Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has unveiled his $18 billion education plan. Over at the Campaign K-12 blog, Alyson Klein explains where the candidate stands on NCLB and Michele McNeil covers his proposals on teacher pay.
Sen. Obama’s proposal set off a sound-bite debate over NCLB. He chastised his principle opponents for voting in favor of NCLB without fully funding it. The campaigns of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., shot back.
Spokeswomen for both campaigns noted that Sen. Obama voted as a state senator to require Illinois to implement the law even though it hadn’t been fully funded, according to this Baltimore Sun blog.
REAUTHORIZATION NOTE: In his speech, Sen. Obama referred to a 2001 amendment that would have delayed the implementation of NCLB until the law is fully funded. That idea currently lives in a bill sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
INSIDE BASEBALL NOTE: Here’s a roster of people speaking in favor of Sen. Obama’s plan. It includes teacher policy guru Linda Darling-Hammond; Christopher Edley Jr., former President Clinton’s civil-rights adviser; the 2005 National Teacher of the Year; and K-12 professionals in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Darling-Hammond is advising the Obama campaign, according to this story in the Concord Monitor.
