Penn for Obama | The education candidate

Why do college students like Barack Obama?

Sure - he's a fresh face on the scene who talks about a new kind of politics for America. But Obama's popularity runs deeper than vague ideas about change. College students like Obama because he stands for the issues they care about.

One of those issues is education, and the American public school system needs reform. Thirty percent of new teachers quit within their first five years on the job. College costs have skyrocketed by nearly 40 percent over the last five years. And No Child Left Behind fell flat because of poor design, funding and implementation.

Obama's commitment to education goes back to 1985, when he became a community organizer in Chicago. In 1995, he was elected chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which financed enrichment projects at 200 of the city's schools. It wasn't until Obama wrote two best-selling books a few years ago that he and his wife, Michelle, could pay off their own debt in student loans.

Drawing on all that experience, Obama is offering a 20-page plan for education reform. Here are some highlights:

 Reform No Child Left Behind - starting with adequate funding and better measurements of progress - so that teachers don't spend entire academic years preparing students to take standardized tests.

 Create 200 new teacher residency programs, which will supply 30,000 well-prepared teachers to high-need schools each year.

 Double federal funding for public charter schools and hold low-performing ones accountable.

 Put $10 billion into early childhood education, because every dollar invested in early learning yields a $7-$10 return to society, in measures such as decreased need for special education services, higher graduation and employment rates, and less crime.

 Make college affordable with a new American Opportunity Tax Credit, which will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free. And simplify the application process for financial aid by eliminating the current application - its five pages and 127 questions - altogether.

Those are all bold commitments, and they'd be enough in and of themselves to make Obama the "change," "youth" and "education" candidate in this election.

But what's most remarkable about Obama's education plan is its emphasis on the human spirit of public education - the teacher, the student, the parent - which could only have come from someone who has experienced the troubles of inner city schools and the burden of college debt firsthand.

Instead of measuring teacher quality based on the raw test scores of their students, for example, Obama's comprehensive reward system also recognizes teachers who serve as mentors to other teachers, work in under-served schools, have deep knowledge of subjects or offer additional skills.

Parents are written into the policy with the same seriousness as the funding proposals. A mandatory parent report card will help parents monitor their child's academics, a school-family contract will lay out expectations for attendance and behavior, and a new $500 million technology investment fund will finance not only learning in the classroom but also correspondence between teachers and parents.

Compare that to John McCain, who wants to keep No Child Left Behind's emphasis on filling in bubbles on standardized tests. McCain consistently voted against increased funding for after-school programs, providing grants to local education agencies and adjusting educational funding in 2005, in a bill which would have restored educational programs, increased the maximum Pell Grant and increased teachers' student loan forgiveness - and still reduced the deficit by $5.4 billion.

But that's what you'd expect from a candidate, who, during the primary season, didn't even have an education policy on his Web site.

The average college graduate's diploma comes at a price of more than $19,000 in debt. Barack Obama has a 23-year record of fighting for that student; his opponent has a 30-year record of indifference.

College students like Obama because he's the candidate who stands up for their issues, with a commitment that's grounded in real life.

With education, we have an issue - and a choice - that transcends politics.

Sara Himeles is a former DP staff writer, College junior and member of Penn for Obama.

This is the first in a three-part series. This month, both campaigns discuss education policies. Next month, hear from both of the student campaigns about their candidate's plans for healthcare reform!

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