At Tuesday’s presidential debate, Senator Obama stressed the importance of education’s impact on the global economy and ranks quality public education and affordable higher education among his top three national priorities.

If you read the blog on Obama’s education plan, you will remember that he places a lot of emphasis on providing educators with the resources and respect they deserve. This is noted in his plan to increase teacher retention and reward teachers for the positive work they do.

The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, which represents 3.2 million teachers and educators. In a nutshell, this is an enormous group of intellectual elite, whose salary and treatment does not come close to matching their worth. They, of course, are thrilled with Obama's statement and say that increased funding in education will indeed help boost our position in the global marketplace.

One point that Obama touched on was making college affordability a priority.

More than 18 million Americans are currently enrolled in a college or university and spend on average $13,425 on tuition and room and board for one academic year at in-state schools. That is over $50,000 for a four year degree, leaving many young graduates in a position to begin their lives with substantial accumulated debt.

As more and more high schools work on increasing their college prep courses and scoring higher college preparedness marks, many students avoid the four-year degree program in fear of falling into debt.

It’s time to see some change in education, as teachers and students are willing to put in the hard work; they need to be met by politicians and funding somewhere in the middle.

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