Controversial professor Bill Ayers speaks at UD

Bill Ayers, the controversial professor whose alleged ties to Barack Obama drew fire during the 2008 election, spoke to a group of education professors at the university on Wednesday.

Ayers' hour-long speech at Willard Hall Education Building received praise from attendees but sparked a small protest by community members who criticized the university for hosting the 1970s radical.

Forty years ago, Ayers helped found the radical group Weather Underground, which was responsible for a series of bombings around the country in protest of the Vietnam War. He now teaches education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is well-known for his ideas on urban school reform.

During the 2008 presidential election, many conservatives criticized Obama for having ties to Ayers, pointing out that Ayers hosted a meet-and-greet for Obama during his first run for state senate. However, a New York Times investigation found that the professor had little influence on Obama.

Wearing a sports jacket over a black T-shirt bearing a large drawing of Riley Freeman from the "Boondocks" cartoon, Ayers took aim at politicians and others who claim lazy, incompetent teachers are the root of the problems in public schools.

Instead, he told the audience, much deeper problems are to blame for poor performance, chiefly the funding gaps between schools in rich and poor areas, a fact he said is not lost on the students affected.

"The kids aren't hidden from it – it's in their faces, "Ayers said. "It seems like what we're saying to them is, "Sorry, there's nothing we can do about it.' "

Access to quality education should not be determined by a student's neighborhood or the income level of his or her parents, he said.

"If we take seriously the idea that every human life is of incalculable value, then we shouldn't allow a situation like we have in the Chicago area where some schools are funded to the tune of $40,000 or $50,000 per student per year, while down the road, a school is funded at $4,000 per child," Ayers said.

He advocated for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing all children a quality education.

"We need to frame education as a right," he said.

Ayers criticized Race to the Top, the Obama administration's program of giving funding to states that meet specific educational goals and standards.

"There's nothing wrong with standards, but standardization is a problem," he said, adding that, in his view, most standardized tests are biased.

"When the test results come in, we're going to get rid of the lazy, incompetent teacher, but what have we done for that kid?" he said.

Ayers was invited to campus by Elizabeth Soslau, a graduate student in the School of Education. Soslau said she has long been familiar with Ayers' work in education and asked him to speak at the university after meeting him at a conference in Washington, D.C.

"I was thrilled," Soslau said. "I was meeting a rock star."

Though Ayers' visits to other schools have sparked controversy, Soslau said she did not worry about that happening here.

"We really counted on academics being able and willing to hear free ideas, and that's what happened," she said.

The speech was not heavily promoted by the university. It appeared in the calendar listings on the College of Education and Public Policy's Web site but not in the university's main calendar on the UDaily Web site. Soslau said the event was targeted toward education professors, but community members were welcome.

Ayers also spoke to an undergraduate class, but Soslau would not provide details about that lecture.

Ayers was generally well received in the lecture hall, but outside Willard Hall Education Building, a half dozen people demonstrated against him. The protesters were from First State Patriots, an advocacy group that is part of television commentator Glenn Beck's "9-12 Project."

"I disagree with him brainwashing our children," said Cathy James, of Newark, who was holding a sign that read, "Ayers teaches Marxist agenda."

Bill Page, of Wilmington, who attended the speech and then rejoined the other protesters, said that if he didn't know Ayers' background, he would have thought he was a good speaker.

"He's talking about the incalculable value of human life, but he planted bombs to take human life," Page said.

He said he was disappointed that the university would host a speaker with a radical past.

"Why, just because he has some good points, should we let all that go?" Page said

In an e-mailed statement, university spokesman John Brennan said that views expressed by Ayers do not necessarily represent those of the university.

 "All members of the campus community have the personal responsibility to promote an atmosphere of civility in which the free exchange of ideas and opinions can flourish," Brennan said. "We do so by learning from individual and collective differences and by respecting every human being."

Ayers was not paid by the university for his speech, Brennan said.