Obama using education issue as political sword
By Michele McNeil/Education Week
With President Barack Obama’s jobs plan stalled in Congress and his re-election bid saddled by low approval numbers and high unemployment, his administration is using its record on education—and that of congressional Republicans—as a political weapon as Campaign 2012 heats up. Even though the Senate earlier this month rejected a $35 billion piece of a $447 billion package the administration said would save an estimated 400,000 teacher jobs, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his top officials used speeches in a number of states to emphasize how many education jobs they say are at stake there: 12,000 in Michigan, 14,500 in Illinois, 5,100 in Utah. Meanwhile, President Obama is playing up the deadlock in Congress and rolling out education initiatives his administration can do on its own. (more...)