By Erin Richards

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 

MADISON, Wis. -- After a year in office primarily spent trying to rescue the economy, President Barack Obama went back to school on the anniversary of his election Wednesday, telling America states must now focus on reforming education to ensure a strong economic future.

During a speech at James C. Wright Middle School in Madison, Wis., Obama plugged the federal government's $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, which will soon allot extra federal stimulus funds to states based on the strength of the education reforms those states enact.

Speaking in front of a blue backdrop with words "Race to the Top" scrawled in white letters, Obama spoke generally about education to about 250 students as well as hundreds of parents, teachers, staff and local dignitaries packed into the an auditorium that normally serves as the school's lunchroom. He also recapped the last year.

"One year ago, Americans all across this country went to the polls and cast ballots for the future they wanted to see," Obama said. "Election Day was a day of hope, it was a day of possibility, but it was also a sobering one because we knew even then that we faced an array of challenges that would test us as a country."

Obama said his administration "had two fundamental obligations," to "rescue the economy from imminent collapse" and to make "long-term investments necessary to build our economy stronger than before."

Part of those long-term investments, he said, involved education.

"The currency of today's economy is knowledge," Obama said. "It's time to stop talking about education reform and time to start doing it."

The proposed guidelines for the federal government's Race to the Top program (http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html) have been available since summer, but Obama said the real competition will begin once states can start competing for those grants. States can't do that until the federal government releases the final applications for Race to the Top in a few weeks.

"We're putting over $4 billion on the table -- four billion with a 'B' -- one of the largest investments that the federal government has ever made in education reform," he said. "But we're not just handing it out to states because they want it. We're not just handing it out based on population. It's not just going through the usual political formulas. We're challenging states to compete for it."

Obama noted that Wisconsin is a state that has a law prohibiting student achievement data to evaluate teacher performance, a law that makes the state ineligible for Race to the Top.

On Thursday, the Wisconsin Legislature is expected to pass a bill that will eliminate that firewall, as well as bills that would encourage higher standards for charter schools and allow for the sharing of student data between K-12 and post-secondary institutions.

A proposed bill that would have given the state superintendent heightened powers to intervene in struggling schools did not receive the support of both houses. With Wisconsin's legislative session ending Thursday, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has said the push to put Milwaukee's mayor in control of MPS will require a special session.

Through Race to the Top, Obama said, the federal government will be looking to reward states that can show the changes they have made in education are working, states that are taking an "all hands on deck approach to education reform," and states that are willing to transform schools from top to bottom -- by closing buildings or firing poor teachers.

In a telephone interview after the speech, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Obama came to Wisconsin "to highlight the opportunity Wisconsin has to break through" and to support initiatives put forward by Doyle.

"Wisconsin is on the eve of a historic vote," he said.

Duncan did not answer specifically when asked if the Legislature should include mayoral control in Milwaukee schools, but he said the situation in Milwaukee was troubled.

"Milwaukee is one of the few cities in the country where the achievement gap is actually getting wider," Duncan said, referring to the performance disparity between white and African-American students.

Obama also challenged parents in the room to support their children and get them to the point they can take charge of their own education. He relayed a personal story about his daughter Malia, a sixth-grader, who recently became depressed because of scoring a 73 on a science test.

On Tuesday, Malia got a 95.

"She said, 'I just like having knowledge,"' Obama said. "What was happening was she had started wanting it more than us. Now once you get to that point, our kids are on (their) way."

In a more intimate session before the speech, Obama sat down with 6th-, 7th- and 8th-grade students in Wright's school library. Like the children in the auditorium, many of the kids wore white T-shirts featuring a graphic of Obama's face and the words, "Doing things the 'Wright' way." Unlike the kids in the auditorium, each child in the library patiently waited with a 3 x 5 card in which they had written a question to ask the president.

As soon as Obama came through the front door of the library, the children jumped to their feet, applauding and cheering.

"Hey guys! How's it going?" Obama said, before talking to the kids about how important it was for them to take charge of their own education now that they were in middle school.

Obama told students he didn't have a lot of money, famous parents or even a father in his home for most of his childhood -- yet he made it this far, and they could, too.

Reporters were not allowed to cover the discussion between the president and the students, but Wright's guidance counselor, Laurel Finn, said students asked the president: What's one wish you have? What would you be doing if you weren't president? What are you doing to help immigrant students whose options are limited once they finish public school?

And another, which Finn swears was entirely student-generated: What do you think of merit pay?

According to Finn, Obama responded: his one selfish wish was for his daughters to live safe, long, happy lives, and that he also wished all children had that opportunity.

If he weren't president, Obama said, he'd be working for a nonprofit. The federal government is working on immigration reform as well as ways for children of illegal immigrants to attend college.

And Obama told the child who asked about merit pay, or paying teachers performance-related bonuses, that he supported the initiative, according to Finn, who was in the room.

They were totally listening to him," school psychologist Mary Birmingham said. "Every parent would have wanted a recording of what the president said about education, so they could play it back and say (to their children), 'If you don't want to listen to me, listen to Barack Obama."'

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