibility.
As an entrepreneur, state lobbyist, and owner-operator of my own plane, nothing comes close to being able to respond quickly to issues and opportunities like utilizing general aviation. In the Show-ME State, this means taking off and landing in a wide variety of situations: accessing our rural communities, supporting small businesses for fueling & maintenance, and becoming frequent retail customers inside mid-size terminals.
Missouri is fortunate to have many state & federal elected officials who also understand this benefit through their own professional travels. Virtually every statewide campaign at one point or another relies on their own private plane, a charter service, or assistance from an ally to get from place to place. Most clients come to appreciate what faster response times and greater productivity can mean to their cause, campaigns, or issues once they understand how general aviation is typically-used.
The Big Picture Today: FAA Re-Authorization Bill in Congress
Last week, the U.S. Senate took a great step forward with the FAA Reauthorization vote. In the weeks ahead, the Senate must vote it off their floor, and take it to Conference Committee: the small, poorly-lit kitchen that usually has lots of sharp legislatives knives that most often determine a bill’s final fate.
Inside this debate rests the future of NextGen, what type of guidance systems North America can expect to keep all users – public and private, as safe and accurate as possible. General aviation pilots must remain a strong, unified voice in the ears of their Members of Congress now to ensure that a) NextGen systems remain a priority, b) our elected officials receive first-hand opinions and insights from real users, and c) conversations about user fees are balanced within the context of what every owner-operator pays for now through fuel tax consumption.
As a state-based lobbyist with sixteen years of experience with the legislative process, I know how easy your local grassroots voices can be displaced unless you are organized. Despite the tendencies to drift to important corporate matters, or to resolve union debates, our Members of Congress do really want to hear from everyday constituents. When you speak up with your call, your donation, or your blog, today’s technology affords you a “glass panel cockpit” of options to reach them.
Here are Five Suggested Ways for You to Engage:
1) Tweet your Member of Congress: Missouri’s U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, who sometimes flies in a Pilatus PC-12, stays in touch with nearly 30,000 followers by @clairecmc. Social media or networks are mainstream channels for how busy executives share their thinking, and effective staff want to make sure you can connect. I tend to prefer using my twitter account since it offers up exponential growth to 23M users, and its speed of use is transforming micro-blogging as a whole.
2) Call, write, or arrange a meeting: Missouri Congressman Sam Graves is a private pilot himself. Offices like his have a process in place, either in Washington, DC, or back at home in Tarkio, MO, to schedule a personal meeting. Don’t be discouraged if it takes several attempts to find the right procedure that enables your contact. The pace and rhythm that most legislator calendars keep is pretty ambitious and often at odds with itself.
3) Get your local airports engaged in grassroots: The vast majority of Missouri public officials often travel in and out of our state capitol airport, courtesy of charter services like Jefferson City Flying Service.You might be surprised to learn how educating travelers each day with AOPA Online legislative updates, information sessions, and calls to action can make a difference. Letting local celebrities know that you know what is going on can be extremely helpful.
4) Remind your local charities to weigh in their useful load: Your freedom to operate without harmful user fees won’t simply limit your small business. When private pilots cut their hours flown, volunteer flights for important charities usually suffer as well. Two local examples of volunteer organizations committed to transporting children in need is Angel Flight Central, in Kansas City, MO (KMKC), or Wings of Hope, based from Chesterfield, MO (KSUS). Find out if they are weighing in with calls to action. If you’re a pilot waiting for return your passengers home via one of these great causes, then finding three minutes to call your Congressman on their behalf seems like a worthy use of ramp time.
5) Keep fun in general aviation. Invite others to become a part of the solution. Of course, this means inviting friends who know to become a pilot or to join you at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI. Why not bring home some extra literature to educate your Member of Congress in the process? Maybe some pictures about the future of very light jets, modern avionics, or ice protection systems? However, it’s also about doing what you can outside the hanger, and off the runway. Our local science centers can be a teaching resource, where flight academies inspire first graders to master flight simulators. Our local history, like Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, needs to be retold to the next generation.
If America’s private pilots can improve upon these outreach efforts, the future of our general aviation will improve out of this tough economy with more innovation, better ideas, and a strong infrastructure. However, just like real flight, final authority and command for our grassroots journey rests with us.
This month, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient David McCullough celebrated his 76th birthday in America. Over the years, his distinguished career as author, journalist, & historian has enriched our personal libraries.
David McCullough might agree that sometimes you don’t choose the big issues; the big issues choose you. He never set out to write about history, but rather started as a trainee for the emerging Sports Illustrated magazine. Twelve years of editing and traveling finally convinced him that he could start writing on his own, after what Malcolm Gladwell would say were his 10,000 hours of necessary expertise.
Politicians, statesmen, political operatives, and lobbyists of all persuasions can easily find meaning in his work: through his meticulous details, his knack for storytelling, and his depth of analytical research. For anyone seeking to understand the birth of our country, reading John Adams can add clarity to our forefather’s quote about applying yourself in your pursuits:
“Gentlemen, I feel a great difficulty how to act. I am Vice President. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything.”– John Adams, Chapter Eight.
In legislative affairs and state politics, timing is everything. To many, reading non-fiction may not seem as engaging as book-gone-movie today (no disrespect to Harry Potter fans). David’s books capture the attitudes to recreate the past in a way that most of us will only see in the future of a twitter-archived society. Anchored conversations between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams in this book show us rare insights into the decisions made for our democracy, in a manner like reading a busy networker’s Facebook updates (except without the tweetpics or meetup announcements).
Missouri lobbyists and political pundits like me appreciate even more his epic Show-Me State work: Truman. As Steve Weinberg of the Kansas City Star points out, “this biography will stand out as the biography for which all other presidential biographies will be measured.” As you turn his first page, you see the quote by Harry S. Truman:
“We can never tell what is in store for us.”
In my office, I have an old newspaper the day that our Missouri farmboy became President. For anyone that has never visited his Presidential Library, I highly recommend swinging by off Interstate 70 in Independence, MO. The story of Truman gives Missourians a sense of the good fortune, political struggles, moral decisions, and character under the heavy weights of power that Harry must have endured.
This work reminds us that our challenges and burdens are not unique to today’s political poll-frenzied environment. This biography is a great resource when the only friend you may have in Washington, DC might be your dog. Thanks to you David McCullough, and happy birthday. We, the modern day legislative gladiators of future American history, salute you.
April 27, 2009, MISSOURI – Rep. Ed Emery discusses his Missouri Fair Tax legislation in a video released by Americans For Prosperity-Missouri (AFP-MO).
Rep. Emery has sponsored HJR 36, which replaces Missouri’s income tax with a broader sales tax. The bill has passed the House, and, if passed by the Senate, the Fair Tax language would be placed on the ballot for voter approval.
In his explanation of what the Fair Tax is, and why it’s a good idea for Missouri, Emery says,
“The fair tax fundamentally is a shift from a tax on our labor to a tax on our consumption. We’re shifting from the income tax to the sales tax. That’s one of the things that I think that makes it a fairer tax.”
Emery goes on describe the complexity of the income tax, and how taxpayers accidentally or intentionally avoid paying. “It’s a whole lot simpler to gather a sales tax,” says Emery. “One of the things I like most about it is it vastly reduces the power of government over the individual citizens.”
Proponents of the Missouri Fair Tax believe it will make the state more attractive to businesses, result in sustainable, long-term growth and greatly increase compliance by eliminating tax loopholes and complex filing.
State Director of AFP-MO Carl Bearden believes that this video will help both citizens and legislators understand how the Missouri Fair Tax works and why Missouri should adopt it. “The folks I talk to in Missouri are looking for a change, and the Missouri Fair Tax offers an easier, fairer way to pay taxes. Missourians should be keeping the money they earn, and the Missouri legislature should be constantly seeking to make taxation less burdensome for everyone.”
Rep. Emery affirms, “The closer you look at the fair tax, the better you like it.”
Americans for Prosperity-Missouri (AFP-MO) is part of the nation’s premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP-MO reflects the belief of its grass roots members that reducing the size and scope of government is the best way to achieve individual productivity and prosperity. AFP-MO works with citizen leaders to educate and engage them and their communities in support of restraining local, state, and federal government growth.
Americans for Prosperity is a 501(c)4 not for profit organization. Learn more at www.afpmo.org .
JEFFERSON CITY — St. Louis-based lobbyist Travis Brown is using the social networking software Twitter to help track over-sized campaign contributions.
Brown, who Tweets at www.twitter.com/pelopidas, today kicked off a feature that ought to make The Turner Report quite happy: Brown will be Tweeting every time a donation to a Missouri politician or political action committee is filed with the Missouri Ethics Committee that is $5,000 or more.
Said Brown in response to an inquiry from the Political Fix:
“Now, thanks to the integration of proprietary technologies, we can help make public information a lot more friendly to use. This application shows just one small way how public disclosure can be improved with intelligent design.”
Interestingly, one of Brown’s first Tweets of an oversized contribution gives a hint that somebody out in the political world is working to try to change Missouri law related to campaign finance rules.
A group called the Missouri Accountability Project received a $7,800 donation from Kansas City bonding firm Gilmore & Bell on April 8. According to MEC filings, the PAC was set up in connection with an expected November 2010 campaign related to campaign finance.
Treasurer Louise Tonkovich said she didn’t know anything else about the PAC at this point.
(Speaking of Twitter, follow me at www.twitter.com/tonymess)
Missouri leaders heard some more details about the President’s drive for merit pay for teachers, real school accountability, and making smart investments in the classroom. Below is an excerpt.
Q I’m a school counselor in the Fox T6 district. President Obama, what do you feel is the biggest challenge facing our educational system today, and how do you plan on meeting those challenges?
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, excellent question. I believe that we’ve got a multitude of challenges. So rather than just isolate on one, let me talk about several.
Our children are coming out of high school — in some cases, they’re not even graduating high school, but even if they graduate from high school — ranked lower on math and science scores than many other advanced industrialized countries. Nations like China and India are starting to turn out more engineers, more scientists. If we aren’t able to compete technologically we’re not going to be able to compete, because this is a knowledge-based economy. We can have some people who are really willing to work hard, but if the technology is coming from overseas and all we’re competing for is just our labor, then over time those countries will get richer, our countries will get poorer.
So we’ve got to upgrade across the board — not just in poor, underprivileged schools, but across the board — we’ve got to upgrade the performance levels of our young people. Now, in order to do that, the single-biggest ingredient is the quality of our teachers; single most important factor — (applause) — single most important factor in the classroom is the quality of the person standing at the front of the classroom. And that’s why our recovery package put a lot of emphasis on teacher training, teacher recruitment, teacher retention, professional development.
And I’ve got a terrific young Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, who is — (applause) — and he is so passionate, but he’s tough, and he wants to push school districts to really do what it takes to give teachers the support that they need.
Now, that involves a whole range of things. It means that how we train and recruit teachers in the first place, how do we match them up with master teachers so that they learn best practices; how do we make sure that if they’re coming in and they don’t have all the professional background they need in something — a subject area like science, that we give them the training they need; and how do we recruit people who might be great teachers but didn’t go through the conventional channels. If there’s a chemist out there somewhere who wants to teach, we should be able to get him into the classroom in an expedited way, because he or she is bringing skills that we need.
I just gave an award to the Teacher of the Year, who was a police officer, a cop — had gone to the — had become a captain in the New York City Police Department and then decided that he wanted to pursue his lifelong love of learning and went back to teach — and asked for the toughest-to-teach kids. Well, we want to encourage people like that who have a passion for teaching.
Now, I also want to increase teacher pay so that a lot more people want to go into teaching. (Applause.)
The deal I’ve got to strike with teachers, though — I may not get as much applause on this — (laughter) — is I would like to work with teachers and the teachers unions, because I’m a union guy, but I do believe — (applause) — but I do believe that it’s important for the unions to work flexibly with school districts in a consensual fashion to find ways so that if you’ve got a really excellent teacher, after 15, 20 years, they can get paid a little bit more — right? — if they’re doing a really good job. (Applause.)
And now the flip side — I’m telling you, I’m getting to the point where I’m not going to get applause. (Laughter.) If you’ve got a bad teacher who can’t — after given all the support and the training that they need is just not performing up to snuff, we’ve got to find that person a new job. (Applause.)
Just a couple more comments on education generally. A lot of schools still aren’t using technology as well as they could in the classroom. And one of the things we’re trying to do with the Recovery Act is to help schools get broadband, get computers, but then also train people to use it properly. I think we can do more with technology. Once kids get out of high school, making college affordable is absolutely critical. (Applause.) We have to redesign the college experience so that — not everybody is going to go to school for four years right in a row when they’re 18. Some people are going to work for two years, then go back to school for two years once they figure out something they’re interested in; go back to work, maybe five years down the road they need to retrain.
We’ve got to create a pathway for lifelong learning for young people — and not-so-young people — so that all American workers are continually upgrading their skills. (Applause.) So we want to put a lot more emphasis on community colleges and how they are working effectively together.
Let me make a last point because I don’t want to — I could talk about this stuff forever. One last point which I always have to remind people of — I said that the biggest ingredient in school performance is the teacher. That’s the biggest ingredient within a school. But the single biggest ingredient is the parent. (Applause.) So this is an example where, people are always trying to say, oh, Obama, is he liberal? Is he conservative? Well, I want government to do what it should do, but there’s some things government can’t do. That’s where I’m conservative. Government can’t force parents to turn off the TV set and tell your kid to sit down and do their homework. I can’t do that. (Applause.) That’s not my job. That’s your job. Well, it is my job with Sasha and Malia. (Laughter.) Those two, I’m responsible for.
But the other part of it is it’s not just making sure your kids are doing their homework, it’s also instilling a thirst for knowledge and excellence. It’s been noted widely that there are a lot of immigrant students who come from very modest backgrounds economically that end up doing very well. And why is that? Well, the difference is, is that in their families and in their communities a lot of times they’ve got that attitude that used to be prevalent, but sometimes we’re losing — sometimes I worry we’re losing — and that is, boy, it is a privilege to learn, it’s a privilege to discover new things, it’s cool to be smart. (Applause.) We want to reward kids for doing well in school. (Applause.)
And the community can help the parents. Listen, I love basketball. But the smartest kid in the school, the National Science Award winner should be getting as much attention as the basketball star. (Applause.) That’s a change that we’ve got to initiate in our community.
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Carl Bearden on KZRG in Joplin with Mark Kinsley discussing being banned from Sen Vogel’s office by his Chief of Staff, Bubs Hohulin, for having taxpayers call the office.
