Obama: School Year Should Be Longer

President also defends economic record, says Rahm better hurry up
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 27, 2010 10:41 AM CDT

Barack Obama just lost some votes in the K-12 demographic. The president advocated expanding the school year by a month this morning, in a major interview with the Today Show. “That month makes a difference,” he told Matt Lauer. “Now, that’s going to cost some money … but I think that would be money well spent.” But Obama added that throwing money at education wouldn’t solve the problem. “Our per-pupil spending has gone up during the last couple decades,” he noted, “even as results have gone down.”

Though the interview focused on education, Obama hit on some other points, including:

  • He rejected the idea that the US was experiencing a jobless recovery. “We're actually seeing more job growth so far in this recovery than we did in the last recovery that we had back in 2001,” he said. (Reuters)
  • He said he could work with Republicans, but not the current GOP leadership, calling their policies “irresponsible.” (CBS)
  • He said Rahm Emanuel “will have to make a decision quickly” about running for mayor of Chicago, because it's a "serious endeavor." (LA Times)

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