Obama to build on Bush school plan

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By Stephen Dinan

Taking on the teachers unions and building on his predecessor's No Child Left Behind Act, President Obama on Tuesday told states to stop limiting charter schools, to get rid of bad teachers and to improve rather than scrap standards and testing that were at the heart of President Bush's education agenda.

In an ambitious speech that put education at the top of his national agenda along with climate change, health care reform and the economy, Mr. Obama laid out new programs to get disadvantaged children younger than 5 into early-education programs, challenged students and parents to shoulder responsibility, urged schools to drop long summer recesses and promised more federal grant money for low-income families to send their children to college.

But on the same day congressional Democrats introduced a bill to help unions organize, Mr. Obama broke with the traditional bond between teachers unions and Democrats by challenging states to fire bad teachers and reward good ones as part of a new "culture of accountability" in schools.

"Let me be clear: If a teacher is given a chance or two chances or three chances but still does not improve, there's no excuse for that person to continue teaching," Mr. Obama said in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences."

The unions welcomed Mr. Obama's commitment to more federal spending on education and said they see plenty of room to work with the president, arguing that they do share the same goals.

"We, like President Obama, advocate for improving professional development and mentoring for new and less effective teachers; a national investment in recruiting some of the most talented individuals into the field of teaching, as well as investing in scaling up innovative teacher preparation and induction models; and raising teachers' compensation based on their knowledge and skills," said National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel.

Andy Smarick, a former Bush administration education official, said Mr. Obama is also challenging the teachers unions by calling for an expansion of charter schools. The president said those states and the District that have laws on the books to limit the number of charter schools should end those caps.

"That sends a clear signal," Mr. Smarick said. "Teachers unions in general oppose the widespread extension of charter school programs."

He said Mr. Obama also embraced key portions of the No Child Left Behind Act by backing standards and testing. "Ten years ago there was still a debate whether assessments are good," Mr. Smarick said, laying out the case for higher standards by calling out low-performing states.

Though the federal government has taken a bigger role in funding and pressing for changes, education is still primarily a state and local responsibility, and Mr. Obama generally offered challenges to states to raise their standards and to expand early-learning programs.