October 2008 — Editorial
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President Ed Tech
Following a rough ride with the Bush administration, only one candidate offers the policies and vision that can reinvigorate our industry and help our students gain a foothold on the future.
BARACK OBAMA for president.
I say this with equal parts gravity and enthusiasm, and after a great amount of consideration. It's certainly not something I am in the practice of doing. In my long tenure at T.H.E. Journal, I have aggressively advocated for the education and technology communities, but have stayed clear of endorsing candidates for office. It can be bad for business, as well as a little presumptuous. But this country can no longer afford to have tepid support for technology in education from the federal government, when all other facets of our-- and the world's-- economy and society are leveraging technology to make changes in how they operate.
Many US schools are on the cusp of greatness. Robust deployment of technology, effective professional development, informed use of data, and close connections to parents and the community at large are the hallmarks of these campuses. Unfortunately, they are in the minority, what Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has called "islands of excellence."
The success of these schools has happened in spite of what we might politely call mixed messages from the Bush administration. The first iteration of the administration's No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) included the Enhancing Education Through Technology initiative, with funding totaling about $700 million. Three years later, the administration began zeroing out the program. Congress was able to keep it alive but with its funding weakened, forcing states to cut back the support they could offer schools.
After too many years of antagonism from the White House, we need the right leadership to help undo the damage done to the education technology movement. We need leadership that can create programs that are suffi- ciently broad-based and flexible for states and districts to adapt to their local needs. And we need leadership that can prepare our students for the second decade of the 21st century. I'm endorsing Sen. Obama because he has articulated a technology and education platform that will provide the support and direction crucial to the future of our schools and students. Obama's opponent, Sen. John McCain, also has a platform for technology in education, and though it is not without merit, it is too targeted to meet the many and diverse needs of states and school districts.
Obama's plan is like a page out of this very magazine: a balanced use of technology integrated throughout all of teaching and learning, with a special look at better approaches to testing, the bane of educators' existence as drawn in NCLB.
