Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Obama answer to funding gifted education question

QUESTION: I was wondering what your thoughts and views on funding gifted education are.


OBAMA: Well, obviously there's a gifted student. You could tell.


You know, let me just talk about my education agenda generally. You know, we were talking earlier about manufacturing and the changes in the economy. Even if we bring back manufacturing to the levels that it should be, the days are over where you're going to be able to go -- our young people, our children and our grandchildren -- are going to be able to go into a factory without an education and suddenly are going to be able to make a living.


In fact, the days are over when a farmer or a rancher is able to operate a farm or a ranch without some education. I mean, look at Adam right here. He's getting his master's degree, because if you want to be effective, you've got to know, you know, the biological sciences, you've got to know how the financial markets work. There's a lot of stuff that goes into being a successful farmer these days.


So there's no job that doesn't need an education. We've got to upgrade our education system. It starts...


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So it starts with early childhood education. We have to make sure that every child is prepared when they get to school. And some kids aren't, especially low-income kids, especially kids in inner cities, some rural communities, Native American reservations. A lot of kids just need some initial support so that, when they start school, they're not behind.


Second thing, we need to pay our teachers more money.


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I really believe that. And so I've got a federal proposal to make sure that we are paying -- that we're helping local governments pay their teachers more, but also to give teachers more professional development and support. That's very important, as well, because a lot of new teachers aren't given the training that they need. And, typically, if a teacher drops out, it's in their first five years, because they're not getting the kind of training and support that they need. That's number two.


Third thing, we've got to make college more affordable. So...


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So what I want to do is I want to provide a $4,000 tuition credit, every student, every year, in exchange for some community service, working in a veterans home, working in a homeless shelter, joining the Peace Corps. If you want to be a teacher, we'll pay your way to be a teacher if you commit to working in a hard to -- an underserved school.


If you want to be a doctor or a nurse, we'll pay your way, if you're willing to work in an underserved hospital or an underserved community. That will help, by the way, rural communities attract more doctors and more nurses.


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Now, I also do want -- I want to make sure that we have fully funded gifted programs. Part of the way to do that is to change the way No Child Left Behind works, because...


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... because part of the problem with No Child Left Behind is that it had the right idea. We want high standards. But everything revolved around a single, high-stakes standardized test. And if your money is going to count on how your kids do on this test, what ends up happening is everybody teaches to the test and teachers are measured by the test.


And so there's not a lot of room for gifted programs. There's not a lot of room for art or music or literature or civics, because everybody is just getting that test pounded into them.


And that's why I want to change how we assess school success. I have nothing wrong with a standardized test at the beginning of the year to see how kids are doing, maybe another one at the end to see what kind of progress they made, but I don't want that to be the only measure of school success.


That way, teachers can teach, schools can expand various programs.


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But one last point that I want to make. I was talking to Jody about this. If we really want to improve our education system, we can't just expect the schools to do all of it. Parents have to parent. Parents have to do their job.