This past Monday, First Lady Michelle Obama was introduced to the staff of the United States Department of Education, by Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.
Click here for the transcript and video
The highlights of her presentation are as follows:
“So, the Department of Education is going to be at the forefront of
many of the things that we have to do in this administration, and we’re
going to need that energy in these times of economic challenge.
We’re going to be making investments. And I shouldn’t say “we,” but the administration “we.”
With these investments, we’re going to create good jobs as we
renovate and modernize more than 10,000 schools and improve the
learning environment for about 5 million children across this country.
We’ll be able to increase Pell grants and make college more
affordable–for 7 million students and give nearly 4 million students
tax credits for tuition. Imagine that.
And with these investments that we hope to make through this
stimulus package, we’ll be able to prevent teacher layoffs–and
education cuts in hard-hit states.
You know, we need to keep teachers in the classrooms throughout this
time. We’ll be able to preserve early childhood education programs.
And I know all of you here know the importance of investing in early
childhood education. Imagine what we can do with millions of dollars of
more investment in this area.
We can expand opportunities in low-income districts for all students and particularly for students with disabilities.
And then, as we look over the longer term, these investments will
accelerate education reform, one of Arne’s specialties, by funding and
rewarding innovation– innovative approaches to teaching and learning,
such as teacher quality initiatives, school turnaround programs, and,
of course, charter schools.”
