Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Obama Plans Program to Help African-American Students

President Barack Obama was set to announce an executive order aimed at improving the performance of African-American students as he addresses the Urban League Wednesday night. 

The speech to the civil rights group is an opportunity for the president to reach out to some of his most loyal supporters, African-Americans, who as a group have struggled more than most Americans in the tough economy.

The executive order establishes an interagency initiative aimed at identifying promising programs to improve African-American students’ performance and developing a national network of people and groups to share these ideas and put them into practice. The program, to be housed in the Education Department, is dubbed the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.

The order also sets up a commission to advise the initiative and a federal interagency working group to coordinate federal efforts from early childhood education through college and adult schooling.