WASHINGTON, D.C.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the economy won't improve without the billions of dollars for schools in President Barack Obama's recovery plan.
"If we want to stimulate the economy, we need a better-educated work force," Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"That's the only way, long-term, we're going to get out of this economic crisis," he said.
The stimulus plan is picking up criticism as it moves through Congress. Republicans complain that not all the money will create jobs immediately. Democrats admit it's true, but they say the economy needs long-term help, too.
"It's a historic chance to make things dramatically better," said Duncan, who was CEO of Chicago public schools until Obama picked him to serve in the cabinet.
The education secretary said the stimulus measure, and its approximately $140 billion for schools, will help in three ways. In the near term, it will spend money to build and renovate classrooms, and it will keep hundreds of thousands of teachers from being laid off, he said. The package also includes money for long-term reforms.
The Obama administration is seeking to boost spending by nearly $500 million on reform-minded programs that fund teacher bonuses tied to student performance, and pay for charter school facilities and state data systems. The spending is in the stimulus plan approved by the House of Representatives last Wednesday, but it is not in the Senate version.
The chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., predicted that the reforms ultimately would be funded: "These are the priorities of President Obama. I believe they'll make it through," Miller said.
Money for education makes up about one-sixth of the $819 billion stimulus measure approved by the House.
The measure would pump an extra $26 billion into two long-term programs — No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, an increase that critics say will be impossible to roll back when the economy improves.
