Nerd Analysis: More Bad Education Policy in the SOTU Address

I'm not even going to start on the entire speech. In fact, I ended up watching my beloved show "Psych" on USA Network instead. As I've said before, I can't bear any longer to listen to Obama's increasingly vapid and overpolished yet inherently disingenous and weirdly egotistical utterances. I'm increasingly convinced that he hasn't the inner grit for this job -- or the necessary ability to deal with the cold hard reality of actual life. Far too much of his administration has been fundamentally unserious, and that's why his approval ratings have dropped so precipitously. Hillary would have made a better president. And -- hm -- she wasn't at the speech last night.

Going on! I feel the need to say something about educational policy. Happily, someone else has come up with an analysis very close to my thoughts, thus saving me the work. Read on:

President Obama was right to speak tonight about the urgent need to reform and improve American education. But the President is choosing the wrong responses, following failed paths that will put our country deeper in debt, expand dependence on government, and increase burdens on taxpayers — all while rejecting some of the most promising reforms.

A year ago, President Obama stated that his administration would use only one test to decide which programs to fund — whether or not they worked. But his administration has consistently broken that promise. For starters, President Obama allowed Congress to end the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, which has proven to be one of the most effective federal education initiatives in history, improving low-income students’ academic achievement. And he pushed Congress to create a new $8 billion preschool program, while his administration buried a report showing that the federal Head Start program was a colossal failure.

If the President is serious about his commitment to education reform and fiscal discipline, he should press Congress to completely overall the federal role in K-12 and early childhood education by terminating ineffective programs and reforming remaining ones to empower parents and local leaders use our precious tax dollars to best meet children’s needs.

The President also talked about the need to address the important problem of college affordability. But decades of experience have shown that his costly solution — increasing federal subsidies and placing more of the burden for paying college on taxpayers — hasn’t addressed the root problem of out-of-control college costs. Rather than increasing the burden on taxpayers and growing the deficit, federal and state policymakers should focus on reforming higher education to improve efficiency to lower costs.

That’s the right way to improve college access while reducing the burden on taxpayers.

To which I can only add, "Well, DUH." Of course, we can argue about the entire "access to college" business in another post.

During Obama's first "SOTU" speech when he was first elected, he also spoke about his (OK, let's be honest here, stupid) educational policies. As soon as he finished, my phone rang. It was a dear friend and fellow nerd, who was surprised and absolutely horrified by Obama's words. The first thing I heard on the phone was: "Did you hear what he said? OMG. OMG!"

Last night there was no call. This time there was no surprise. Just the dull thud of weary nerds slowly beating their heads against the wall in continued frustration.

RELATED POST: Obama's Classroom Teleprompters Get Schooled By Jon Stewart.