On Board

I'm stepping out, people. I joined the Barack Obama campaign last night. I even started a blog on the Obama website, called On Board.

I guess I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired*. In party politics, there has not been much to be excited about on either side for a long time.

I have typically been in favor of a smaller federal government with power redistributed to the states. When I vote Republican, this is often a key factor. But President Bush is a big government Republican; and in fact, he has essentially nurtured an "era of new federalism" in which Washington gets to oversee lots of stuff that they should keep their hands out of--like local schools, for example.

Remember "No Child Left Behind"? This under-funded education debacle has resulted in teachers teaching to the test and schools eliminating un-tested subject areas from their curriculum, such as science, foreign language, social studies, and arts. It's not that NCLB is a bad idea--it's just poorly executed.

Mr. Obama has recommended reforming and fully funding NCLB. He supports expanding early childhood education, which is hard to argue against. He has suggested some ideas for improving teacher quality, such as rewarding innovation, paying teachers more, and giving successful teachers more control over what they do in their classrooms. You can read more about Obama's thoughts on improving education here.

Anyway, I'm on board the Obama campaign train. What about you?

*I'm too tired to check this right now, but I think this is a direct quote from an Obama speech.