Sep 5, 2009 5:30 pm US/Eastern
Parents Fear Obama School Address Is Political
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: Uproar Over President's Speech Is 'Silly Season'
WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
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President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama take questions from second graders at the Capital City Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 3, 2009.
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
The White House on Friday dismissed as pointless the furor over President Barack Obama's plan to deliver a televised back-to-school speech to the nation's students.
"I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success."
Obama's planned address to students has prompted a surprising push-back from some quarters over what the White House sees as an important but innocuous topic.
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Some conservative critics say Obama is trying to promote a political agenda and overstepping his bounds, taking the federal government too far into public school business.
Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a potential presidential contender in 2012, said Obama's speech is "uninvited" and that the president's move raises questions of content and motive.
Florida Republican Party chair Jim Greer went so far as to accuse the president of trying to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda," and right-wing commentator Michelle Malkin accused the left of using kids in public schools as "guinea pigs and as junior lobbyists for their social liberal agenda," according to CBSNews.com's David Morgan.
Morgan notes Gibbs reminder about previous addresses to school children made by former presidents. Gibbs reminded reporters that Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush did what the current president has planned to, in 1988 and 1991, respectively.
Presidents Reagan and Bush said that America was created by and for religious people, convicts would celebrate gun bans, and the media doesn't tell you the whole story about an adminstration's successes,
reports Morgan in a review of those presidents' speeches.
Many school districts have decided not to show Obama's speech, to be delivered at 12 noon EDT Tuesday, partly in response to concerns from parents.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on Friday defended Obama's plan to address students.
"The bottom line is we need the president of the United States of America to use his bully pulpit to talk to kids about the importance of education and to help inspire kids," she said on "The John Gambling Show" on radio station WOR NewsTalk Radio 710 in New York.
Gibbs said former Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush delivered similar speeches to students. He said Obama's speech will not be partisan but rather a chance for children to get "a little encouragement as they start the school year."
The White House spokesman said he couldn't speak to the motivations of some school districts.
"Look, there are some school districts that won't let you read 'Huckleberry Finn,' " Gibbs said.
He said the administration understands that some districts have logistical concerns with the timing of Obama's speech.
The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it. Obama will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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