Our partners at the Children's Forum linked to the big news this week, via their Facebook page, about the Obama administration's overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law. There's a good summary of what President Obama is proposing from the New York Times and Business Week, or you can just go to www.WhiteHouse.gov to get the information straight from the source.

The administration's overhaul of Child Left Behind will include changes in how schools are evaluated, as well as the elimination of a 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency, which would be replaced by a requirement for all students to leave high school “college or career ready.”

The White House is also revising federal financing formulas so that a portion of the money is awarded on academic progress, rather than by according to the numbers of students, especially poor students. That probably means big changes for the annual budgeting process in Florida school districts.

Overall, Obama is proposing a 7.6 percent increase in U.S. education spending -- $49.7 billion to fund education programs in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2011. The proposal includes increased spending on early childhood education, competitive grants to encourage school innovation and new programs to train teachers.

The Obama administration said it aims to make the U.S. the world leader in college graduation rates by 2020. At Worst To First, our goal is to make Florida the national leader by 2020. We'll need your help to get there.