Education
12.07.2009
Education is the ticket to a better standard of living for individual Americans and their families and for communities as a whole. Educational institutions, whether they are secondary or higher educational systems, have successfully partnered with communities for greater access to their programs and to help in the economic and social growth of communities in which they are situated.
Fair and equal educational funding is required by Ohio's state constitution, and federal regulation and funding of education must be sensitive to this.
As the daughter of a teacher of special needs children, I am acutely aware of the need to provide mainstream public educational opportunities to those children on both ends of the spectrum, with physical or cognitive disabilities and challenges, and with gifts that will aid our society for the future.
The President's recent stimulus funding package requires states receiving funds to get public schools and higher-education working together to improve courses and tests so that high school graduates can succeed in college without remedial classes. Unfortunately, this is a reality for more than 60% of students enrolling at 2-year colleges and 20% at 4-year colleges. Work is needed in both areas of education to better prepare our young people to compete globally for 21st century jobs.
As Congress begins to examine the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law and determine what worked and what did not work, many have said the single biggest problem with the law is its singular focus on testing, treating children as widgets on a manufacturing line. If our public educational systems can operative as supportive environments rather than punitive environments, we will better be able to instill in our children a love for learning so that lifelong learning takes place beyond our educational systems for lifelong achievement.
States and local school districts rely on the federal government to financially support their education systems, and this need is stronger than ever in the face of the tough economies states are grappling with. But as the federal government continues to step up to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law, we need flexible regulation that accounts for local differences arising from culture, history, economic and social factors to avoid an assessment process that measures things in factory widgets rather than on measurable, factored achievement. There are benefits to collecting and analyzing data, since management requires measurement and measurement requires definition. Hiring qualified teachers, rewarding them and finding fair and accurate ways to measure teacher performance will aid in the essential goal of keeping our best teachers and encouraging those who are not at their best in a classroom to move on.
We have our children but for a brief time. We seldom get second chances with them. An educational system that gets it right the first time is the ideal to enable them to flourish individually and collectively for the betterment of our American society. A federal funding scheme will necessarily carry with it requirements, but they should be to assist in the educational process and not result in hindering it.
Therefore, education should be more child-centered with more individual attention. Preschool education should be available to every child, and teachers and other school professionals should be afforded significant, quality opportunities for continuing education and professional development, not just on educational methods, but also on the subject matter areas they are teaching.
Please also read my press release on student loan reform:
Brunner Supports Student Loan Reform Legislation Efforts in Congress
Updated: April 13th, 2010
