Obama: 'Money without reform' won't fix U.S. education system
- President Obama says education reform is crucial to the United States' future
- He says the U.S. education system, especially in science and math, has been surpassed
- The United States now ranks 21st in science and 25th in math, he says
- The president hopes to improve the ranks of teachers through new hires
Washington (CNN) -- Recent world rankings showing U.S. students failing to make the grade in math and science are "a sign of long-term decline," that will require reform of the country's education system to fix, President Barack Obama told NBC's "Today" show on Monday.
And he said that the United States' eminence on the world stage may hang in the balance.
"Historically, when we first set up the public school systems across the country, we were leaps and bounds ahead of the vast majority of countries around the world," Obama said. "That just is not true anymore. They have caught up and in some cases, they're surpassing us, especially in math and science. It happened over decades. There are a lot of contributing factors. But part of the challenge, I think, for the entire country is to understand that how well we do economically, whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs to support families and support the future of the American