Not settling for second best, US President Barack Obama wants to elevate his country’s education standards. Towards that end, he is urging the nation’s governors to direct state efforts along those lines.

Speaking at the National Governor’s Association Feb. 22, 2010, President Obama said he would not “accept second place for the United States of America,” which has long enjoyed an educational “primacy in the world.”

Obama is specifically raring for a reauthorization of The Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The forthcoming redesign of the legislation has already been included in the 2011 budget, his officials announced.

Obama’s administration has strongly voiced its concern about states producing high school graduates ill-equipped in skills for college or jobs. Collectively, those states account for the country’s deteriorating stature in terms of education.

In a statement released by the White House, the US has lost more than $3.7 billion annually in wasted productivity and remedial education. The White House added that numerous states have let standards in reading and math fall between 2005 and 2007 — a veiled attack on President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act.

Bush’s legislation is the last reauthorization of The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, first signed in 1965.

In Obama’s impending version of The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, The White House would set aside $2.5 billion for state-led grant programs that encourage better teaching, improved curriculum, and tougher assessments.

For the same reason, Obama has formulated the so-called Race to the Top challenge. This program gives federal incentives to states that develop and implement six tough standards in reading and math.

Under the reauthorization, Race to the Top would get $1.35 billion in funds, plus a $350 million additional commitment from the President. In turn, the program would offer grants worth $400 million to states that expect tougher standards from their school systems. Also, it would create a $405 million outlay in aid of those states.