David Taintor

On March 10, President Obama gave his first major address on education, outlining changes he wants to make to the current model.

According to a March 10 New York Times article, his proposal included merit-based pay for teachers, reducing limitations on charter schools and increasing the length of school days and school years.

Horace Mann said education is the great equalizer, the balance wheel for society. I believe this to be undeniably true. And many of these changes are warranted.

Let me take you back to my high school math class.

As all students in primary public schools must, I needed to satisfy certain math requirements. I had already fulfilled mine, but since I was attending college the following fall, I enrolled in a functions, statistics and trigonometry course my senior year to be sure I was academically prepared.

Unfortunately, that’s not what followed. The teacher, whose name I won’t mention, was a terrible instructor. With grossly narrow instructing capabilities, he made the class a nightmare to attend. If you were unlucky enough to fail to understand a question posed the first time, as I and many others were, there was simply nothing you could do except seek outside help.

If teachers were paid based on merit, and not wrongly awarded tenure, perhaps I would have been spared the embarrassment and frustration of remedial math courses when I reached college. While I don’t support favoritism, which a merit-based

program has the potential to lead to, I do believe outstanding educators should be awarded and poor teachers disadvantaged.

In addition, administrators must not be apprehensive in pursuing teachers who simply aren’t benefiting the students. They need to be forward thinking and able to motivate the teachers who are doing great work in their districts. The teachers themselves, while they have the largest impact on students, are often too busy to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. Unfortunately, if a teacher fails to provide a comforting and encouraging education, it’s the student that directly suffers.

Obama’s plan also called for lifting the caps on charter schools. According to the article, this was met with some skepticism from unions because they believe it takes money away from the public schools.

As a product of the public school system, I certainly don’t wish any less funding to go to the public schools that are doing a great job. But if charter schools offer innovation in education and a more personal approach to learning, then the possibility of more needs to be explored.

Obama called for longer school days and school years as part of his plan to improve education. I know the thought of summer school is almost unbearable, but the three months off in the summer is an opportunity to forget and lower total comprehension. A longer school year, dotted with more frequent, shorter breaks, would ensure students have a consistent and continuous education.

I do not, however, support longer school days being implemented. I think after a full school day, both the students and teachers are tired. Adding extra hours onto that would end up being counterproductive.

In order for the American education system to remain competitive on the international scale, changes need to be made. The world is getting smaller. The Internet is ubiquitous, and with it comes global competition for jobs.

We need to improve the standards of education in this country if we hope to survive in a global economy.

School needs to be more demanding, not less. It’s an ambitious plan, part of the president’s even more ambitious agenda, but there’s no question improvements should be made. “The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens,” Obama said.

He’s right.

Taintor is a junior print journalism major and online editor for The Spectator.