Obama Shifts Focus to Education

It won’t be tax reform, and it certainly won’t be climate change: It looks like education reform is going to be the Obama administration’s focus going into the 112th Congress. But the president may face as tough a time overhauling No Child Left Behind as he would with other, more obviously contentious issues. While Democrats favor a sweeping overhaul of education, Republicans want a piecemeal approach, and one that involves cuts. “"There's room to make cuts, and I think pretty substantial cuts, that would enable us to use some of those savings on things we think work,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California conservative chairman of an Education and Workforce subcommittee. We'll find out more in the president's Jan. 25 State of the Union address, which Education Secretary Arne Duncan says will reflect the goal of education reform.