The dust from the election has settled. In a few short weeks, we will have a new administration in office, and many throughout the country have a renewed sense of optimism. While President Obama is inheriting some challenging issues, not the least of which is one of the worst economies in seven decades, he also has a blank slate to begin working on initiatives that are going to define his presidency.
His background is that of a community leader. His work to benefit the people and communities of Chicago has been well documented. He has also been a proponent of improving public schools, and has worked to improve Chicago’s inner-city schools. How might this work translate to his national education policies?
As a senator of Illinois, Barack Obama, along with fellow Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D), Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont (I) and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last year introduced the Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act (S. 2111), legislation that would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 allowing state and local educational agencies, and schools to increase implementation of early intervention services, particularly school-wide positive behavior support.
Last week, President-elect Barack Obama named Arne Duncan, the head of the Chicago school system, to be the education secretary. In citing Duncan’s accomplishments in Chicago, the third largest school system in the country, Obama referenced that since 2001 he’s boosted elementary test scores from 38 percent of students meeting the standards to 67 percent, and the student dropout rate has gone down every year.
We can hope that the new administration, with Secretary Duncan at the helm, will work to improve our own system. Many schools are struggling to educate children at the fringe of our society – those in some of our most impoverished areas. There is hope, and that comes in the form of initiatives like School-Wide Positive Behavior Support, among other multi-tiered approaches, that helps to set the framework for all children to be educated in environments conducive to learning.
I look forward, with great optimism, to what the future may hold for all of our nation’s children.
