Duncan: Obama Aims to Motivate Students

CBS News reports:

After Republicans headed into the long Labor Day weekend attacking President Obama for planning to address the nation's schoolchildren, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said he didn't mind the criticism.

"At the end of the day, if the president motivates one C-student to become a B-student or one student who is thinking about dropping out to stay in school and take their education seriously, it's all worth it," Duncan told CBS News chief Washington correspondent and anchor Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

The secretary even added some criticism of his own.

"It's amazing to me the last time the president spoke to the nation's children was in 1991," Duncan told Schieffer. "The real question I have is, why has it been 18 years since a president has addressed our nation's youth?"

Is it the federal government's job to get involved in public education?