Because of some time constraints today, I’m going to have to limit myself to a short post about President Obama’s proposals for education in his 2010 Budget.  There is a lot to say about this topic, and I’m not going to do it justice here.  It’s too bad, because I suspect that improving our educational system may be the issue that Obama cares about most.  I just put that out there based on my reading of Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope.  From those books, I got the impression that what drives Obama as a politician (apart from the personal ambition that drives all politicians) is a sense that a large segment of America’s youth are being neglected due to poor parenting and a lack of concern from the rest of society.  As a result of this neglect, America is falling behind in the world, and we may soon be surpassed technologically and economically if we do not begin major reforms in our schools.  But Obama’s views about the importance of education for keeping America competitive in the world are only half of the story.  In my view, Obama’s dramatic rise to become the first African-American President was largely a result of two factors in his early life:  first, a parent who cared intensely about his education and, second, the excellent educational opportunities that he had.  Barack Obama has a better understanding than most people of how important education can be to helping every individual achieve his or her potential.

Since I can’t go in depth today about Obama’s education proposals in the budget, I’m going to do something different from the other posts I’ve written for Budget Week.  I’m just going to link to a speech that everyone needs to watch.  Obama gave this speech to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce a few weeks ago, and in it he laid out his budget priorities for education.  One of the things that is most distinctive about Barack Obama’s education plan is how free from ideology it is, and that quality is on display in this speech.

It’s very much worth your time to read about some of the “pockets of excellence” that Obama references in his education speech.  First, there is the inspiring work that Geoffrey Canada is doing in Harlem to improve early childhood education through his Harlem Children’s Zone.  Second, in Nicholas Kristof’s NYT op-ed “Education’s Ground Zero,” he tells the story of the Chancellor of Washington DC’s school system, Michelle Rhee.  Chancellor Rhee is making major reforms in the District to reward good teachers and remove teachers and principals who are performing poorly.  She has only been in her job for two years, but test scores in the nation’s capital are already rising.