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David Woolf

Marina Fragoso Senra, photographer
Marina attended the Northfield Mount Hermon School and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where in 2006 she received her BFA in Photography and Imaging. While at NYU Marina interned at Blindspot Magazine and Annie Leibovitz's studio. She follows her camera around NYC and around the world, having traveled throughout South America, Asia, and Europe. Other clients include City Search, Biz Bash, NBTV, Young Indies llc and Van Wyck and Van Wyck events.

President Obama's Intended Reforms

In March, President Barack Obama made a speech on how he intends to reform the education system. He has allocated $100 billion from the economic stimulus package for education and wants part of these funds dedicated to change. President Obama is urging states to lift limits on charter schools, improve early childhood education, and implement a successful merit pay system linking pay to performance.

TeachersCount asked: How do you feel about President Obama's plans for the nation's school systems?


A total of 143 respondents, 129 of whom described themselves as educators, participated in the poll. Participants chose among the following possible responses:

  • The president's stated intentions are steps in the right direction. Charter schools, early childhood education and merit pay are necessary if we intend to improve the quality of education for all of America's Children.
  • The money from the stimulus package could be spent in more effective ways. There are steps that should be taken which would produce far greater results than investing in charter schools, early childhood education and merit pay.
  • I agree with some of President Obama's ideas, but not with all of them.

The majority of respondents, 49.6%, agreed with some of President Obama's ideas, but not with all of them. 32.9% of respondents said that the money from the stimulus package could be spent in more effective ways and there are steps that should be taken which would produce far greater results. The remaining respondents, 17.5%, said that the president's stated intentions are steps in the right direction and that charter schools, early childhood education and merit pay are necessary if we intend to improve the quality of education for all of America's Children.

Educators and non-educators differed in their responses. Many more educators, 129, than non-educators, 14, responded. Amongst non-educators, most of them (42.9%) agreed with some of President Obama's ideas, but not with all of them. 50.4% of all educators felt the same way, which is slightly more dominant. A high percentage of non-educators, 35.7% thought the president's stated intentions are steps in the right direction while only 15.5% of educators felt this way. A higher percentage of educators (34.1%) than of non-educators (21.4%) thought that the money from the stimulus package could be spent in more effective ways.

The poll invited respondents to comment, and many of them did. Below is a sampling of comments arranged by response.

“The president's stated intentions are steps in the right direction. Charter schools, early childhood education and merit pay are necessary if we intend to improve the quality of education for all of America's Children.” – 17.5%
  • “I like the emphasis placed on education by the Obama administration. But, while I think accountability is important, we must come up with other measures than state standardized tests. Here in Colorado test scores are really the only measure of success of a school. Having worked at a charter school, I know how little that really measures as far as our success with children who had alternative learning styles and needs.”
  • “Still not convinced that merit pay is a good idea. If there are students in the classroom acting out and not wanting to learn or not showing up for the tests that decide whether the teacher has merit, how is that a teacher's fault? Parents have to be involved, not just teachers. I wouldn't want a first year teacher to be completely discouraged because their pay is based on whether their students pass a test. It's not fair. So, if merit pay could be better described, I might agree totally with these plans.”
  • “I agree that bold steps are needed to ensure that our children are competitive with children worldwide.”
“The money from the stimulus package could be spent in more effective ways. There are steps that should be taken which would produce far greater results than investing in charter schools, early childhood education and merit pay.” – 32.9%
  • “We should concentrate our efforts on improving public schools instead of practicing abandonment. These children in public schools deserve qualified teachers that are respected for the hard work that they do. It may seem that teachers have it easy because we have only a 10 month work period, however most of us take work at home and are not compensated for all of the extra work put on us through unneccessary testing. Instead of only focusing on Math and English Language Arts, we need to make sure our students are well rounded by giving them challanging science in the early grades, and foriegn language. ”
  • “Too much money is wasted on PROGRAMS. Parents need to be accountable for their child's behavior and learning. Far too many parents do not hold their child accountable for their actions and replace the blame on someone else, another student, situation and of course the teacher.”
  • “I feel what is needed is to hire more teachers. Have a very small number of students per teacher. That would make a BIG difference! Especially in areas where student performance is low. I would suggest a maximum number of 10 students per teacher. Invest in teachers, not in different schools. I think charter schools only lower the salaries of teachers in the long run by not providing them with the pensions they should earn. Teaching is the most important profession, yet one of the lowest paid. Change THAT and You shall see improvement!”
“I agree with some of President Obama's ideas, but not with all of them.” – 49.6%
  • “Charter schools rob public schools of critical funds. All teachers merit professional wages. It is not a competition. Teachers would avoid teaching the most challenging students, like English Language Learners and economically disadvantage youth, if their pay is based on student test scores. ”
  • “I believe early childhood education is very important. I do not think merit pay is an effective way to motivate teachers. Having a national curriculum and a national assessment would be helpful. We also need to learn from other countries who teach a narrow curriculum in depth. We tend to teach a very broad curriculum where many many topics are touched upon but are not taught in depth because there is not time.”
  • “I do believe in the need for merit pay but as a teacher I am concerned on how administrators would arrive at their decisions of who deserves it. There needs to be a base salary and then bonuses based on hard work and desire to improve teaching and not be based AT ALL on state testing. I am also worried about where the fueding for bonuses/merit pay would come from. Our budgets for school are already so tight that I would worry about where the money is being taken from to pay extra to teachers.”