The right-wing blogosphere, an eerie place closely akin to Bizarro World in old Superman comics, serves at least one legitimate purpose. They are outraged by things that I usually approve of. If not for their outrage, then sometimes I might not have found out about those things. I discovered that fact accidentally. Thinking that I was adding a normal news site to my reader, I followed a link right into some of the most hateful writing I've seen in a long time. I immediately turned on ABP to prevent them from getting any income from my visit while I toured their putrid fantasy land. They have trashed some great things there that haven't been written about at all here (according to the search engine), things like Senator Obama's Zero to Five Plan.
I refuse to name the author of the piece that led me to the education page at Barack Obama's website, because he doesn't deserve a mention. In the past I wrote a hateful diary, but in my case I deleted it. I am certain this man loves his own opinion far too much to do something repentant like that. I feel obligated to defend Barack Obama's entire education plan, including the "Zero to Five Plan."
The plan, listed under Early Childhood Education, is as follows:
Zero to Five Plan: Obama's comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, Obama's plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.
That sounds extremely sane and caring, don't you think? That's what it looked like before it got passed through the automated lie-a-lotter. Those three sentences were transformed into a "vision for government run childhood," whereby the state will assume the function of parents. I must have missed something, because I'm pretty sure that's not what preschool means. However, I do see how educating young children would run counter to the desires of the Republican Party. They definitely don't want a nation full of people who can think for themselves.
Barack Obama's education initiatives fall into the categories of Early Childhood Education, K-12, "Recruit, Prepare, Retain and Reward Teachers" and, finally, Higher Education. Those ideas are only discussed after an outline of the problems our nation is facing: lack of funding for No Child Left Behind, Children getting left behind, high dropout rates, incredible college tuition costs and poor teacher retention rates.
Under Early Childhood Education there is the "Zero to Five Plan," which you have already seen. He also proposes to quadruple spending on Early Head Start, expand Head Start and offer affordable, high quality child care. In the world of people who work odd hours, because our nation can be difficult to survive in if we don't go to Princeton, affordable child care would help millions and millions of people.
Under "K-12" Senator Obama proposes we actually give funding to No Child Left Behind, instead of pretending that it works without money. There is a proposal to expand the 21st Century Learning Centers program, by adding funding for over a million additional students. He supports bringing math and science to the forefront in education, with the pesky intention of facilitating the genius necessary to discover world-changing technology. His "Step Up" plan would add summer education opportunities for disadvantaged students, and he wants to help more people get to college. This is starting to sound more and more evil, don't you think. He wants to help disadvantaged people? [cue theme from Halloween]
The Recruit, Prepare, Retain and Reward Teachers section will be easy for me to explain. Recruit: To supply with new members or employees. Prepare, well that means train. Retain and Reward also have meanings, but I won't insult your intelligence by listing those too. You get the gist of the section, I am sure.
The Higher Education section blows my mind. This is the part I liked the most:
Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama 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. Obama will also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at the time of enrollment by using prior year's tax data to deliver the credit when tuition is due.
I had not heard about this prior to today. This would be an incredible leap forward for higher education in our nation. I will be telling everybody I know who has children soon to graduate from college about this proposal. I can't even begin to give the idea the credit it deserves. Visionary is the best I can do. Oh, and he wants to simplify applications for financial aid.
Those are the facts about Barack Obama's education initiatives. I interjected my opinions in places, but I in no way distorted the truth with regard to his plans. Meanwhile, I also took a quick little swing by McCain's site. These are the second and third paragraphs of John McCain's education "plan":
Public education should be defined as one in which our public support for a child's education follows that child into the school the parent chooses. The school is charged with the responsibility of educating the child, and must have the resources and management authority to deliver on that responsibility. They must also report to the parents and the public on their progress.
The deplorable status of preparation for our children, particularly in comparison with the rest of the industrialized world, does not allow us the luxury of eliminating options in our educational repertoire. John McCain will fight for the ability of all students to have access to all schools of demonstrated excellence, including their own homes.
Yeah, this is the truth. Boy, it sure is ugly. My favorite part is the home schooling thing. I wonder whose going to decide which homes are schools of demonstrated excellence. McCain's camp obviously spent literally dozens of seconds presenting his ideas. The only problem is that the people most for home schooling, young children who don't want to go to school, aren't old enough to vote yet. Oops.
Also, the entire, uh, idea page (?), is only eight paragraphs long.
Another DK diary slams hatemongers with the truth.
Have a nice day, wingnuts, as you eat my dust.