Education Fact Check: Five Things You May Not Know about Pres Obama's FY 2011 Budget Request

While we have all been concentrating on the Healthcare bill and Cap and Trade, the Democrats have a new plan for Education in the 2011 budget. It appears they want to throw more of our tax dollars after the money that has already been wasted on Education.

The Republican Policy Committee has released this Fact Sheet about the Education Budget. More money to schools is not the answer or more programs that require schools to add administrators to handle the paperwork in order to comply with the Federal Government. Schools need to be adding qualified teachers. Administrators also require a higher salary then the men and women who are responsible for teaching our children.

We have lived in various states and seen the best school systems, some mediocre, and one really lousy system that my children attended for three weeks -- we transferred them to another district since we had just been transferred into the area and had not found housing. In fact, we went to a different state to have them in school which was then only mediocre at best.

After being transferred to various states, our last move brought us to Norman, Oklahoma. Unlike most school districts, we found Norman Public Schools where our two youngest children graduated has a very hands on Administration. The NPS Superintendent will get out his saxophone and play with the high school bands during halftime at our football games or at a concert. Administrators routinely visit classrooms around the District and many times the heads of the departments will fill in when a teacher is absent. Our head of the music program loves nothing better then to get back in the music room with the band students. Taxpayers approved a new Performing Arts Center several years ago for NPS which is used by all the schools in the District. When a school district demonstrates they are doing a good job handling the tax dollars, voters will back that system by voting for bond issues and operation levies as they do here in Norman.

Educators from other States visit NPS about the district wide music program and our media program where our high school students have their own public TV channel on Cox. During parent conferences, you have to wait in line to visit with your student's teachers. NPS is an example of what a school district should be like with parents and the community supporting our schools.

Most districts in this Country unfortunately fall in the mediocre category especially in the cities where a lot of schools don't even rise to mediocre. When you find a district that stands out, that's a rarity. As we have harped on before, money is not the answer -- parental involvement and accountability are the keys. Parents have got to demand accountability go get good schools for their children. To this day, I am appalled that Chicago Pubic Schools require a 35 to pass their Basic Skills Math Test for teachers. If we don't have good teachers, we are not going to have good schools who turn out educated students no matter how much money is thrown at Education.

Now we learn the Obama Administration wants to change Education? That is not a good sign because he chose the Superintendent of the failed public school system of Chicago as his Education Secretary and even a hint of copying that failed system should get every parent of school aged children up in arms.

This is more burden on the taxpayers of this Country -- for what? More students being passed who cannot read and write or do math equations at the 12th grade level when they graduate high school? The reading comprehension and writing levels of Chicago schools have to be some of the worst if large numbers of students who attend college have to take remedial courses for English Comp in College.

The new Obama plan for Education spends a lot more money, but we still don't get accountability of school districts. This Democrat Congress, who are in the hip pocket of Teacher's Unions, voted to end the voucher program in DC where parents had a chance to put their children in better schools. We note that Obama sends his kids to private schools so why would he veto such an idea as he owes part of his election to Teacher Unions and his children are not affected.

Call/write your Congressman/Senator and tell them Just Say NO! to more money for education until they prove that the programs work and students are receiving a good education which we are not holding our breath waiting for these programs to work. In fact, we would love to see the Education Department disbanded and the oversight of schools return to the States. The Department of Education is too large and bureaucratic to function plus a huge waste of tax dollars that could be returned to the individual school districts to educate our children.

Education Fact Check:
Five Things You May Not Know About
President Obama’s FY 2011 Budget Request

New Mandatory Education Programs Increase the Deficit: In addition to proposing to make Pell Grants an entitlement program, the President’s budget would create five new education entitlement programs and increase entitlement spending on student loan repayment programs.1 By its own accounting, the President’s budget shows these programs will increase spending by $100 billion over the next 10 years.

2 And this does not even include the $118 billion unfunded portion of Pell Grants to maintain the current maximum grant amount level. Although President Obama claims to pay for this new spending through eliminating subsidies to lenders and having the government takeover student loans, his budget forecasts that 100% direct lending by the federal government would save $43 billion—far short of the $100 billion in new spending that this Administration creates.

3 Continues to Fund Unproven or Discredited Programs: President Obama and Secretary Duncan have repeatedly said they want to “fund what works in education,” yet the fiscal year 2011 budget contains requests for an additional $1.3 billion for the Race to the Top Fund and $500 million for the Investing in Innovation Fund.

4 These unproven programs have not yet provided one dollar to states or local school
districts so it is impossible to know if they have any impact on students. The budget request also contains $8.2 billion for Head Start, a $989 million increase, despite the fact that a recently released experimental evaluation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
found that Head Start has had little to no effect on cognitive, socio‐emotional, health, and parenting

Excerpt: Read More Facts at Senate RPC