Conflict of Aspirations and Skepticism in Obama's Education Reforms

The American voters have extended the White House stay of Obama for second term for four more years. Economic concerns were the key focus over the 2012 presidential race as there was an urgent need to help the nation recover from its economic recession. While discussing higher education policies in his campaign trails this year, Obama brought to light his administration’s expansion of federal aid programs. Education indeed seemed to be a hot topic in the campaign trails of both the candidates.

Now that the results are out, we are to see how well Obama turns his plans and promises into actions. It is been estimated that off all the votes the president was able to bag, 60 percent of the voters aged 18-29. Let us take a quick look at two of out of the several reasons that earns him the title of a student friendly president:

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• Obama has adjusted the federal student loan system and now the repayments are based in income rather than on the amount borrowed.
• The president has stopped the doubling of the student federal loan rates and has increased funding for Pell Grants that provide financial support to disadvantaged students.

What Next?

Several new regulations are expected to take birth in the coming months and these include new rules governing teacher preparation programs and a new round of rule making to deal with frauds. There are some speculations that are going on about how the president will deal with his education reforms. Let us take a quick tour:

• The president’s victory implies that colleges can expect federal financial aid though the support would be largely through making halts in deep spending cuts rather than spending new money in higher education programs.
• In the next 10 years he wishes to cut down the amount by which tuition fees rise every year to half.
• He visions America to be having the highest proportion of university graduates in the world by 2020.
• He looks forward to support job training initiatives through partnerships with community colleges and private college in this term. He promises that this would result in a 2 million job placements.
• He is expected to continue with advocating the Pell Grant in the budget negotiations as he has been doing for the last four years.

Only Time will Tell whats in store

What the Center for Education Reform had to say?

The leadership of The Center for Education Reform says “We praised the President in his first term for reminding the nation of our serious problems with K-12 education….that this support was an impediment to meaningful reforms that could lead to better schools and more educational choices”. Some of the suggestions offered to the president for his second term by the Center for Education Reform include:

• To work across all education sectors and to be open to the ideas from cities and communities rather than listening to just special interest groups.
• Encourage choice and charters so that students from failing schools are provided with better choices.
• Ensure more flexibility in approach by reforming the No Child Left Behind law.

Is it worth it?

Well who can better answer this than the students? They have taken a risk in choosing Obama over the business savvy Romney and they have to wait and watch whether they have laid their bets on the right candidate for the second time.

Jeffrey Henig, a political scientist at Teachers College, Columbia University states “It's clear the Obama administration will continue to make education a priority”. There are huge expectations and the entire nation is looking up to how he gives shapes to his plans.

The higher education advocates are of the view that in his second term, Obama will most likely change the nation’s education policy by deploying his own executive and regulatory authority and sidestepping a bitterly divided Congress. The last four years saw the Obama led administration argue that it will not wait for Congress to pass education reforms in both schools and higher education. His legacy as a student friendly president will depend greatly on whether he can stick to his election promises.

Role of Education in the 2012 US Presidential Elections

Well, another presidential cycle ends and it is the perfect time not to just tally wins and losses but to reflect on the nature of the political system of America. Obama definitely won with a better ground game. The Obama campaign spent heavily while Romney could not even launch a range of synchronized attacks.

This year education was a key-issue for voters. Though education did not top the voter’s list the polling results tell a different story altogether. According to the governors, education is a top priority just next to economy and jobs. Majority of the American voters believe that investing in education and innovation is one of the best ways to help grow the country’s economy.

The Image says it all

Education definitely emerged as an unexpected star in the president’s campaign. The contrast in the education policies showed its results in the election poll results. Romney hardly spoke about education on his campaign trails and his education plan missed a lot of details. He left the people unsure about what he would do as president when it came to education. People believed that he should get more serious about education.

A study conducted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund found out that Obama has made “unprecedented investments in education”. His programs were directed towards failing schools and student poverty. On the other hand, Romney’s plan that focused on vouchers would weaken the liability systems that protect unprivileged students. Romney had been inconsistent as well on whether he would cut the federal education funding.

Around 80 percent of the American voters consider education important. They support increased funding for public education even if it meant rising of taxes. Let us take a quick tour through some of the important features of education policies of Obama:

• Both Obama and Romney supported the revisions of the No Child Left Behind education law. But he and Obama differ on the federal role in education and voucher program that make use of public money to send children to private schools.
  
  
• Obama supported the cry for colleges to be made more accessible. This earned him the approval from Congress for a $ 10, 000 college tax credit for four years and increases in Pell grants and other monetary aids.
  
  
• Education is central theme in Obama’s 2013 budget proposal. Again, Obama’s package included $100 billion for education and this he claimed to save about 300, 000 jobs. This also helped to fund his Race to the Top grants for states and this even received support from Republicans as it promoted school turnarounds, better teacher evaluations and charter schools.
  
  
• Obama understands that class size matters and in an effort to make sure that the classrooms are not overcrowded he has taken initiatives to protect top quality teachers from layoffs.
  
  
• President Obama does not want costs to be a barrier for higher education. This is the reason that he has formulated a lot of policies to make college more affordable for students and their parents.

Why does it matter?

More than 8 out of 10 Americans state that education is very important to them and they only keep economy above education. According to studies it has been found out that US lags behind other countries in reading math and science. The country is also stated to fail to be able to compete globally. Again, the cost of higher education is leaving students buried in debts or they are unable to afford all of it. There is a growing cry all across the nation for need of college and some post-high school training to be able to succeed in the job market. Obama asked all Americans to commit to at least one year of college or career training. The nation still seems to be far from its goals to lead the world in the percentage of college graduates by 2020.

This year the nation saw offerings of two extremely different visions and plans for the country’s future. Nowhere was the contrast more apparent than it was in education. It goes without saying that education did play an important role in the presidential election of 2012. It gave all the Americans a sobering reminder that in spite of all the political rhetoric about equality of opportunity, the guarantee for world class education for all Americans is a factor not to be overlooked.