Washington Contact:
Tommy Vietor (202) 228-5511
Statement by Senator Barack Obama
TEACHING INEQUALITY:
HOW POOR AND MINORITY STUDENTS ARE SHORTCHANGED
ON TEACHER QUALITY
Qualified teachers are the key to student success – and the analysis by Education Trust clearly proves that good teachers raise student achievement, while unqualified teachers may even lower it. Rather than decreasing the achievement gap, the current system of teacher distribution perpetuates that gap, with disturbing consequences for our children.
The No Child Left Behind law, which states that all kids should have highly qualified teachers, is supposed to correct this. So far, it has not, and that’s why this issue must remain a focus of our interest in the months to come. Last December, I urged Secretary Spellings to more clearly spell out the process that determines whether teachers are equitably distributed. If they are not, the Department of Education should provide a plan for correcting these inequities in a quick, transparent, and measurable way so that our children are not abandoned year after year.
Children of color and poverty suffer most from our continued failure to correct these teacher disparities. As this report shows, these students don’t just score lower on tests, they are less prepared for college and the workplace as well. That’s why if we do nothing about this problem, we will face a future that is both morally unacceptable for our children, and economically untenable as we face a globalized world. We can and must work together to solve this problem.