Obama touts school reform

Barack Obama, after hammering Republican rival John McCain on the economy for weeks, turns today to another core Democratic issue: education.

In what's being billed as a major speech at a high school in Dayton, Ohio, and a new TV ad, Obama calls for school reform, including more charter schools and merit pay for teachers.

His proposals would cost $1 billion more a year, which his campaign says he would get from cutting unnecessary federal spending.

He also says for all his maverick talk of bringing change to Washington, McCain has marched in lockstep with Republican "ideologues" on education.

"If we’re going to make a real and lasting difference for our future, we have to be willing to move beyond the old arguments of left and right and take meaningful, practical steps to build an education system worthy of our children and our future," Obama said. "We have to."

"In the past few weeks, my opponent, John McCain, has taken to talking about the need for change and reform in Washington, where he has been part of the scene for about three decades," Obama continued. "And in those three decades, he has not done one thing to truly improve the quality of public education in our country. Not one real proposal or law or initiative. Nothing.

"Instead, he marched with the ideologues in his party in opposing efforts to hire more teachers, and expand Head Start, and make college more affordable. You don’t reform our schools by opposing efforts to fully fund No Child Left Behind. And you certainly don’t reform our education system by calling to close the Department of Education. That would just make it harder for us to give out financial aid, harder for us to keep track of how our schools are doing, and lead to widening inequality in who gets a college degree," Obama plans to say. "After three decades of indifference on education, do you really believe that John McCain is suddenly going to make a difference now?"

The TV spot makes the same point.

"When they grow up, will the economy be strong enough?" the announcer asks. "Barack Obama understands what it takes make America number one in education again."

Then, the color images of happy schoolkids turn into stark black and white with an image of McCain superimposed.

The announcer continues: "John McCain doesn’t understand. John McCain voted to cut education funding. Against accountability standards. He even proposed abolishing the Department of Education. And John McCain’s economic plan gives $200 billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools."

"We can’t afford more of the same," the announcer concludes, over an image of McCain and President Bush.

The Republican National Committee responded earlier to Obama's proposals, citing an Education Week article that says Obama has not made a significant mark on education policy during his years in the Illinois legislature or the US Senate.

“Unlike Barack Obama, Senator McCain will do more than give speeches about education reform in this country, he will shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empowering parents, and remove barriers to attract and reward good teachers. Obama’s agenda answers first to unions and entrenched education interests, not the students and parents that Senator McCain puts first,” Blair Latoff, a RNC spokeswoman, said in a statement.

The McCain campaign responded to the ad as well. “Without a single achievement on education reform, Barack Obama has resorted to a desperate attack with absolutely no basis in fact. John McCain has proposed new education reforms to empower parents and students while reducing the influence of the unions and government bureaucrats that support Barack Obama’s candidacy. Nothing that John McCain has proposed would reduce funding for public schools, but in fact he has pledged additional funds to improve education -- and Barack Obama knows it,” Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, said in a statement.

Obama has the backing of teachers' unions, and one quickly praised his plan.

“Sen. Obama gets it,” Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement. “He knows that reform cannot take place overnight or by using quick fixes. Obama wants to invest in comprehensive strategies, both immediate and long-term, which will pay dividends for our children, our economy and our country.”

“Those of us in the education community can learn from charter school success stories and failures,” Van Roekel added. “The key is to identify what is working that can be sustained and reproduced on a broad scale so that as many students as possible can benefit.”