Iowa Public Television

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  Program: Iowa Press #3510
  Broadcast Date: Nov. 9, 2007
  

• Collection: Iowa Press: The Presidential Candidates

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Sen. Barack Obama talks about education and motivating change.

This interview took place on November 9, 2007, at Iowa Public Television.

www.iptv.org/campaign08/

Glover: How do you convince people to change their lifestyle, to live differently? Or to turn the question on its ear, are voters ahead of the politicians on this kind of stuff? Do they get it and the politicians don't?

Obama: Well, I think that voters do understand it. I think it is important for us to send some price signals to change behavior, you know. If electricity goes up, people start becoming more mindful of their electricity bill. Over time the electricity bill goes back down as technology catches up. But we are going to have to, I think, make some cultural shifts.

I'll give you another example, education. You know, I always go into inner city schools, and I will say we need to get you more money. You know, there are crumbling schools.

It's not as bad in Iowa but in places like South Carolina, you've got schools that were built in the 1890s that are still be utilized, and no computers, outdated books. All of that is worth fighting for.

But I always tell parents if we don't parent, if we don't turn off the television set, if we don't put aside the video games, if people don't understand that kids in China and kids in India are outworking out and studying math and science in a way that our kids are not doing, if parents aren't instilling a sense of educational excellence, we're going to fall behind. And I think the President has to communicate that shift in attitude and shift in culture if we're really going to improve our education system.

Tags:

• education
• Barack Obama
• campaign 2008
• politics
• Democrats

Post Date: June 4, 2008