Questions for Barack

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Chronicle invited readers to send in questions for the major presidential candidates, prior to the California primaries on Feb. 5. Some sent in a question for all the candidates. Others were directed at a specific candidate. Below is the full text of the questions to, and answers from, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)

- Andrew S. Ross, Chronicle interactive editor

I'm a Republican. I was a very liberal Democrat growing up during Nam, Civil Rights, etc. I became a Republican when I opened my own business and ran into the buzz saw of governmental "protections" of everyone except those that create jobs in small businesses. Based on a Baby Boomer's experience such as my own, why should I vote for you?

- Steven Wright, 55, Pacifica

Sen. Obama: I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. In order to continue this prosperity, we'd restore fiscal discipline in Washington by reinstating pay-as-you-go rules, cutting pork barrel spending, and ending wasteful government spending.

My administration will also seek to level the playing field for American businesses - particularly small business owners like yourself. Many small businesses are struggling with the cost of health insurance, and I have introduced a plan that will save businesses $140 billion annually in premiums. My health care plan will help small businesses that want to cover their employees by letting small firms buy into a new low-cost, high-quality national health plan similar to the one offered to members of Congress. And my plan will reimburse employer health plans for a portion of the catastrophic costs they incur above a threshold if they use the savings to reduce the cost of workers' premiums.

In the Senate, I cosponsored the bipartisan Small Business Lending Reauthorization and Improvements Act. I will work to help more entrepreneurs get loans, expand the network of lenders, and simplify the loan approval process.

I will provide tax relief to small businesses. I will provide self-employed small business owners a $500 tax credit to offset their self-employed tax. I will also eliminate capital gains taxes on investments in start up companies.

And I will task the appropriate federal, state, and local leaders and agencies to ensure that every urban community has access to capital and the resources it needs, whether it's a new community development financial institution, additional small business loans for new entrepreneurs or more private financial institutions in underserved neighborhoods.

With the recent positive news coming out of Iraq, can you be the first Democrat to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the war is not lost and there is some hope of American/Iraqi success?

- Jeff Farmer, 57, St. Helena

Sen. Obama: The goal of the surge was to create space for Iraq's political leaders to reach an agreement to end Iraq's civil war. At great cost, our troops have helped reduce violence in some areas of Iraq, but even those reductions do not get us below the unsustainable levels of violence of mid-2006. Moreover, Iraq's political leaders have made no progress in resolving the political differences at the heart of their civil war.

The time to end the surge and to start bringing our troops home is now. This problem has no military solution. The Iraqi people must take responsibility for their own future. I support beginning immediately to withdraw our forces from Iraq at a pace of 1-2 combat brigades per month. At that pace, when I am president we can have all our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of 2009.

If either of you [or Sen. Clinton] won, you two would literally change the face of the presidency in this country. What kind of impact do you think that'll have on our country and economy? How do you think the outside world will react to such a drastic change from what is not typically or historically the face of a U.S. President?

- Gary Lee, 36, Daly City

Sen. Obama: I believe that if I'm elected, this country will look at itself differently from the moment I'm inaugurated. And the world looks at America differently. And if you believe that we've got to heal America and we've got to repair our standing in the world, then I think my supporters believe that I am a messenger who can deliver that message around the world in a way that no other candidate can do.

I am someone who has lived in a foreign country. My grandmother lives in a village in Africa without running water and without heat and indoor plumbing - a village that's been devastated by HIV/AIDS.

When I go to Africa, I'm not speaking based on what I've read or what I hear in a Senate hearing or what I've seen visiting the ambassador's residence in Nairobi. I'm speaking from experience, in the same way that when I talk about issues facing the inner city here in the United States; I'm not looking at it from a distance. I'm speaking from somebody who's worked in public housing projects and dealt with trying to find ex-felons a better life for themselves. And so that experience, I think, gives me more credibility to talk about these issues.

How would you confront radical Islam regarding its impact on U.S. security? How would you protect us?

- Norman Vogel, 61, San Francisco

Sen. Obama: I've laid out a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy to secure America.

First, we must bring a responsible end to this war in Iraq and refocus on the critical challenges in the broader region - on the conflict in the Middle East, where Hamas and Hezbollah feel emboldened and Israel's prospects for a secure peace seem uncertain; on Iran, which has been strengthened by the war in Iraq; and on Afghanistan, where more American forces are needed to battle al Qaeda, track down Osama bin Laden, and stop that country from backsliding toward instability.

Second, I have proposed making U.S. military assistance to Pakistan conditional on that country making substantial progress to close down terrorist training camps, evict foreign fighters, and prevent the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan. And I've called for an increase in funding for development and secular education to combat extremism in Pakistan.

Third, I have called for enhancing the capabilities of our civilian agencies to work alongside our military, and for the creation of "Mobile Development Teams" that bring together personnel from the State Department, the Pentagon, and US Agency for International Development. These teams would operate not simply in war-zones, but also in weak, unstable, and hard to access areas around the world. I have also proposed a "Shared Security Partnership Program" to increase resources by $5 billion over three years for counter-terrorism, police and intelligence cooperation in countries around the world, including information sharing, funding for training, operations, border security, anti-corruption programs, technology, and targeting terrorist financing.

Fourth, we must also work to prevent nuclear terrorism. As president, I will lead a global effort to secure all nuclear weapons and material at vulnerable sites within four years.

Finally, we must dry up support for extremists. As president, I will double U.S. investments to combat instability, poverty and extremism - particularly in weak states and conflict zones - to $50 billion a year by 2012. Included in this investment is support for a $2 billion "Global Education Fund" to counter radical madrasas with secular education.

I have also called for a comprehensive public diplomacy program, including funding for "America Houses" to incorporate youth centers and libraries that are needed throughout the broader Muslim World, and the establishment of a "Voice Corps" to rapidly recruit and train fluent speakers of Arabic, Bahasa, Bahasa, Farsi, Urdu, and Turkish who can ensure our voice is heard - and that we listen - throughout the world. As President, I will lead this public diplomacy effort, beginning with a speech at a major Islamic forum in my first 100 days.

What do you see as the most significant difficulties that American children today face, and what should the government be doing differently to solve them?

- Geoff Geiger, 55, Alameda

Sen. Obama: Millions of children across this country lack health insurance; are living in poverty; and attending crumbling schools. In this country - of all countries - no child's destiny should be determined before he takes his first step. As president, I am firmly committed to tackling these great challenges so that all of our children can live healthy and productive lives and reach their potential.

On health care, I have a plan to sign legislation providing quality, affordable health care to all Americans by the end of my first term. My health plan will mandate coverage of children. My plan will expand eligibility for the Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) programs and ensure that these programs continue to serve their critical safety net function.

On poverty, I will increase federal funding for anti-poverty programs and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to benefit 12 million Americans. Additionally, I have called for the creation of a new program that replicates the success of the Harlem Children's Zone - an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children in a neighborhood where they were never supposed to have a chance. As president, an important part of my plan to combat poverty will be to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone in twenty cities across the country.

And on education, I will launch a Children's First Agenda that provides care, learning and support to families with children ages zero to five. I will create Early Learning Grants to help states create a system of high-quality early care and education for all young children and their families, so that children are prepared and ready to succeed before they enter kindergarten. I will also increase Head Start funding and quadruple Early Start to include a quarter of a million at-risk children. And because the most important factor in a child's education is the person standing at the front of the classroom, my plan will recruit, support, and reward teachers and principals to ensure that every school in America is filled with outstanding educators.

Our public education system is becoming less globally competitive and more separate and unequal from the weight of No Child Left Behind and economically driven district gerrymandering --thus widening the education gap between the affluent (haves) and the poor (have-nots). What solutions do you offer to have a more rigorous, relevant, equal, and global competitive public school system?

- Cory Haynes, 33, Napa

Sen. Obama: The goal of NCLB is the right one - ensuring that all children can meet high standards. But unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Department of Education, and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support among many people who care deeply about our schools and our students.

One of the greatest troubles of NCLB is that we have spent too much time preparing students for tests that do not provide any valuable, timely feedback on how to improve a student's learning. We need assessments that are useful to improve student learning. As president, I will work with the nation's governors and educators to create assessment models that will: provide educators and students with timely feedback about how to improve student performance; measure readiness for college and success in an information-age workplace by testing reading comprehension, writing skills, scientific reasoning, and other critical thinking skills; and indicate whether individual students are actually making progress toward reaching high standards.

We also need to work together to ensure that a qualified and successful teacher is in every classroom in America. While the current "highly qualified" standards for teacher quality are important, it is not clear that they are the only criteria on which we should assess the quality of our teachers. Particularly at a time when our nation is facing a shortage in teachers due to retirement and retention problems, it is important to ensure that we can attract, support, and retain high-quality teachers. Many states and local governments have seen successful results from experimenting with alternative preparation programs, innovative incentives to subsidize teacher training and interest in serving in high-need schools, and increased teacher support through mentoring, effective professional development, and the support of professional learning communities within schools, so that teachers can work together to improve their practice.

In the Senate, I've introduced legislation to create Teacher Residency Programs to provide incentives for talented individuals to enter profession by teaching as apprentices in the classrooms of expert veteran teachers while completing coursework for certification and pledging at least three years of service in the sponsoring district. As president, I will expand the number of Teacher Residency Programs by providing funding for 200 new programs that would each serve an average of 150 candidates each year. Each year, my plan will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools to provide long-term commitment and leadership in these districts.

In addition, I have proposed a substantial program of service scholarships to underwrite the preparation of teachers who will teach in high-need locations and fields and the provision of mentors to beginning teachers so they will stay in the profession.

But fixing NCLB is not an education policy. It's just a starting point. That's why I introduced a comprehensive plan to give every American child the chance to receive the best education America has to offer - from the moment they're born to the day they graduate college.

Since standardized tests offer such a limited measurement of student learning, and have undesirable consequences, are there other means you could envision schools and teachers using to measure student learning?

- Anthony Cody, 49, Oakland

Sen. Obama: I've set forth an education plan that describes in detail robust measures of student learning. And I've made clear that I do not support traditional "merit pay" if that simply means paying teachers more on the basis of student test scores. Linking teacher pay to a single standardized test does not accurately reflect teacher performance or student learning, and I believe we need develop more innovative and robust systems.

I support systems such as those being used in Denver right now, and my Career Ladder initiative will encourage the adoption of such educational reforms throughout the country. Measures of student learning in specific subject areas may include scored writing samples or reading samples, mathematics assessments, assessments of science or history knowledge, or even musical performances. In some schools, teachers use their own fall and spring classroom assessments as a way of gauging student progress. These measures can also be tailored for the learning goals of specific students (for example, special education students or English language learners.)

So if you're a Language Arts teacher, a Career Ladder might look to your students' papers, or how many books they've read, in addition to their performance on classroom exams. If you are a science teacher, it would collect evidence about the quality of students' science investigations as juried by evaluators at a science fair or about the number of students passing the AP test in their field.

Student success can also include other outcomes, such as improved behavior, attendance, work completion, and course passage.

In Denver's system, teachers set two goals annually in collaboration with the principal, and document student progress toward these goals using district, school, or teacher-made assessments to show growth. So the teachers themselves are involved in selecting the criteria upon which they are evaluated.

I would like to know what kind of role Michelle Obama who is also a Harvard trained lawyer would be if she were to become first lady.

- Steve Pardee, 49, Berkeley

Sen. Obama: I think I will let Michelle speak for herself on this, but what she has said in the past is that her first priority would be helping to make sure that our young daughters are happy and healthy and settled in a new city and school. She appreciates the platform that a First Lady has to reach and help people, and has said that she would be interested in focusing on issues like work-family balance for women and encouraging young people to get involved in service and give back to their communities.

I've heard ever since I was a child how almost every single politician in congress or in the White House has promised to work with the other side of the aisle for non-partisan politics -- usually without much luck. I, as well as most people, am tired of hearing politicians talk about one hot topic to another to get themselves elected only to not follow up on these topics once they are in office. We are interested in moving the country forward and reestablishing the USA as a country to look at for inspiration and leadership. What would you do to bring back the public trust and earn our votes?

- Anthony Vann, 36, Alameda

Sen. Obama: Like Democrats, Republicans and Independents are hungry for change. They too are tired of the same old partisan fights and re-litigation of decades-old battles. And they are just as hungry for a politics that puts the people's interests above special interests. For these reasons, I think the same qualities that make my candidacy appealing to Democrats will make me attractive to Republicans. And one of those qualities is a willingness to listen to opposing sides when people disagree with me - and not belittle or demagogue their concerns.

I have demonstrated this quality throughout my career and have learned that what unites us is far more substantial than what divides us. That's why I was able to work with Republicans in Illinois to pass the most significant ethics reform in our state's history. That's why I was able to extend health care to 154,000 children and adults. And that's why I was able to cross party lines to reform a broken death penalty system and to create an Earned Income Tax Credit to help working families throughout my home state. For me, I don't just talk the talk about the need to build consensus and work across party lines in pursuit of a progressive agenda. I have done just that throughout my career, and I will continue to do the same as president.