New America
Education Policy

As it Happened: 2014 State of the Union

Blog Post
Jan. 28, 2014


11:28 PM: More to come tomorrow

Let's leave it there for tonight. But check back with us tomorrow for more detailed analysis of the president's fifth State of the Union address, and its implications for education policy. Thanks for following us and goodnight!

11:23 PM: 'Milquetoast'

Here's more from New America's policy analyst Anne Hyslop:

Milquetoast. That's the one word I would use to describe President Obama's fifth State of the Union. No new initiatives in education. No soaring rhetoric to improve access to high quality teachers, early childhood education, or affordable higher education. And no call to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, the Higher Education Act, or the Workforce Investment Act. Of course education was mentioned, but where was the drive and the urgency for reform? Every single education item he mentioned is old news, from Race to the Top to E-rate reform. It's either already happened or will be happening this year, thanks to the recent spending bill.

Much will be made of the President's mention of higher standards, and the changes in curriculum and assessment that new standards require, but the language was timid and vague. If the President wants to highlight the new standards (and I'm not saying it was the right call), why not defend them more passionately? Why not explain that states and local districts are adopting new curricula to go along with their new standards, and that the federal government has no say, and never will, in dictating what learning materials and textbooks schools and teacher use?

In short, this was--by far--the least ambitious of all of President Obama's State of the Union addresses when it comes to education.

Anne Hyslop
New America policy analyst

 

11:15 PM: Higher ed reaction

So early ed advocates are relatively happy, but there wasn't much in this speech about college affordability. We heard briefly from the president about the recent White House College Opportunity Summit. But Amy Laitinen, New America's Deputy Director of Higher Education, says this speech failed to build on previous ones:

I don't think anyone expected any major new higher ed policy announcements, particularly given his recent announcements in August [of a college rating system]. It's clear that the next year or more will be executing on some of the ambitious plans that the President had already laid out (whether it be ratings, gainful employment, or innovations like competency-based education through experimental sites). But it was still a bit disappointing not to hear him use this opportunity to underscore some of the college affordability and quality issues--particularly as it relates to institutional accountability. So that was a missed opportunity. The question going forward is how well the already-laid-out agenda will be executed.
Amy Laitinen
New America Deputy Director of Higher Education
 

11:05 PM: More reaction on early education

Here's more from New America's Conor Williams on tonight's speech in the context of early learning reform efforts:

For a nationally-televised presidential speech, this was pretty much the best that early education advocates could hope for. The president renewed his call for expanded—and even universal—access to high-quality pre-K. He wasn't about to get into the weeds on aligning early childhood programs or successfully implementing Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. Would it have been nice to hear him advocate for a Quebec-style system of aligned, subsidized, comprehensive child care and early education opportunities? Of course. It would also be nice to hear that we had a path to reauthorizing and fixing No Child Left Behind. But here in reality, presidential support for the (bipartisan in the House) pre-K expansion bill in Congress is probably as good as it's going to get."
Conor Williams
New America senior researcher
 

10:44 PM: GOP Response update

C-Span's ten word summary of Rep. McMorris Rodgers's speech:

"She has three children, and she made reference to that."
10:35 PM: GOP Response

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) is delivering the Republican response tonight. So far we've heard a great deal about personal history, a bit about conservative principles, and not much on policy. Here's the closest we've come to education substance:

"I saved, I worked hard, and I became the first in my family to graduate from college."
10:20 PM: "A lot of rehashing"

Let's take a step back now. New America's Clare McCann says this was a speech notably short on new education ideas:

"Tonight's was one of the least ambitious State of the Union addresses we've seen. The president listed actions he plans to take with or without the cooperation of Congress--and unfortunately, that didn't leave much room for the White House to spread its wings. He called for a national review of the effectiveness of job training programs, touted the already-announced ConnectEd plan to bring broadband to classrooms, promised to announce the winners of a competition established last year, and asked colleges to take the initiative to improve access for students and increase postsecondary completion rates. And he noted the importance of pre-K, but gave 30 states that have increased their investment in pre-K programs the credit while asking Congress to pass the plan that's been languishing on Capitol Hill for months. All in all, there was little news from the president, and a lot of rehashing existing initiatives."
Clare McCann
New America policy analyst
 There's a similar line being carried by a number of media pundits. "None of these are new issues," says CNN's Candy Crowley. That's not to say the speech wasn't rousing - former Republican Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is offering plenty of praise of a "powerful" address right now. And lawmakers liked it too, says Yahoo chief Washington correspondent Olivier Knox: 

Needless to say, the White House official Twitter account was quick to retweet that one.

10:05 PM: More on high speed broadband

Here's EdCentral's Lindsey Tepe:

 

9:55 PM: Coming soon to BuzzFeed

...the obligatory Joe Biden animated GIF.

 

9:50 PM: Broadband for schools

 

Here's what the president said:

Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years. Tonight, I can announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and twenty million students over the next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit.
9:45 PM: "An Opportunity Agenda"

...begins with quality early education, says the president:

Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every four year-old. As a parent as well as a President, I repeat that request tonight. But in the meantime, thirty states have raised pre-k funding on their own. They know we can’t wait. So just as we worked with states to reform our schools, this year, we’ll invest in new partnerships with states and communities across the country in a race to the top for our youngest children. And as Congress decides what it’s going to do, I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need.
No mention, then, of the $1-billion shot in the arm handed to Head Start and Early Head Start earlier this month by Congress.

9:39 PM: A quick look at the 2014 State of the Union wordcloud:

 

Find education in there. It's a bit like Where's Waldo.

9:24 PM: First theme

It's a breakthrough year ahead of us, says the president.

We have our ed policy analysts on the case.

 

Okay, let's get serious here. The president references his higher ed summit:

Taking a page from that playbook, the White House just organized a College Opportunity Summit where already, 150 universities, businesses, and nonprofits have made concrete commitments to reduce inequality in access to higher education – and help every hardworking kid go to college and succeed when they get to campus.
9:20 PM: First words

After greeting the chamber, President Obama begins with:

Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades.
9:10 PM: The president enters...

Standby for President Obama's fifth State of the Union address.

8:41 PM: He's on his way to the chamber

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, that is.

 

8:33 PM: Early Ed on the Agenda

We're not yet sure how prominently early education will feature in the president's speech tonight, but this seems as good a time as any to mention it's on our agenda tomorrow:

 

At an event in our Washington DC offices we'll be discussing a new report from our Early Education Initiative entitled Subprime Learning: Early Education in America since the Great Recession. Read it here.

8:20 PM: Is ed on the radar?

...not on the evidence of this:

 

8:11 PM: Possible Priority: Making Colleges Affordable

While we're on the topic of that omnibus bill, listen out for the words 'First in the World' tonight. That's a proposal offering grants to colleges that pioneer cost cutting strategies, which stems from the president's 2012 college affordability blueprint. It received $75 million from lawmakers this month -- not a huge spending item, to be sure, but a relatively rare instance of White House policy passing through Congress virtually unimpeded.

And the president may return to the wider issues of college affordability and access. These were a key focus of a daylong gathering at the White House, a little over two weeks ago, which brought together more than 100 college presidents. They'd also chime with rhetoric around equity and opportunity, should the president decide to frame his speech around those themes.

Beyond relatively modest proposals like First in the World, what would be on the agenda here? Specific legislative policies could take a number of forms. One central component of the debate could be around reforming college accreditation. The process by which colleges become accredited is important because it determines which institutions can receive federal funds -- like Pell grants, the $40 billion federal program that provides financial support to low-income students. Reform advocates argue that the accreditation process is currently controlled by the very colleges that profit from being accredited. That in turn has a significant sector-wide impact, as New America's Education Policy Program director Kevin Carey explains:

“By controlling access to Pell grants, student loans, and other forms of financial aid, existing colleges determine the price, structure, and character of higher learning. This regulatory monopoly has had severe and sadly predictable negative effects on price and innovation in higher learning. To compete on a level financial playing field, you have to teach, spend, and ultimately charge like established institutions.”[show_avatar email=8 align=left avatar_size=40] Kevin CareyNew America Education Policy Program director

 Accreditation, of course, is only one component of a complicated issue. Another possible way of tackling affordability and access is to closely track college performance, student debt levels, post-graduation earnings, and an array of other data that may help better inform prospective students about cost-effective college options. Those sorts of measures might also help to better align incentives by linking federal funding and outcomes. Although recent scandals surrounding federal data use -- NSA spying, the IRS targeting scandal, even the Healthcare.gov rollout -- make any new announcements about a federal student unit record database unlikely, the president may return to his proposal, announced at a speech at the University of Buffalo last August, to launch a new nationwide college rankings system.

8:09 PM: Pre-K Priorities?

This is President Obama’s fifth official State of the Union address, and his eighth speech before a joint session of Congress. And we expect two major components from last year’s speech to be revived tonight: early education, and college affordability.

In last year’s State of the Union, the president paid particular attention to early learning, proposing to distribute significant new federal funds to states to pay for high-quality pre-K for four-year-olds from families falling below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

The president also proposed a partnership program between Early Head Start and child care providers, an expanded federal home visiting program, and incentives to expand pre-K access for middle income families.

Legislation introduced last November by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) attempted to push the president's pre-K agenda forward by assigning more than $1 billion in annual appropriations to pre-K for 4-year-olds. Although the Harkin/Miller proposal has made little headway in Congress, this month's omnibus appropriations bill boosted Early Head Start and Head Start by $1 billion, which included a $500 million allocation to new Early Head Start-Child Care partnerships.

8:00 PM: Good evening and welcome to New America EdCentral’s live blog of President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address. Throughout the evening our EdCentral team will be bringing you analysis of the president’s education policy priorities for the year ahead. Along with many other ed policy followers we’ll be tweeting tonight under the hashtag #edsotu. We'll also look out for any tweets you direct to @newamericaed.

The president speaks tonight from 9-10.30pm ET.

Following the President’s speech we’ll cover the official GOP response from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who currently chairs the House Republican Conference. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is also scheduled to deliver a Tea Party reply, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) will also speak after the president's address. That's a lot of speaking to track, but we'll do our best to single out anything education related.

The bar, by the way, has been set relatively high. Last year Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) devoted a significant portion of time to discussing the importance of federal financial aid, and talked about new measures that would "give students more information on the costs and benefits of the student loans they're taking out". (Rubio's Know Before You Go Act, cosponsored by Oregon Democrat Mark Wyden, subsequently failed to make much headway in Congress, in part as a result of fierce resistance from higher education lobbyists.)