A year to the day after the historic 2008 presidential election, President Barack Obama spoke to teachers and students at a Madison middle school about the federal Race to the Top program and the importance of improving education standards.
In front of a crowd of nearly 600 at Wright Middle School, Obama called education reform ""America's national mission"" and said now is the time to improve education in concrete ways.
Obama stressed the importance of creating internationally competitive standards and called knowledge the ""currency of the economy."" He encouraged states to improve standards and accountability in their efforts to vie for over $4 billion in federal Race to the Top funds.
""If you're willing to hold yourselves more accountable, and if you develop a strong plan to improve the quality of education in your state, then we'll offer you a big grant to help you make that plan a reality,"" he said.
The funds are awarded on a competitive basis. Before a state is eligible to receive funding, it must remove any ""firewall laws"" that prevent evaluating teachers based on student performance. In the past few weeks, Gov. Jim Doyle has made attempts to remove such a law in Wisconsin, in addition to proposing other reforms, including a mayoral takeover of Milwaukee Public Schools.
""We have to look at a governance change, in particular at MPS. We have the worst achievement gap in the nation. We can't continue down that path. We've had that for the last 20 years, and something needs to be done,"" state Rep. Jason Fields, D-Milwaukee, said after Obama's speech.
Chancellor Biddy Martin said she was impressed with the speech and said improving education is ""absolutely vital.""
""I think that what Gov. Doyle and the Legislature are trying to do now will position us well to meet the expectations that the president and [Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan have set,"" she said.
Obama's visit comes in the wake of Republican victories in gubernatorial elections held Tuesday in New Jersey and Virginia. In a statement last week from the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Chair Reince Priebus said Obama's visit likely had political motivations, and he hinted at Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's potential bid for the 2010 gubernatorial election.
Although Barrett faces pressure to run because of Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton's exit from the race, he denied that he had any conversation with Obama about the election.
""He didn't talk about that at all ... He is here about education,"" Barrett said after Obama's speech.
