Monday, January 24, 2011

The Answer Sheet - Education and the State of the Union: a perennial favorite

The Answer Sheet - Education and the State of the Union: a perennial favorite

Education and the State of the Union: a perennial favorite

This item comes from my colleague Nick Anderson, the Post's national education writer and deputy education editor. It's a safe bet President Obama will dwell on education Tuesday night in his second State of the Union address. (His speech to Congress in February 2009 was not, technically, a SOTU.) And his goal is plain: Administration officials have made clear in recent weeks that the president will push this year for a bipartisan rewrite of the 2002 federal education law known as No Child Left Behind. But if Obama is looking for something new to say--a new theme, a new rhetorical flourish, even a new proposal--it may be somewhat difficult. Presidents talk up education every year. Usually It offers them a respite from passages that deal with war, terrorism or polarizing domestic subjects such as taxes and health care. Here is a review of what's been said on the subject in