Obama Spends Election Anniversary Talking Education

US President Barack Obama speaks about education at the Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin, November 4, 2009.

President Barack Obama said public school systems must do a better job of putting top teachers in front of classrooms and setting high standards for students to keep the U.S. economically competitive.

Obama used the backdrop of a middle school in Madison, Wisconsin, to put a spotlight on his $4.35 billion fund to distribute grants intended to help improve public education.

“We’ve got to do a better job recruiting and preparing new teachers, we’ve got to do a better job rewarding outstanding teachers,” Obama said at James C. Wright Middle School, one of two charter schools in Madison. School systems also must be prepared to move “bad teachers out of the classroom.”

Obama is making education one of the cornerstones for what he says will be a foundation for long-term U.S. economic growth. The administration has set a goal of making the U.S. the leader in the percentage of college graduates by the year 2020.

To reach that, Obama in July unveiled the “Race to the Top” grants, which will have states competing for money based on plans to improve their public education systems.

Obama's speech in Madison Wednesday is energizing some educators and lawmakers who will return to the Capitol Thursday to vote on a series of education bills that would put the state in position to qualify and compete for federal Race to the Top program money.

One of those five bills to be voted on by the Wisconsin Legislature would allow performance-based pay for teachers, which is a controversial issue.

When it comes to the classroom, Obama made in clear in his speech Wednesday that students must come first and teachers have to be topnotch.

"We've got to do a better job of rewarding outstanding teachers, and I've got to be honest, we've got to do a better job moving bad teachers out of the classroom," Obama said.

But there is debate about the best way to reward, retain and motivate teachers.

John Matthews, executive director of Madison Teachers Inc., the teachers union, said that when it comes to the idea of performance-based pay -- sometimes called merit pay -- he's far from sold.

"I remember one fellow from the Seattle area coming and telling me, 'We've got merit pay; we've got it all figured out. We took care of the pitfalls, and this is going to be wonderful.' Two years later he was saying, 'Well is that a disaster,'" Matthews said.

Matthews said merit pay and similar incentives can create a chilling effect.

The president of WEAC, which represents the state's teachers, said she has other ideas.

"We need to reward great performance, but I don't know that merit pay is the most effective way to do that," said Mary Bell, president of WEAC. "It's great leadership; it's good working conditions; it's having a professional development environment that makes them feel they are professionals and they are making a difference for kids. That's what rewards great teachers."

On Thursday lawmakers will take up the education bills, but no matter what efforts come down to a vote, the president and all experts agree that every student needs their parents to support them.

"Don't just expect teachers to set a high bar. You've got to set a high bar in the households all across America," Obama said.

"A lot has to be invested and I don't just mean financially. We have to have a lot of parent involvement; we have to have parents know what's going on at school; we have to have parents coming in and working with teachers on goal setting," Matthews said. "We finally have a president who is really interested in education. We haven't had that in a long, long, long time."

WEAC supports new legislation allowing test scores to be part of teacher performance evaluation if teachers are not fired or disciplined based on performance.

But critics said that if the system doesn't go both ways, good and bad, it can't work.

On Wednesday, the president outlined how states might be evaluated for Race to the Top dollars.

Obama said he wants to see higher standards and better testing; better teachers recruited and prepared for their jobs; and a method to track student and teacher progress.

Obama said he wants to see states not just improve their mid-grade schools but commit to fixing problem schools.

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