An article published on CQ.com provides a snapshot of President Obama’s education agenda for his second term. Lauren Smith writes that a key focus for Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, will be teacher prep.

“Duncan has indicated that another major focus of a second term will be working with states and higher education programs to revamp the teacher profession from the ground up — raising teacher salaries significantly, making schools of education more selective, and overall increasing the profession’s prestige to attract top college graduates. The president requested $5 billion in his fiscal 2013 budget to kick-start the effort, called RESPECT, for Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching.”

Smith writes that Congress will likely look at both the federal student loan program and Pell grants.

“Obama relaxed eligibility requirements for the Pell grant, increased its maximum award and has proposed increasing it further. He also put the Education Department in charge of administering the federal student loan program, taking it out of the hands of private lenders. He instituted new loan repayment plans that cap some repayments at 10 percent of a borrower’s income and completely forgive other loans after 20 years of repayment.

Lawmakers in both parties agree that they can’t continue to shift money from one program to another in order to prop up Pell grants, which face annual funding shortfalls. And Republicans have objected to the Education Department’s management of the student loan program. Congress is likely to look at both issues when it reauthorizes the Higher Education Act (PL 110-315), which expires next year.”

Click here to read the full article (subscription required).