MADISON - On the anniversary of last year's historic election, President Barack Obama on Wednesday told an audience of more than 600 at Madison's Wright Middle School that he wanted to use more than $4 billion in federal incentives to "make education America's national mission."

The brief visit to this stronghold of liberal support came amid diminished but still positive poll numbers for the president and followed Republican victories Tuesday in gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

Stressing in his 31-minute speech that the "currency of today's economy is knowledge," Obama said states must adopt high standards for student achievement, hold teachers accountable, and even be prepared to step in and take over failing schools to win competitive federal grants.

To help Wisconsin qualify for a share of the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top stimulus money, lawmakers are expected today to remove a barrier in state law to using student test scores as one factor in evaluating teachers. But a further reform endorsed by Obama - allowing the state superintendent to change the curriculum and even the personnel in failing schools - is on hold for now in the Legislature.

"I'm proud to say that already a number of states have taken us up on this challenge," Obama said. "In states like California and Indiana and Wisconsin, you're seeing steps taken to remove these so-called firewall laws so we can have a clear look at how well our children are learning and what can be done to help them learn better."

Obama chose as the backdrop for his speech a small charter school where 75 percent of students are black or Latino and 86 percent are low income, arriving with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and meeting privately with a select group of students and staff.

In introducing Obama, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle said the stimulus law "saved our schools" and what aides later said were 4,600 full-time teaching and other school jobs. Economists say that number still must be treated with caution, since it's difficult to say what would have happened to all those jobs in the absence of the stimulus money.

Doyle said the state would compete hard for the Race to the Top money but needed to approve the bills before lawmakers regardless of whether Wisconsin gets any of the funds.

"We must face a hard truth in Wisconsin that our achievement gap (between white and minority students) is among the worst in the nation," Doyle said.

After the president's visit, Doyle left with Obama aboard Air Force One to attend undisclosed meetings with administration officials today in Washington, D.C.

Stimulus sparks reform bills

Prompted by the stimulus money, lawmakers were expected to pass bills today that would require school boards to consider national standards when establishing charter schools and that would direct state schools, colleges and universities to share data on students from preschool through post-secondary schooling to improve learning. The state's powerful teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, is backing most of the changes.

"I think Wisconsin is positioned to be granted (Race to the Top) money in part because of the obvious big need in Milwaukee, in part because both President Obama and Arne Duncan came here to deliver this message," said state Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts, D-Middleton, chairwoman of the state Assembly Education Committee. "I think they're specifically looking at Wisconsin as a place where this can do the most good."

State GOP chairman Reince Priebus said the proposals by Democrats in the state Legislature wouldn't be enough to qualify Wisconsin for Race to the Top money because they wouldn't allow student testing to be used to discipline or fire teachers.

"Our kids and their education are too important to be failed by broken promises," Priebus said.

But Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner said state officials had worked with the U.S. Education Department on the bill drafts to ensure they met federal requirements and said the state would do more if needed.

'No excuse for mediocrity'

In deciding who gets grant money, Obama said his administration also would consider whether states are willing to "remake a school from top to bottom with new leaders and a new way of teaching."

"There's always excuses for why these schools can't perform," Obama said. "But part of what we want is an environment in which everybody agrees ... that there's no excuse for mediocrity."

So far, state lawmakers haven't agreed. A bill to grant the state superintendent of schools powers to change failing schools' curriculum, expand their hours and change their personnel within the limits of union contracts has passed the Assembly Education Committee and has Doyle's support.

But Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said that bill represents a major change that "still needs to be fleshed out" and vetted in public hearings.

The U.S. Department of Education is expected to issue the final application and guidance for states seeking Race to the Top grants in the coming weeks. The first round of competition is scheduled to start this month, with awards announced in April; a second round starts in June for winners announced in September.

Visit follows Democratic losses

Priebus dismissed Obama's visit as a distraction from Republican victories in Tuesday's elections. He said the defeat of New Jersey Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine and the victory of Republican Bob McDonnell in an open governor's race in Virginia represent a rejection by voters of Obama, who campaigned for Corzine in visits to New Jersey.

"Voters are rejecting the failed policies of bigger spending and bigger government and they did it last night in a huge way," Priebus said.

Obama, however, was getting nothing but support from Wright student Deion Ford, 13, who had "44 Obama" shaved onto the back of his head and wore a "Yes, we can" shirt. A black eighth-grader who lives with his mother during the school year and visits his father during the summers, Ford said he was inspired to work harder in school by meeting with a black president who also was raised by his mother.

"I thought it was good for the students to understand and recognize what he went through and the similarities that he has and we have," Ford said.

Wisconsin State Journal reporter Gayle Worland contributed to this report.