YEADON, Pa. (AP) — President Barack Obama chided
congressional Republicans Tuesday for "trying to gut our investments in
education," and announced new steps to tackle early childhood education
that won't require legislation.
Speaking at a Head Start center in politically
important Pennsylvania, Obama said boosting the nation's education system at
all levels is an economic imperative because it puts young people on the path
toward obtaining good jobs later in life.
The president said his administration has been able
to work on education reform with mayors and governors in both parties. But
congressional Republicans, he said, have stood in the way of his efforts to
revamp the No Child Left Behind law and blocked a proposal in the president's
job bill that the White House said would have kept 400,000 teachers in the
classroom.
"If Congress continues to stand only for
dysfunction and delay, I'm going to move forward without them," Obama
said.
Under the new rules Obama announced on Tuesday,
lower-performing Head Start programs that fail to meet a new set of benchmarks
will be required to compete for federal funding.
The new standards mandate that poorly performing
programs will have to compete for funding if they have deficiencies discovered
in their onsite review, fail to establish and use school-readiness goals for
children, or demonstrate low performance in the classroom quality evaluation.
Going forward, all Head Start grants will be good
for five years. After that time, each program's performance will be
re-evaluated to determine whether it is meeting the benchmarks or must compete
for another grant.
"We're just not going to put money into
programs that don't work. We will take money and put them into programs that
do," Obama said during his quick trip to Pennsylvania.
The Head Start program provides preschool for
900,000 low-income children. Administration officials estimate about one-third
of Head Start programs will be affected by the new standards.
The announcement is the latest step in the
administration's effort to show a contrast between the president and
Republicans. With the GOP having blocked action on the president's $447 billion
jobs bill last month, the White House is refocusing on smaller measures the
president can take with congressional approval.
Those measures include steps to allow more
homeowners to refinance their mortgages, lessen the burden of student loan
debt, and give military veterans access to career counseling and job search
programs.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
