Washington: With students from India and
China fast catching up in fields of science and mathematics,
President Barack Obama is set to seek from Congress an extra
USD 1.35 billion to expand his signature USD 4.35 billion
education programme, making it one of the largest investments
in school reform in the US history.
Obama will shortly visit an Elementary school, where he
will announce his plans to continue the `Race to the Top`
challenge, requesting Congress to grant USD 1.35 billion more
for the programme in his fiscal 2011 budget, the White House
said.
Designed to incentivise excellence, spur reform and
promote adoption and use of effective policies and practices,
the `Race to the Top` is a comprehensive vision for school
reform backed by a historic USD 4.35 billion investment.
Throughout his presidential campaign and in the last
one year after becoming President, Obama has repeatedly
emphasised the need to push American students more towards
mathematics and science and on a number of occasions, he has
said that students from countries like India and China are
fast catching up with the US in this field.
"We want to challenge everyone -- parents, teachers,
school administrators -- to raise standards, by having the
best teachers and principals, by tying student achievement to
assessments of teachers, by making sure that there`s a focus
on low-performing schools, by making sure our students are
prepared for success in a competitive 21st century economy and
workplace," Obama said.
PTI
