White House Town Hall Draws Thousands of Ed. Questions

Today at 11:30 a.m., President Obama will be answering questions submitted by everyday citizens in an online town hall discussion. The questions cover a wide range of topics with education being one of the most popular subjects. Here are just some of the many questions pertaining to education that may be asked:

• "Mr President What are you going to do about local public schools cutting enrichment programs (arts, science, PE) due to the budget issues? While we need to increase our education levels, yet we see less dollars for schools"
• "No Child Left Behind had some good ideas behind it, but a lot of bad ideas as well. If given the opportunity to change the law, what would you change about NCLB and what would you keep?"
• "Is there a plan to shift the focus of education away from standardized testing? It has taken the fun out of school for both students and teachers."
• "I'm a high school senior and have worked hard all 4 years of high school to keep a 4.0 GPA and am now realizing my dream college chances are limited by money. Will there be any help to middle class families whose scholarship aids are being cut?"

As you can see, there is a wide variety of questions relating to different issues in education. Students, parents, and educators are worried about loans, teacher pay, NCLB, and budget cuts among other topics. If you had the chance to ask President Obama a question, what would you ask?

*UPDATE: The first question presented to Obama was:

The Founding Fathers believed that there is no difference between a free society and an educated society. Our educational system, however, is woefully inadequate. How do you plan to restore education as a right and core cultural value in America?

"The students who get the best education are going to be able to compete," Obama responded to the question. He said rooting out poor performing teachers, historic investments in early childhood education, more training and professional development, and upgrading schools to compete in the 21st century are vital to improving the U.S. education system. Obama stated he is confident that the U.S. can outperform every country if math and science are taught on the highest level and asked that America embrace innovation.

"We have got to try some new things," he said after pointing out that his education is what got him to where he is today.

*UPDATE: Three college students just asked Obama about student loans and the National Service program. Obama responded that National Service may be in place within the coming weeks and wants to work to make the student loan process better. Obama said one way to improve the affordability and to reduce the debt associated with student loans is to cut out the banks who are essentially distributing government guaranteed loans for a profit. If the government directly distributes the loans then the rates will go down and there can be an expansion of loans and grants, including Pell Grants.

*UPDATE: Obama is currently discussing the positives and negatives of charter schools and teacher performance. He said the biggest problem with NCLB is that a once-a-year standardized test does not show if the teacher is good or not. Too many good teachers are unfairly punished due to the assessments and teachers end up teaching to the test, which turns off students. 

Obama said he does not want to eliminate standardized tests, but he said he does not want it to be the only thing teachers are judged by. Bill Gates suggested to Obama that technology may be able to solve this problem.

Obama says that some people are not meant to be teachers and there needs to be new accountability measures to find out which teachers are effective and which ones are not.