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here.Early
Childhood Education
- Zero to Five Plan: The Obama-Biden
comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to
young children and their parents. 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 will create Early
Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts
and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.
- 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.
K-12
- Reform No Child Left Behind: Obama and Biden
will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law. Obama and Biden
believe teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year
preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will
improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure
readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning
in a timely, individualized manner. Obama and Biden will also
improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting
schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.
- Support High-Quality Schools and Close Low-Performing
Charter Schools: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double
funding for the Federal Charter School Program to support the
creation of more successful charter schools. An Obama-Biden
administration will provide this expanded charter school funding
only to states that improve accountability for charter schools,
allow for interventions in struggling charter schools and have a
clear process for closing down chronically underperforming charter
schools. An Obama-Biden administration will also prioritize
supporting states that help the most successful charter schools to
expand to serve more students.
- Make Math and Science Education a National Priority:
Obama and Biden will recruit math and science degree graduates to
the teaching profession and will support efforts to help these
teachers learn from professionals in the field. They will also work
to ensure that all children have access to a strong science
curriculum at all grade levels.
- Address the Dropout Crisis: Obama and Biden
will address the dropout crisis by passing his legislation to
provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention
strategies in middle school - strategies such as personal academic
plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive
reading and math instruction, and extended learning time.
- Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities:
Obama and Biden will double funding for the main federal support for
afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to
serve one million more children.
- Support College Outreach Programs: Obama and
Biden support outreach programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and Upward Bound
to encourage more young people from low-income families to consider
and prepare for college.
- Support College Credit Initiatives: Barack
Obama and Joe Biden will create a national "Make College A Reality"
initiative that has a bold goal to increase students taking AP or
college-level classes nationwide 50 percent by 2016, and will build
on Obama's bipartisan proposal in the U.S. Senate to provide grants
for students seeking college level credit at community colleges if
their school does not provide those resources.
- Support English Language Learners: Obama and
Biden support transitional bilingual education and will help Limited
English Proficient students get ahead by holding schools accountable
for making sure these students complete school.
Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America's Teachers
- Recruit Teachers: Obama and Biden will create
new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of
undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including
high-quality alternative programs for mid-career recruits in
exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field
or location.
- Prepare Teachers: Obama and Biden will require
all schools of education to be accredited. Obama and Biden will also
create a voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure
that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the
classroom and start teaching effectively. Obama and Biden will also
create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000
exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.
- Retain Teachers: To support our teachers, the
Obama-Biden plan will expand mentoring programs that pair
experienced teachers with new recruits. They will also provide
incentives to give teachers paid common planning time so they can
collaborate to share best practices.
- Reward Teachers: Obama and Biden will promote
new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed
with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design
programs that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to
new teachers with a salary increase. Districts can reward teachers
who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities.
And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can
be valued and rewarded as well.
Higher Education
- Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit:
Obama and Biden will make college affordable for all Americans by
creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and
fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a
college education is completely free for most Americans, and 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. Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct
100 hours of community service.
- Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid:
Obama and Biden will streamline the financial aid process by
eliminating the current federal financial aid application and
enabling families to apply simply by checking a box on their tax
form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating
the need for a separate application.
Barack Obama's Record
- Record of Advocacy: Obama has been a leader on
educational issues throughout his career. In the Illinois State
Senate, Obama was a leader on early childhood education, helping
create the state's Early Learning Council. In the U.S. Senate, Obama
has been a leader in working to make college more affordable. His
very first bill sought to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to
$5,100. As a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
committee, Obama helped pass legislation to achieve that goal in the
recent improvements to the Higher Education Act. Obama has also
introduced legislation to create Teacher Residency Programs and to
increase federal support for summer learning opportunities.
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