Examining Obama’s Education Numbers (National Public Radio, March 12, 2009)
President Barack Obama asserts that we need to improve our public school systems starting with early childhood education to get almost $10 back for every one dollar invested, but economists believe this and other statistics Obama used exaggerate our current education problems to persuade the people to approve of his investing $5 billion in education.
Topic: zero to five
Location: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101823886
Category: Mainstream Journalistic Multimedia
What is it? An NPR broadcast/radio program.
Publication Information:
National Public Radio
March 12, 2009
Author: Larry Abramson; Hosts: Robert Siegel and Michelle Norris
Location: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101823886
Accessed: March 12, 2009
Support:
Robert Siegel, host on NPR
Michele Norris, host on NPR
Larry Abramson, NPR employee
President Barack Obama
Rob Grunewald, Economist, Federal Reserve Bank, Minneapolis
Mr. Gerald Bracey, blogger
Mr. Jay Greene, Senior fellow at Manhattan Institute
Hosts of NPR introduce interviewer author who questions experts and comments on inconsistencies between facts and Obama’s claims.
Audience and Agenda:
NPR reaches approximately 26 million viewers weekly. This privately owned, not-for-profit, membership organization produces 130 hours of original content weekly. NPR, partnered with 860 private radio stations, has the potential to reach all Americans. A lot of Americans feel too busy to read and want information by listening instead. After they listen, if they feel strongly about a story, they can engage by writing on the NPR blog. Additionally, NPR adheres to a strict code of ethics claiming that their coverage is “fair, unbiased, accurate, complete and honest.”
Usefulness:
This document was created in response to a speech given by Obama to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. This source is useful because it put the speech previously mentioned in perspective and encourages you to take a second look at what the president says. Some Obama’s powerful claims can be clarified and verified in David Kirp’s book, The Sandbox Investment where based on research done for the Perry Preschool Program, in part preformed and presented by Larry Schweinhart, showed that when Obama claimed that the return on each dollar invested would be nearly $10, he actually meant $7.16.
Works cited:
