Obama Set to Meet With ‘Waiting for Superman’ Students

By Tim Perone
October 11, 2010
New York Post

In a huge boost for the charter-school movement, President Obama is set to meet today in the Oval Office with the five kids featured in the documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ” which trumpets the need to reform the country’s education system.

Obama will shake hands with the youngsters whose struggles to leave failing public schools and enter more successful charter ones via a lottery system are profiled in the movie by Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim, who will also be at the White House.

The president has previously hailed the film as “heartbreaking” and its message of reform as “powerful.”

Geoffrey Canada, the CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc., whose work promoting charter schools is featured in the film, said, “The president understands that charters are a really valuable asset.

“They’re not the only answer, but it’s one of the strategies we need to use to improve education in this country.”

Canada, who won a Post Liberty Medal in 2005, said he was thrilled that the kids are getting a chance to meet Obama.

“Its terrific that these wonder ful young people are going to meet the president,” he said.

“These kids are truly, truly remarka ble. “Nothing will make them happier. Their eyes will be as big as saucers when they meet the president.”

The move by Obama is a blow to the national teachers union, which is portrayed in the documentary as villainous for opposing reforms — such as the ability to fire bad teachers and tie teacher pay and tenure to student performance.

A spokesman for the local union, the United Federations of Teachers, declined comment last night. Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, had previously battled the teacher unions, most notably with the “Race to the Top” program, which provides money to the states that make sufficient educational reforms.

New York state received $700 million in such funds in August, after the Legislature more than doubled the number of charter schools and designed a new was to gauge teacher effectiveness.

SOURCE: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bam_super_kids_821MUelq46XddSMiPdS43M