'Obama goes back to school in jobs push'
US: President Barack Obama stood in a Denver schoolyard Tuesday
imploring Congress to pass his jobs bill, saying it would save teachers
the sack and help secure the futures of America's children.
Obama, on a nationwide tour to push the $447 billion legislation,
which faces an uncertain fate in Congress, said it would provide jobs
for teachers, construction workers and the unemployed.
The bill provides money for state education authorities to keep
teachers on the job, as thousands are being laid off due to budget
crunches, and calls for spending on work to improve decaying
infrastructure, including in schools.
"Thousands of construction workers will have a job again. his is one
of the most common sense ideas out there," Obama told a large crowd
gathered in outside the school in Denver, Colorado.
"He chose the Abraham Lincoln High School in one of the city's less
well off suburbs to highlight plans to repair and remodel ageing school
classrooms.
"The science labs here at Lincoln High were built decades ago back in
the 1960s... science and technology has changed a little bit since the
1960s," he said.
"We need to do everything we can to make sure our kids can compete.
Every child deserves a great school and we can give it to them.
"My question to Congress is what on earth are you waiting for?" Obama
said.
On the way to the school, Obama's motorcade snaked past the American
football stadium where he delivered his soaring acceptance speech at the
Democratic National Convention in 2008. AFP
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