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President Barack Obama challenged states
Wednesday to get their education policies in line with his
administration's priorities if they want a chance at $5 billion in
grants.


      "If you're willing to hold yourselves more accountable, if you
develop a strong plan to improve the quality of education in your
state, we'll offer you a grant to help make that plan a reality,"
Obama said while speaking at Wright Middle School in Madison, Wis.


      Marking one year since his victory in the presidential election,
Obama said his administration's first obligation was bringing the
U.S. economy back from the brink of collapse. But long-term
economic success, he said, can only be achieved by making
investments in education.


      "There is nothing that will determine the quality of our future
as a nation or the lives our children more than the kind of
education we provide them," he said.


      Obama came to Wisconsin a day before state lawmakers planned to
vote to lift a ban on using student test scores to judge teacher
performance. 


The Obama administration has said that such
restrictions would hurt a state's chances of getting part of the $5
billion competitive grant fund, dubbed "Race to the Top."


      Obama called on all states to follow the example set by
Wisconsin and nine other states that have taken steps to rewrite
education laws and cut deals with unions that oppose some of those
changes.


      The $5 billion grants are the most money a president has ever
had for overhauling schools. Only Education Secretary Arne Duncan -
not Congress - has control over how its doled out. And only some
states, perhaps 10 to 20, will actually get the money.

      The administration can't really tell states and schools what to
do, since education has been largely a state and local
responsibility throughout the history of the U.S. But the $5
billion grant fund, which was set aside in the economic stimulus
law, gives Obama considerable leverage.

      Obama sees the test score data and charter schools, which are
publicly funded but independent of local school boards, as
solutions to the problems that plague public education.


      The national teachers unions disagree. They say student
achievement is much more than a score on a standardized test and
that it's a mistake to rely so heavily on charter schools.

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Marking one year since his victory in the presidential election, President Barack Obama told a crowd at a Madison middle school that long-term economic success can only be achieved by making investments in education.

Obama talks school reform in Madison, Wis.

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