Obama Unveils His National Education Plan

Senator Barack Obama learned how hard it can be to solve America’s public education problems when he headed a philanthropic drive a decade ago that spent $150 million on Chicago’s troubled schools and barely made a dent.

Drawing on that experience, Mr. Obama is campaigning on an ambitious plan that promises $18 billion a year in new federal spending on early childhood classes, teacher recruitment, performance pay and dozens of other initiatives.

Were he to become president, Mr. Obama would retain the emphasis on the high standards and accountability of President Bush’s education law, No Child Left Behind. But he would rewrite the federal law to offer more help to high-need schools, especially by training thousands of new teachers to serve in them, his campaign said. He would also expand early childhood education, which he believes gets more bang for the buck than remedial classes for older students.

More of the New York Times article here.