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President Barack Obama holds a roundtable to discuss K-12 education with Clark County teachers Lori Elizabeth Henrickson, left, Isaac Barron and Claritssa Sanchez, at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012.
By Tovin Lapan (contact) 
Friday, Aug. 24, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Obama's speech focuses on education
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KSNV reports that President Barack Obama focused on education in campaign speech at Canyon Springs High School, Aug. 22.
Sun coverage
Before President Barack Obama addressed a crowd of more than 2,500 supporters at Canyon Springs High School on Wednesday morning, he sat down to talk shop with three teachers.
Lori Henrickson, an Earth sciences teacher at Del Webb Middle School; Claritssa Sanchez, a government and world history teacher at Canyon Springs High School; and Isaac Barron, a Rancho High School government and world history teacher, chatted with the president for close to a half-hour about class sizes, school funding, No Child Left Behind and other education matters.
Sanchez then introduced Obama to the gymnasium crowd. During the president’s 25-minute speech about education, he supported calls for more teachers, smaller class sizes, equal educational opportunities for all and lowering the cost of higher education.
“We should be hiring more teachers, especially in areas like math and science, where we need to be at the cutting edge,” Obama said. “If we want America to lead in the 21st century, we’ve got to give all our children the best education possible — from the day they start in preschool to the day they start their career — because other countries are racing, they are doing everything they can to out-educate us because they know that means they’ll be able to out-compete us. They know the new businesses and new industries will take root and create jobs wherever the best-educated, most highly skilled workers are.”
After the teachers had a day to reflect on their meeting with the president and his remarks, Barron and Henrickson spoke of the experience. Their comments were edited for clarity.
How were you selected to meet with President Obama?
Barron: Well, because I’m the advisor for the Hispanic Student Union at Rancho, when people have issues or questions about policies that affect Latino students, they will often ask for my thoughts. So, various people — including Sen. Harry Reid’s office, Rep. Shelley Berkley’s office and now Obama’s office — use me as a sounding board because I’m someone in the trenches.
Henrickson: I’m a supporter — I’ve registered voters and made phone calls. People with the campaign were familiar with me and knew that education was important to me. I think they thought that I’d have a unique experience to share as a middle school science teacher.
OK, so you’re an Obama supporter. Is there anything about his first term that disappointed you or you want him to pay more attention to going forward?
Barron: I wouldn’t call them disappointments with the president necessarily, but I have disappointments with the entire process and how government is operating. I think the president has dealt with an obstructionist Congress the past few years. There have also been problems with elected members of the president’s own party not being on board to get things done.
Henrickson: I know it has not been perfect, but I believe his intentions are genuine. I hope that in the future, he keeps those goals and keeps moving toward them.
What was the first thing you noticed about the president?
Barron: I’ve met the president before, but this was my first time sitting down and talking with him like this. My colleagues, Ms. Sanchez and Ms. Henrickson, were very nervous, so I told them, “Talk to him like you would one of your colleagues.”
He is very personable and extremely easy to talk to. While people who don’t like the president might not change their political views if they had a chance to sit down with him, I think they would have a different perspective on him. ... I’m not a Romney supporter, and he does not relate to me in any way, but he is probably not the demon he is made out to be in the far leftist circles. It’s too bad we’re not able to see more of our elected leaders in this kind of fashion. I will say that you did see strains of being the leader of our country in his appearance; he looks different than four years ago.
Henrickson: It was surreal for me. He was a real person and wasn’t just that guy on TV. He didn’t just come in and say, “This is how it is.” I was afraid that he would want to tell us things more than hear our perspective. But he was really listening. He asked us questions, and he wanted to hear what we had to say.
What did you think of the president’s initiative to offer waivers to No Child Left Behind, of which Nevada took advantage?
Barron: I thanked him profusely for allowing states to apply for waivers. In my opinion, No Child Left Behind has been used as a weapon against public education. I pointed out that a school like Rancho has multiple challenges that a private school would never encounter. We have to take every kid who walks through our doors, whether they are a future Rhodes Scholar or speak no English, whether they have a learning disability or are smart as a whip.
Henrickson: I really believe that the Nevada Growth Model (the new state criteria that will replace No Child Left Behind in measuring school progress) is a great model, and I’m excited to get to use it more. It tracks all kids’ growth, whereas before it was only looking at the kids who were passing. With the program now, if a kid is not performing well, it looks at how much we’ve been able to improve their performance even if they don’t pass the assessment. It’s a great step. With No Child Left Behind, if a school didn’t meet its adequate yearly progress goal, it felt like everything was a failure.
The federal government contributes about 10 percent of the cost of K-12 budgets. What can government do to improve education and make your jobs easier?
Barron: For me, one of the biggest things was deferred action. That was a game-changer, and now we need a permanent plan and comprehensive immigration reform. That program affected hundreds of students from Rancho, and I’m sure it has sparked renewed interest in education at all levels. I bet many people are enrolling in GED programs now, and adults are going back to school in droves. They can use their education to get jobs, pay taxes and improve their lives. Years from now, we’ll wonder why we didn’t do it sooner.
Henrickson: The federal government should serve as a guide for the states. They should offer guidance and assistance but not necessarily tell states that you have to test on this or that. I think they should provide support for each state to tackle what it sees as its specific problems. It may be class size reduction in Nevada or better assessments back East. They should be the guide to help states accomplish their goals.
Any politician is easy to talk with. It's getting them to actually say something they mean and then follow through on that is the hard part.
And then he left and sent us all thank you e-mails asking for 5 dollars.
Of course Osama Obama is "easy to talk to." He'll say what he believes you want to hear and ply you with our tax dollars in order to buy your vote. But, aside from reducing our choices and our freedoms, what has the cretin done? Oh, yeah, sided with the perverts and criminal class every chance he's had; ignored the laws he doesn't like and harassed those who enforce them through his "Justice" Department. He's not only the worst president I've had the mispleasure of living under in my lifetime; he's the most dangerous and must be stopped from a 2nd term. Come November - vote Romney & Ryan!
Did he discuss the "Leave Children Behind" and "Race to the Bottom" initiatives for his second term?
The facts are that the US is way far behind the rest of the developed world in education.
Many undeveloped countries have better education systems.
The US will never catch up and only continue to fall behind.
In the next 40 years, the US will become a has been country with the rest of the world passing us by.
I would not be ignorant enough to commit on how easy it is to talk to O'bama. Only if you have met him in person do you understand this comment.
How do you "cut class sizes", "hire more teachers" and "reduce the cost of education"?
Simple: Top Down, get rid of half the administrators, get rid of the unions, get rid of lawyers, require parents to show up for teacher/parent conferences, test the parents reading level if necessary, allow teachers to paddle and hug students. Then, double teachers salaries for a job well done.
"I think the President has dealt with an obstructionist Congress the past few years."..... No the President hasn't, that's his single biggest and most obvious shortcoming, the lack of leadership skills. President Obama is a lifelong community organizing activist that has never had to represent two sides of any issue. The best example was his signature health care bill that he should have vetoed even though it passed because it did not have bipartisan support from the House or the Senate. By vetoing he would have received the respect of all of Congress early on.
President Obama's budget was voted down 414-0 . That's quite an 'obstruction' LOL!
Oh, Rusty ...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/201...
Evil interesting link. Did you read the comment section? The part where people ask why if Sessions budget was a shell of the Presidents why haven't the Dems stepped of with President Obamas? Seems Harry Reid and the Senate just won't do thier constitutional duty and pass a budget.
The last time the U.S. passed a real budget was in 1997.
Somebody add a chair to the class on history for Romney, please.
"We have to make sure our schools are world class. This nation invented education. We've got to fix our schools, and make them the best in the world." Mitt Romney, New Mexico 08/23/2012
I think there might be some other countries, cultures and empires over thousands of years before us that would disagree.
As someone related to a whole bunch of teachers I must say the union will never be happy with every nickle we have, because that won't be enough!
Peacelilly,
Actually Romney is partially right. Free public education has its roots in the United States.
Peace Out,
-Allie
Of course he is easy to talk to. He knows he is never going to do anything so really doesn't care what you say to him.
My eyes have been open for 4 years now. We need to purchase tickets for any independents we know.
1. Explain how Ms. Henrickson was chosen to meet with the President.
Ms. Henrickson was chosen to meet the president, because she registered voters and people in the campaign were familiar with her and knew she loved education.
2. Imagine you were invited to meet with the President. What are three things you would want to ask or discuss with him?
Three things I'd want to discuss with the president is; How do you plan to give people more jobs?; What started the war in Afghanistan, and when will it be over?; What could we do to stop global warming?