President Obama To Unveil His No Child Left Behind Blueprint

President Barack Obama said Saturday he wants to rewrite the nation's eight-year-old education law with a framework ensuring that all students "graduate from high school prepared for college and a career -- no matter who you are or where you come from."

"Achieving this goal will be difficult," he said in his weekly radio address. "It will take time. And it will require the skills, talents and dedication of many: principals, teachers, parents, students."

The Obama administration has been critical of the existing law, which took effect in 2002 with the backing of President George W. Bush and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said the No Child Left Behind law has "significant flaws," in part because it puts too much emphasis on standardized tests and unfairly brands some school as failures. It was supposed to have been reauthorized -- that is, updated -- in 2007. Instead, Congress has continued the law's application as written, allowing state school systems to set their own standards for academic progress and face the loss of federal funds if they fail to meet htem.

Obama said he wants to ease up on the federal demands.

"Schools that achieve excellence will rewarded and local districts will be encouraged to commit to change in schools that are clearly letting their students down," he said. "For the majority of schools that fall somewhere between -- schools that do well but could do better -- we will encourage continuous improvement to help keep our young people on track for a bright future: prepared for the jobs of the 21st century ... we will better prepare teachers, support teachers and encourarge teachers to stay in the field."

Details will come on Monday when the president send his plan up to Capitol Hill.

The president made the video address on Friday as is the custom and released it Saturday. He actually began his weekend with a short trip to Chevy Chase, Md. to watch eight-year-old Sasha compete in a basketball game.