Summers: Education Spending 'Crucial'

Feb. 8, 2009 -- President Obama's top economic adviser, Larry Summers, said the president believes support for education is "crucial," a day after the Senate presented a stimulus plan allotting $20 billion less for education than the House version.

The Senate version of the approximately $800 billion stimulus package provides $88 billion for education but does not include $20 billion for "K-12/College Construction."

"There's no question...we need a large, forthright approach here. There are crucial areas, support for higher education, that are things that are in the House bill that are very, very important to the president," Summers said in a "This Week" interview with George Stephanopoulos.

"What we've got to do is go after support for education," said Summers. "And there are huge problems facing state and local governments, and that could lead to a vicious cycle of layoffs, falling home values, lower property taxes, more layoffs. And we've got to prevent that. So we're going to have to try to come together in the conference. And the president is certainly going to be active in sharing his views."

Critics of the latest Senate version of the bill -- filed late Saturday night and expected to be voted on this Tuesday -- say that some of the most effective spending provisions have been cut, including education spending and aid to state and local governments.

Summers, director of the National Economic Council, declined, however, to say whether the president prefers the House of Senate version of the bill.

"I don't think this is about the House bill or the Senate bill. It's about the best bill for America," he said. "There are respects in which both bills can surely be improved, and the president's going to work as thoughtfully and aggressively as he can to move this process along...drawing on the very important strengths that are contained in both these bills."

Summers went on to stress that, moreso than any individual spending, "the most important thing is that people come together and create the 3 million to 4 million jobs."

"The president feels that, above all, we need a major program enacted very quickly that will create 3 million to 4 million jobs. He believes we need to perfect it in every way we can," Summers said, adding that "if there are programs that aren't going to serve important purposes...they should be eliminated."