Obama Addresses Education in America

President Obama is outlining what's ahead for our kids.

This morning the President made his first official speech on America's education.

President Barack Obama started to outline what he sees for the nation's students.

"Don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking," he said.

Though the President did not propose any new legislation, he did offer up some new approaches.

Among the most controversial is merit pay for teachers.

The proposal is already drawing fire from some teachers unions.

The President also upheld his support for charter schools, called for states to adopt voluntary standards for students, and said he would not overhaul President Bush's No Child Left Behind requirements before they come up for reauthorization later this year.

President Obama did not pledge new money.

That's already part of the economic stimulus package, $41 billion in grants to local school districts, $21 billion for school modernization and $35 billion for building schools and training teachers.

The President also talked about the possibility of changing the school calendar so that children are in school more hours in a day or more of the year, and he renewed his call for Americans to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by the year 2020.