Obama Looks to Lessons From Chicago in His National Education Plan

The New York Times reports:

“Barack has been very engaged, very inquisitive about the dynamics of how do you improve public schools,” said Scott Smith, a former publisher of The Chicago Tribune who has collaborated with Mr. Obama on education projects here for a decade.

One of the biggest lessons Mr. Obama drew from his experiences in Chicago, associates said, is that student achievement is highly dependent on teacher quality.

For more on Chicago's declining public school system.For more on how Obama is so "engaged" he sends his kids to private schools.