>>
appreciate it.
>>
i want to ask you about the strike in chicago. there was a leading
reform
advocate who said this is a new day for democrats, they're no longer kowtowing to the unions. is that how you see it?
>>
that's not how i see it. what i see is all across the country people want results and i'm a strong believer that the way to get results is to get everyone involved. it starts at home. parents have to parent and turn off the tv and video and make sure your kids turn off the video and do their
home work
and communicate with the teachers. teachers are striving in the classrooms and the
school boards
making sure the teachers have the
resources
and creativity to do their best. principals are leaders. i think what you saw in chicago for example was the fact that they had the shortest
school day
in the country or shortest
school
year. it was very important for mayor emanuel to say let's step up our game, and it was important for the teachers unions to say, let's make sure we're not blaming teachers for the big problems out there. let's make sure we got the
resources
. i'm glad it was resolved. ultimately performance, and making sure the kid doswell. i but i do think from the perspective of democrats, we can't just sit on the status quo or say that money's the only issue.
reform
is important also. that's been the benchmark we've used in my administration is to say we're going to give more money to those schools that are serious about
reform
, but we're not going to let people make excuses and suggest that it's just a money problem.
>>
mitt romney
said that
president obama
has chosen his side in this fight, that you sided with the unions. at another time last spring he said he can't talk up
reform
while indulging in groups that block it.
>>
well, you know, i think governor romney and a number of folks try to politicize the issue and do a lot of teacher bashing. when i meet teachers all across the country, they're so devoted, so dedicated to their kids. and what we've tried to do is actually break through this left/right
conservative liberal
gridlock, and that's what my key
reform
's been all about, the
race to the top
. what we've said to
school districts
is you've got to emphasize high accountability, high standardsing, make sure teachers know we're going to be paying attention to the national outcomes of kids but we're also going to be giving the
resources
the to the teachers, providing the support they need. some of the things we've done has not been popular with
school
teachers. i'm a big supporter of
charter schools
.
>>
one of the things mayor
rahm emanuel
fought for was that.
>>
the key is to work with teachers. when you look at what's happened in denver, for example,
school district
, teachers have embraced the idea of merit teachers who are doing a great job, but what is still a challenge and i think teachers have a legitimate gripe here is making sure the assessments are done properly, that it's not just based on
standardized tests
which often force schools to teach to the tests. and one of the reasons we have sought reforms to no child
left behind
, i think it had great intentions. i give
president bush
credit for saying let's raise standards and make sure everybody's trying to meet them. but because so much was tied to
standardized testing
, what you saw was teaching to the test. and i can't tell you how many teachers meet who say, you know what? this makes
school
less interesting for kids, and as a consequence i'm ending up really shrinking my curriculum, what i can do in terms of creativity inside of the classroom. and that's not how you and i, for example, when we thing of our best teachers, we don't think of studying for a bunch of testing to see how we do on the tests.
>>
some people think he can't have a honest conversation about what they're doing right or wrong. can you really say teachers union s aren't slowing the pace of
reform
?
>>
i get frustrated when i hear of teacher bashing as evidence of
reform
. my sister is a former teacher. she now works at the university working with teachers, and i can tell you na that they work so hard. they're pulling money out of their own pockets. and in some of the tougher
school districts
, they're not just teachers. they're counselors, teachers, disciplinarians because these kids are coming into the schools with so many different problems. what is absolutely true is if we've got a bad teacher, we should be able to train them to get better and if they can't get better, they should be able to get fired. i do think that
reform
has to be a part of every agenda in the country --
school district
in the country because there are some schools that are just underperforming.
>>
and i want to ask you about that because i'm sure you can cytot cite the statistics by heart. the u.s. spends about as much as any other country per pupil. why aren't we getting our money's worth. people are probably wondering what are we spending our money on then?
>>
part of the problem we've got is we've got a very diverse country compared to some of the smaller countries where all the kids are coming to
school
pretty well prepared. they're not hungry, they're not poor. in our country, you know, we've got poor kids and some kids who have deep troubles at home and that affects performance, but there's no doubt we can step up o your game. so what i've proposed moving forward, building off of the
race to the top
, let's hire new math and science teachers who are trained in math and science without being thrown in the classroom without the preparation they need. focus on
early childhood education
. part of our
race to the top
is let's figure out what are the dropout factories out there. some schools are really underperforming. let's transform those schools. and in all these situations what we have to do is combine creativity and evidence-based approaches. so let's not use ideology. let's figure out what works and combine that with
resources
. and this is a big argument and big difference that i've got with governor romney in this election. they talk a good game about
reform
, but when you actually look at budgets, they're talking about slashing our investment
education
by 20, 25%. we've already seen 300,000 teachers that have been fired across the country, and as a consequence class sizes have gone up by 5%. and when you talk with a teacher -- i was meeting with a couple of teachers in
las vegas
-- they said they've got 42 kids in a class, some of them sitting on floor. it takes a couple of weeks to where they try to redistribute to get it down to 35, 36, 38. that has an impact on kids learning. so
reform
is important and
resources
are important, and you can't be for one but not be for the other.
>>
let me ask you about no child
left behind
. the administration has granted waivers to states because congress hasn't amended the law. allows them to have not as rigorous standards. something caught my eye absolutely and i'm glad it caught yours too. because of those waivers in some states, some states are permitted to have different proficiency standards by race. in other words, in the
state of maryland
, african-americans are only expected to reach a certain level of proficiency but why students are expected to reach a hire level of proficiency. we have a situation in
2012
where you have african-americans not expected to reach the same proficiency as whites. i just wondered on a gut level, does that bother you?
>>
of course, it bothers me. one of the good things about no child
left behind
is to say that all kids can learn, white, hispanic, it doesn't matter. but the problem you had is because it was underresourced and because some kids were coming to
school
-- minority kids were coming to
school
already behind, the schools were not going to come close to meeting these standards. and so what we've said to schools is you've got to continue to keep the
high standards
, but we're still going to measure growth. you're not going have a chance do really well with white kids and the black and hispanic kids but you average it out and meet something. we're still going to desegregate that. moving toward the growth model and measuring how a
school
is doing gives every
school
the opportunity to improve without labeling them as failures and then not giving them the
resources
that they need to actually step up.
>>
let's talk about
college tuition
. i know you've done a lot. you talk a lot about what to do on the aids side. on the cost side tuition is going up by leaps and bounds and will make your jaw drop when you ewe think what a little kid today is going to have to pay in 20 years. in the
state of the union
, you say, i'm putting you on notice, schools, if you don't do that, e you're going to see your funding drop. has there been any change?
>>
you're right. our first step was to make sure we were providing the aid and grant that were needed so the burden wasn't all falling on kids. we took money out of the pell gram. we said let's cut out the middle men. let's use that to expand the assistance we're providing the kids. so as a consequence the
average cost
has not gone up as fast as tuition has gone up. but that's not a sustainable model. we're going have to keep tuition down. the biggest problem we've got with tuition, especially public universities is
state legislatures
have been shifting priorities. you know, they're spending money. and what we've said to
state legislatures
is you've got to do your part and prioritize this because how well your state does is going to depend on how well your
work force
is educated. but what we've also seen is schools starting to do something about costs. you know, in some cases it may have to do with tele-
education
and are there ways kids can get educated without being in a classroom. it may involve changing at the facilities. when you've got
country club
level workout facilities and dining halls and all that stuff, that costs money. i also tell them when i went to
school
, we didn't expect to have that. we're looking to find ways to cut costs but ultimately states are going to have to step up. this is also why
community colleges
are so important because that's a good option for a lot of kids. not everybody's going to need a four-year
college degree
. everybody's going to need some form of
higher education
and
community college
are under utilized
resources
. we want to provide 2 million more jobs.
>>
what would you advise a schiel senior that had a dream
school
that would leave them $100,000 in debt or go to another
school
that would not? should they lower their academic sights for financial reasons?
>>
a couple things i would say. each
school
is different and some schools have a big ticket
retail price
but when you factor in the aid that the schools give, it may not cost the kid as much, but if they've got a chance at getting a great
education
without loading up debt, you know, sometimes that might be the better option. one of the things we want to do is make sure the kids know what it is that it's going to cost them to go to college. so as part of our
wall street
reform
package we set up something called the
consumer finance
protection bureau which is designed to help consumers on a whole range of things, financial situations, mortgages,
credit cards
. one of the things they've done is work with schools so kids know before they get -- they get a clear sheet before they sign up for
school
explaining even if the college tells you, look, don't worry about costs, you'll be able to get the money for your college, a lot of times the kids don't know how much they're going to owe at the end of four years and we're saying you've got to make that information available so the kid can be better consumers and as consequence get the best
education
possible.
>>
getting back to
education
for a moment, your supporters and even detractors said what you did to the
race to the top
had a huge impact, you did that with, i think, less than 1% of the federf
federal budget
. the question is why not get more?
>>
we're trying to fund this
race to the top
model. there have been members of congress who have been resis tent. traditionally
education
aid has been spread around be a formula. if you're a congressman or senator from a particular place, you want to make sure you're getting your
fair share
, regardless of whether your schools are reforms or not. we're going to keep on pushing because as you point out, we ended up seeing 46 states, even the ones that didn't win the competition, initiate reforms because they were chasing those extra dollar, and what we want to say to
school districts
and states across the country is each state is different. you know, we're not suggesting all comes from washington. there are some basic standards that everybody should meet and there are certain practices that we know work. we know that -- who are treated like professionals and be creative in the classroom and a good principal who's a leader and you're keeping track of to progress they're making. and when we have good data that shows how you improve schools, it shouldn't be just sitting in a drawer. and the idea between a
race to the top
is we'll work with you, we're not going to tell you exactly what you want to do but we're going to tell you how it works. if you want extra dollars to immr. ement that, we'll tell you.
>>
before i let you go you got in hot water at home, i heard about, when you let the world know
malia
got a c on a science test. that got me thinking. have you ever failed a test?
>>
oh, yes.
>>
really?
>>
i was -- i would say i was a mediocre student until i got to college. i goofed off way too much.
malia
and sasha are so far ahead of me, basically at n all respects. they're basically
better people
than i was and thayer doing wonderfully. i couldn't be prouder of them. i will say at least at the
school
they're at, theory getting a lot more homework than i did when i was that age. they seem to be working deep
into the night
, you know. i didn't study until the night before an exam.
>>
i wondered if
malia
who's in
high school
now if she's studied
current events
and studying this
presidential election
.
>>
you know, she is studied
current events
. she's pretty dispassionate about it. she's able to separate out from dad who's at home to the debates going on out there.
>>
are you?
>>
i tell her i want her to think for herself. the best
education
is one where kids learn how to learn and they learn how to think for themselves, and my entire goal as a parent is the same goal i've got as president, which is to make sure that every child out here is equipped to compete and to be good citizens in an environment that's changing so fast. what you need to be able to do is constantly take in new information, adapt it, analyze it, use it, and i think that and we have all the ingredients we need to succeed in this competitive environment, but it does mean we've got more work do at the local level and hopefully the
federal government
can be helpful. we can't do it all. we only account for 10% of
education
funding, but i think we can lever ralk the
resources
that we have to make sure that schools are making a difference.
>>
mr. president, thank you for your time. really appreciate it.
>>
thank you, i enjoyed it.
>>>
for more inform yogs u can log on to educationnation.com.
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