The New Obama Administration and Education

Prior to his election to President of the United States, Barack Obama said he will reform the No Child Left Behind, invest in early childhood education: implement a comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan to provide support to young children and their parents, and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.

Obama and Biden also said they will create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 in exchange for community service, covering two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university. They also said they would make community college tuition completely free for most students.

As many of you know, my website http://www.roccobasile.net/, shares news and the statistics on the state of education in the country - so any new improvements to our ailing education system is music to my ears.

At his inaugural speech at the U.S. Capitol President Obama mentioned that, "our schools fail too many." Now that they are settled into their new posts, President Barack Obama and the new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have set a tone of bipartisan cooperation on challenges that are facing our country's schools.

Despite the prospect of cutbacks in school budgets nationwide, the education community in Washington is optimistic about the future according to Jack Jennings, the president of the Center for Education Policy, an advocacy organization.

President Obama believes that giving money to education will stimulate the economy but his opponents believe that he is trying to increase long term funding to schools. He has proposed doubling federal funding for charter schools, who can apply for up to $600,000 in start up money from the federal government.

As a Board member for programs like the Joe DiMaggio Awards Committee at Xaverian High School, (my alma mater), we have long known how financial assistance helps the quality of education that the school can provides its students. Xaverian offers the very best in secondary education by serving young men from disadvantaged backgrounds, including learning disabilities and students in financial need. In fact, if it were not for the generosity of alumni, parents and friends, many of these students would not be able to afford the quality, college-preparatory education our school offers.

In fact, the Joe DiMaggio Award Gala is the major fundraiser for Xaverian, and since the inception of the program in 1994 more than 100 young men have graduated from this special initiative and all have gone on to four-year colleges. Every year the DiMaggio Award outdoes the previous in money raised and national media attention.

-- Rocco Basile