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Damon Weaver from KEC TV News interviewed President Obama regarding education. The sixth grader hails from the Kathryn E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary school, and addressed many issues with the President. Damon is 11 years old and is from Pahokee, Florida. At the conclusion of the interview, Damon announced "President Obama is now my homeboy too."
Damon Weaver Interview: Video
Damon Weaver: I've heard that you would like to make an announcement about education. Can you tell me about the announcement?
President Obama: Well on Sept. 8 when young people around the country have just started or are about to go back to school I'm going to be making a big speech to you people all across the country about the importance of education and the importance of staying in school, how we want to improve the education system and why it's so important for the country, so I hope everybody tunes in.
Damon Weaver: All across America, money is being cut from education. How can education be improved with all these cuts?
President Obama: Well, we actually, here in the administration, trying to put more money into schools, and there are a lot of schools all across the country that are getting new buildings and new facilities. We're now putting more money into training good teachers and giving them more support, and so we think it's important to put more money into the schools. But money alone is not going to make the difference. We've also got to improve how the schools are operating, and we have really been trying to focus on how do you find the best schools and figure out what it is that they're doing well. And they're trying to get other schools that aren't doing so well to do the same kinds of things that the schools who are doing well are doing. So I hope that we can really see some improvement, not just with money, but also with reforming how the schools work.
Damon Weaver: I live in Pahokee, Fla., which is a kind of poor town. What can be done to improve education for students that live in towns like mine?
President Obama: Well, unfortunately a lot of times if you've got a community that is lower income, they don't have as much money in their schools. A lot of that is state funding, and I want to see states be more fair in terms of how they give money to various schools around their communities, but I do think it's important to make sure that we can find help from the federal government from here in Washington D.C. for those schools that need the most help. There are certain programs, like dropout prevention programs, for example, that local school districts might not be able to afford, but maybe we can make sure that the federal government is giving help to those local districts so they can improve their educational system.
Damon Weaver: I've learned that your mom always made sure that you were doing well at school. What should parents do to make sure their child's education is better?
President Obama: Parents are the most important thing to any child's ability to do well in school, so making sure you're reading to your child, especially when they're young, even before they get to school so they start being used to reading, they know their alphabet, they know the basics, so even when they get to kindergarten they're already a leg up. I think it's important to make sure that kids are doing their homework and that they're not just turning on the TV all day or playing video games. I think talking to teachers and finding out from teachers directly what can be done to improve their child's performance, I think that's important, and setting a high standard, that's important. Saying if you get a B, you can do better, you can get an A. Making sure we have high expectations for all children because I think all children can do well as long as they have the support that they need.
Damon Weaver: Do you have the power to make the school lunches better?
President Obama: Well, I remember that when I used to get school lunches they didn't taste so good, I got to admit. We are seeing if we can work to at least make school lunches healthier, cause a lot of school lunches, there's a lot of french fries, pizza, tater tots, all kinds of stuff that isn't a well balanced meal, so we want to make sure there are more fruits and vegetables in the schools, now, kids may not end up liking that, but it's better for them, it'll be healthier for them, and those are some of the changes we're trying to make.
Damon Weaver: I suggest that we have french fries and mangoes every day for lunch.
President Obama: See, and if you were planning the lunch program it'd probably taste good to you but it might not make you big and strong like you need to be and so we want to make sure that food tastes good in school lunches but that they're also healthy for you too.
Damon Weaver: I love mangoes. (emphasis on drawn out love)
President Obama: I love mangoes too, but I'm not sure we can get mangoes in every school. They only grow in hot temperatures and there are a lot of schools up north where they don't have mango trees.
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