With economy in mind, President announces changes to No Child Left Behind
In his weekly address, President Obama tied the need for education reform to his ongoing push for jobs through the American Jobs Act. Beyond hoping to add tens of thousands of teachers to the classrooms through the jobs bill, the President argued that education is an important factor to building a strong economy moving forward:
"Education is an essential part of this economic agenda. It is an undeniable fact that countries who out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow. Businesses will hire wherever the highly-skilled and highly trained workers are located."
With this in mind, President Obama quickly transitioned to the topic of education reform, noting the shortcomings he's seen in No Child Left Behind:
"While the goals behind No Child Left Behind were admirable, experience has taught us that the law has some serious flaws that are hurting our children instead of helping them. Teachers are being forced to teach to the test, while subjects like history and science are being squeezed out. And in order to avoid having their schools labeled as failures, some states lowered their standards in a race to the bottom."
Citing failure of Congressional action, the President put forth actions he is taking to reform the educational system - a move that the President says will give more flexibility.
President Obama's Weekly Address:
