President Obama Proposes New Solutions for States and Education

Decisions of the United States’ democratic president Barack Obama lie before American Educators and state officials regarding what they will do with NCLB. History may shed some light as one reflects on the differences of the democrats and republicans of 1870. Compulsory education became an enormous political issue for republicans in 1870. Compulsory education was viewed the answer for resolving the matter of “ignorant masses.” The democrats of that time held to the Jeffersonian beliefs that a government that governs least governs best as democrats believed that states exercising too much power were un-American. Democrats believed that states should not have so much power as to determine how people should live their lives as they continued to oppose compulsory laws for school attendance though republicans promoted compulsory laws for school attendance (Provansnik, 2006). In many ways, America has changed and as President Obama promotes new policies for states to opt out of the accountabilities of NCLB, one cannot help but question who will really be the beneficiaries of such a waiver.

With much controversy over No Child left Behind and the results of countless schools labeled failures, President Obama has now responded to the matter by allowing schools to opt out while labeling the NCLB Act of 2001 a signature legacy of President George Bush’ presidency (Hefling, 2011). While under NCLB, children in schools labeled failures are granted remedies, school choice and extra tutoring. However, states granted a waiver under the plan of President Obama will be able to determine if they want to use the same corrective measures. Educating the children of America will become the responsibilities of state officials. The idea of the state taking care over education poses many concerns especially in view of the state of Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Corbett proposed budget for 2011-2012 that included major cuts in public education and higher education. His proposal reduced education by nearly 550 million dollars which reduced the budget ten percent less than the previous year. Governor Corbett described the cut as a reality cut. I believe that as new legislation related to education is before America just before election-day on November 8, 2011, America now has a clearer understanding of the platform needed for officials who will occupy state seats as legislatures and policy makers. Let us maintain our democracy as I believe that fixing one problem and adding new problems only creates "policy chaos" and not a remedy.