These reforms will direct additional resources to those who need help. They will give new options to parents of children in persistently failing schools. They will reduce federal bureaucracy and strengthen local control of schools. They will help local schools reach a significant goal, by funding early childhood reading programs. We will more likely make sure that no child is left behind in America.
Education reform is essential to keep faith with our country's promise of equality of opportunity.
And education reform is essential to our economic progress. We're grateful that the world's most skilled workers want to come to the United States. Our technology advantage rests on the contributions of immigrants from places like India or China, Russia, Iran and hundreds of others of countries. But while we're importing the world's best, too many Americans are locked out of the economy of a future by schools that don't teach and won't change. Our prosperity agenda will equip every American child with the skills he or she needs to do valuable work and earn a good wage.