9-year-old glad Obama didn't prescribe more homework in answer to education question

When 9-year-old Aleshia Glastetter got her turn to ask U.S. Sen. Barack Obama a question Tuesday, she was a little nervous about how he would answer.

"What are you going to do for the public schools?" the fourth-grade student at Blanchard Elementary School asked.

Before answering, Obama asked her age, and noted that he has a daughter, Malia Ann, who is also 9. He then began describing a plan for lifelong learning, expanded early childhood education, higher pay for teachers, more after-school programs and college tuition credits earned through community service work.

That all sounded pretty good, Aleshia said afterward. She was worried, she said, that he would prescribe more homework.

"I was worried because when my whole fourth grade got to go to Jefferson City to meet Sen. Crowell, he asked us a question if the whole fourth grade wants to do five hours of homework," she said.

Aleshia said she isn't afraid of hard work and likes school. She wants to be a veterinarian and knows that will take several years of education beyond a basic college degree.

Aleshia and her mother, Lisa Boyd, almost didn't make it into Thorngate to see the man leading the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. They live nearby and gathered outside until they were among about 60 people admitted after the event began.

"She just wanted to see meet Obama, and I did, too," Boyd said.

The ideas for education sounded good to Boyd as well. She is a student at Southeast Missouri State University, trying to meet tuition while raising two children and expecting another. The tuition credits would mean a lot for her, now and in the future, she said. "That would really help out our family."