Barack Obama spoke in Ohio today on his plan for education.

I was less than impressed when I read how it was described by the USA Today and the Associated Press. However, after reading the actual speech I feel a bit better about it (Full disclosure — I am an enthusiastic Obama supporter. And, as someone who was a community organizer for nineteen years, no matter what Sara Palin says, community organizers do have a lot of responsibilities).

Some of the main points included:

* support for working with teachers to develop better assessments for student learning than standardized tests, and to use those assessment results as an element in determining teacher pay (sounds good to me.).

* doubling support for public charter schools (I’m becoming more and more concerned with charter schools, including public charters, “creaming” students from the most supportive families and leaving the most challenging students to non-charter public schools)

* USA Today says that Obama called for a $500 million matching fund for technology in the classroom. In his speech, though, Obama called for increasing the use of technology in schools but didn’t say anything about a $500 million fund. Either I missed it, or it was included in a statement apart from his speech.