Obama: more money for charter schools

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

Barack Obama promised Tuesday to double funding for charter schools, pay teachers based on performance and replace those who aren't up to the job, embracing education proposals normally more popular with Republican candidates.

The Democratic presidential nominee says both parties must work together to improve education in a pitch to independent voters in this presidential election swing state, where the fight over education reform has been the focus of a longtime partisan battle. It was the first of two days that Obama was spending on education policy.

Days after Republican candidate John McCain talked up the idea of school choice at the GOP convention, Obama proposed to give parents more options, too — but not with a federal voucher program to pay for private schools, something McCain has supported. Instead, Obama seeks to create an array of new public schools.

Despite McCain's rhetoric, he is not proposing a federal voucher plan. Instead, he is proposing only to expand the voucher program in Washington, D.C.