President Obama recently announced a plan to offer $900 million in "school turnaround" grants to various states and school districts in an effort to improve schools with habitually low-performance. This grant money is in addition to the $3.5 billion already designated for low-performing schools in last year's economic stimulus bill.

It is obvious to state that money alone will not solve all of the problems with the American public school system, however financial resources are definitely needed, particularly in public schools in underprivileged areas. Because of the present system of public school funding that is largely based on tax revenue from the residents of the area that a school is located in, the most needy schools are often the least funded, to the point of lacking even the most basic educational supplies for all students. Although there are some wonderful examples of independent schools in impoverished communities doing great things (such as the Knowledge is Power Program schools and the Harlem's Children's Zone), for the foreseeable future, the vast majority of children will be attending normal public schools, which means that drastic change is needed to repair a system that has been broken for years.

The monetary resources allocated by President Obama are a beginning, however much more needs to be addressed beyond lack of funding. Several studies have supported the conclusion that the teacher is the most important part of the educational process. A good, caring teacher has been shown to be able to overcome a lack of resources in a lot of instances. I am not anti-teacher or anti-union, however it is a fact that the major teachers unions have often forsaken the needs of the children their constituents teach in favor of the benefits their members, many of whom do not belong in a classroom teaching anyone.

That is not an attack on all teachers: Most are sincerely doing the best they can, often under very difficult circumstances. However, to repeat the same actions and expect things to change is foolishness, and if a teacher is not performing, then school administrations need to be able to get rid of them without dealing with a maze of bureaucracy. In addition, the rigid rules put in place by NCLB (No Child Left Behind) have not resulted in an improvement in the educational process, and need to be scrapped. Schools need to have the freedom to mold their curricula to the needs of the children in them, without having to focus on conditioning students to pass standardized tests on only a handful of subjects.

Schools do not operate in a vacuum; they are part of larger communities. As such, the attributes of that community, both positive and negative, will have an impact on the students and the learning environment. This is not an excuse, only reality. We cannot deal with things based on what "should be" or what we personally grew up with. In addition for Obama's plan to make an impact, each child needs to have at least one parent or guardian at home who cares about their education, and makes sure that they keep up with their studies. That is not true for all students, and those children unfortunate enough to be born into an environment lacking in support should not be condemned to failure based on something that they had no control over. School programs allowed to operate independently of rigid constraints have shown that there are ways to overcome the lack of an ideal family dynamic, and this aspect of the education situation needs to be considered when all of this money is being spent.

It's great that President Obama has dedicated money to our broken public schools system, but we will also need more resources of a creative, caring spirit to make real, lasting change.