Obama Presses For Longer School Years

Obama Presses For Longer School Years

WASHINGTON ?Barely into the new school year, coach handbags President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out.

American students are falling behind some of their foreign counterparts,Louis Vuitton, especially in math and science,Gucci Scarpe,ray ban sunglasses outlet, and that's got to change, Obama said. Seeking to revive a sense of urgency that education reform may have lost amid the recession's focus on the economy,Coach Factory Online, Obama declared that the future of the country is at stake.
"Whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs that support coach purses families and support the future of the American people, is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools," the president said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show.

U.S. schools through high school offer an average of 180 instruction days per year,ray ban predator, according to the Education Commission of the States, compared to an average of 197 days for lower grades and 196 days for upper grades in countries with the best student achievement levels,Coach Factory Outlet, including Japan, South Korea, Germany and New Zealand.
"That month makes a difference,louis vuitton bags purses," the president said. "It means that kids are losing a lot of what they learn during the school year during the summer. It's especially severe for poorer kids who may not see as many books in the house during the summers,Beats By Dr Dre,louis vuitton handbags, aren't getting as many educational opportunities."

Obama said teachers and their profession should be more highly honored ?as in China and some other countries, he said ?and he said he wanted to work with the teachers' unions. But he also said that unions should not defend a status quo in which one-third of children are dropping out.
He challenged them not to be resistant to change.

And the president endorsed the firing of teachers who, once given the chance and the help to improve, are still falling short.

"We have got to identify teachers who are doing well. Teachers who are not doing well, we have got to give them the support and the training to do well. And if some teachers aren't doing a good job, they've got to go," Obama said.

They're goals the president has articulated in the past, but his ability to see them realized is limited. States set the minimum length of school years,Coach Outlet Coupon, and although there's experimentation in some places, there's not been wholesale change since Obama issued the same challenge for more classroom time at the start of the past school year.

One issue is money, and although the president said that lengthening school years would be "money well spent," that doesn't mean cash-strapped states and districts can afford it.