President Barack Obama strongly condemned the state of public education Tuesday, calling for more charter schools, higher salaries for effective teachers and the faster firing of bad ones, an agenda that could put him at odds with some longtime Democratic stalwarts in teachers unions.
"It's time to start rewarding good teachers, stop making excuses for bad ones," Obama told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents, it's the person standing at the front of the classroom."
As a candidate for president, Obama treaded carefully on the politics of education reform, siding with critics of public education at some points but carefully preserving his relationship with powerful education unions.
His speech appeared to position him closer to the critics.
"Despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we've let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us," Obama said in his first speech on the subject as president. "What's at stake is nothing less than the American dream."
His positions on charter schools and merit pay for teachers were the two areas that most broke from orthodox Democratic positions.
On charters, Obama called for eliminating restrictions that many states have on the number of these public but independent -- and largely non-union -- schools. "This is the most forceful I think he has been," said Marcus Winters, a senior fellow at the New York-based Manhattan Institute, which supports giving parents options beyond the traditional neighborhood school.
California no longer has a charter cap, but some local union leaders have said that the state needs one again, because charters are draining money as well as motivated students from traditional schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District has more charters than any other school system in the nation -- and dozens more are on the way.
The president's advocacy of merit pay for teachers drew immediate objections from some teachers and union officials. "It doesn't work. . . . You can't create an educational community by pitting teachers against each other," said Joshua Pechthalt, vice president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
