President Elect Obama and Educational Reform

I was doing some detailed research online and studying how things might change insofar as education with the new president in office. As you know I support education via my charities - http://www.childrenofthecity.org/ and also on my educational website http://www.roccobasile.org/. But with the new president, there will be new policies. It is important that we all know what these are.

President elect Obama has been a leader on educational issues throughout his career, and in the Illinois State Senate he was a leader on early childhood education, helping to create the state's Early Learning Council. In the U.S. Senate, Obama has also been a leader in working to make college more affordable. His first bill sought to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,100.

Obama also helped pass legislation to achieve that goal in the recent improvements to the Higher Education Act, and he has also introduced legislation to create Teacher Residency Programs and to increase federal support for summer learning opportunities.

Unlike some of the other early childhood education plans, the Obama-Biden plan places key emphasis at early care. Their "Zero to Five" plan will provide support to young children and their parents, and unlike other early childhood education plans, the Obama-Biden plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama and Biden plan to create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school. They will:

• Expand Early Head Start and Head Start: Obama and Biden will quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both.
• Affordable, High-Quality Child Care: Obama and Biden will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.

Here are other key promises:

Barack Obama will reform No Child Left Behind
Both Obama and Biden believe teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. That is why he plans to improve the assessments used to track student progress, and measure a student's readiness for college.

Invest in early childhood education
This comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children as well as their parents, helping states move towards a voluntary, universal pre-school system.

Make college affordable to all Americans
Barack Obama and Joe Biden have plans to create what they are calling a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 in exchange for community service. It will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students.

Obama has some aggressive plans. Check out his Education Website. -- Rocco Basile

Watch the entire video by clicking below:

Education in Thailand Poses Long-term Threat

In my research for my own educational trends website, http://www.rocdcobasile.oprg/, I often come across interesting articles about educational situations, or trends from other countries. The country of Thailand's political stability is a mess because of the months-long standoff between the administration and the People's Alliance for Democracy. What is more compelling however, than this country's politics, is the quality of basic education. It is this issue that will pose a long-term threat to the country, according to a recent report by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment.

Left: These children are members of the Palong, a Mon-Khmer tribe found mostly in Burma's Shan state.

Halfway into the five-year evaluation of the performance of both primary and secondary schools across the country, the bad news is out. One-fifth of the 22,811 schools did not pass, and with more than 12,800 schools yet to be evaluated, since most of them are small ones located in remote areas, the chances of these passing the standard are remote, as they are already struggling to find enough money to run the schools, as well as teachers.

This is such a sad story in a country with a government where politicians taking the helm of the ministry of education do it for position and for the sake of their party, and not for the students.
And even through teachers are considered very important when general elections come, and are influential in rural areas they too can convince voters who to cast the ballot for when the time comes to vote. This is why many policies and projects target the teachers.

In Thailand, over the past eight years, there have been only two ministers in education who were qualified and praised by educators keen to see improvements in education.

Perhaps the country should consider a template for improved education that works from other countries, and cities, like the program instituted in Brooklyn, NY by Children of the City. Volunteers help the children with their homework, and provide a community environment where kids want to learn.

--Rocco Basile

The source for tis article came from Saritdet Marukatat, a News Editor, Bangkok Post.

Statistics on Our Country's Education

According to a website called Charity Navigator, there are about 1.5 million elementary school teachers and 1.1 million secondary school teachers in the United States, and the amount spent, by average, on home schooling per child in the United States is about $450. Here are some more interesting statistics, and you'll find other data on my website at http://www.roccobasile.org/.

• There are between 8 and 15 million children nationwide are unsupervised at the end of each school day;
  The average deaf child isn't introduced to English until age six, upon entering school.
  87% of Americans aged 18 to 24 have completed high school with a diploma or an alternative credential such as a General Education Development (GED) certificate;


• School districts in the U.S. with the highest child poverty rates have $1,139 fewer state and local dollars to spend per student than the wealthiest districts; and


• When among 18- to 24-year-old Americans are given maps, 70 percent cannot find New Jersey and 11 percent cannot find the United States.

This country is in a sad state when it comes to the education of our youth. And based on the charities that i have been working with, the only resolution are programs that actually do make a difference, like Children of the City.

On October 30 we had a Friends and Legislators Cocktail Party which was hosted by Commerce Bank. The purpose of the event was to bring together individuals from the New York business community, political community, and philanthropic community to continue dialogue around educational, social, and humanitarian needs of disadvantaged children and families in Greater New York.

Before Christmas we will be hosting our annual toy drive. Stay tuned with more info.

-- Rocco Basile

Election results and Education.

Now that the election is over, let's take a look at how the process affected education and students, and also how the results will affect education. All of us know the importance of voting and teaching our youth about the process of creating laws, tracking election results and voter turnout, and teaching students what its like to make tough decisions. It is what our elected officials make every day. After all, if our children don't get it when they are youth, then who is going to be there in the political world when we are all old and gray?

Over the last couple of months, our country's media have been broadcasting ads in which this year candidates for office talk about goals, dreams, and their accomplishments, and make promises. On Election Day, it isn’t about how many babies those candidates have kissed ... it’s about the number of votes.

As you may know, I believe that lack of education is the root of most of the troubles in this country. My website, http://www.roccobasile.org/ focuses on trends in education, and shows allot of information on how educating our youth will help reduce crime, poverty and violence. That is very obvious from working with my charity programs including Children of the City.

Teachers in classrooms nationwide have been using Election Day as a significant teachable moment. One website called Education World, even houses lessons that emphasize election vocabulary, the importance of voting, and the jobs that elected officials do. Election Day is all about preparing kids to understand this year’s election results.

And now that the results are in, here's what we can look forward to in the new administration insofar as education and our youth. Rahm Emanuel apparently will be Barack Obama's White House chief of staff. Here's what he proposed several months back: Force students to complete high skill and at least one year of college or higher education. Expanded education tax credits.

And in a Q&A session with Fox News, here's what the new president elect Obama said.

Q: As president, can you name a hot-button issue where you would be willing to buck the Democratic Party line & say, "You know what? Republicans have a better idea here?"
A: I think that on issues of education, I've been very clear about the fact--and sometimes I've gotten in trouble with the teachers' union on this--that we should be experimenting with charter schools. We should be experimenting with different ways of compensating teachers.
Q: You mean merit pay?
A: Well, merit pay, the way it's been designed, I think, is based on just a single standardized test--I think is a big mistake, because the way we measure performance may be skewed by whether or not the kids are coming into school already 3 years or 4 years behind. But I think that having assessment tools and then saying, "You know what? Teachers who are on career paths to become better teachers, developing themselves professionally--that we should pay excellence more." I think that's a good idea.
Source: Fox News Sunday: 2008 presidential race interview Apr 27, 2008

-- Rocco Basile