Pool Report of Obama's AFT Address

Obama spoke from a suite in the W hotel here live to the convention of the American Federation of Teachers in Chicago. They had a video and audio feed for him there. He stuck to his prepared remarks largely in a speech that lasted a bit more than 10 minutes. The group announced it was endorsing him right before he started speaking and he said “thank you, thank you,” adding, “I am honored to have your endorsement.”

Not much detail on education policy, beyond pledging support for charter schools and increased education funding. You can look at pledged remarks on that end. He varied very little from the prepared text, and here are some of the highlights.

“Now, John McCain is an honorable man and I respect his service to our country, but he won't even get us to that starting point,” he said, referring to fixing the No Child Left Behind Act as the starting point. “For someone who's been in Washington nearly 30 years, he's got a pretty slim record on education, and when he has taken a stand, it's been the wrong one.”

“He voted against increased funding for No Child Left Behind to preserve billions in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans – tax breaks he wants to extend without saying how he'd pay for them,” Obama added. “He voted against funds for Head Start, and Pell Grants, and the hiring of 100,000 new teachers again and again and again. In fact, his only proposal seems to be recycling tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice. “

On No Child Left Behind, he said, “Now, I believe that the goals of this law – educating every child with an excellent teacher, closing the achievement gap, ensuring more accountability and higher standards – those goals were good, those goals were right,” he added. “But promising all this while leaving the resources behind is wrong. Labeling a school and its students as failures one day and then abandoning them the next is wrong.” (This is slightly different than text, so take a look closely)

“We must fix the failures of No Child Left Behind by providing the funding that was promised, giving states the resources they need, and finally meeting our commitment to special education. It is long overdue.”

On personal responsibility (and again a slight variance from prepared) “But let me point out and I know you agree with this , there is no program and no policy that can substitute for a parent who is involved in their child's education from day one, who makes sure that child is in school on time, helps them with their homework, and attends those parent-teacher conferences; who is willing to turn off the TV once in awhile, put away the video games, and read to their child.

He ended with "thank you so much AFT, God bless you, God bless America.”

Perry Bacon
The Washington Post