Education is why we need this $835m bail-out, says First Lady

Applause: Mrs Obama tells education department staff that teacher layoffs must stop

MICHELLE Obama has made her first solo speech as first lady, choosing education for her first foray into government policy.

She stressed the need for more spending on schools and teachers and promoted her husband's $825 billion stimulus package.

"Imagine what we can do with millions of dollars more investment in this area," she said. "We can expand opportunities in low-income districts for all students, particularly for students with disabilities," she told 350 staff gathered for a pep talk.

She said President Obama's plan would prevent layoffs and education cuts, create jobs and make college more affordable.

"With these investments that we hope to make through this stimulus package, we'll be able to prevent teacher layoffs and education cuts in hard-hit states. We need to keep teachers in the classrooms throughout this time."

Her speech was met with enthusiastic applause as she said she and Mr Obama were committed to giving children an outstanding education.

Mrs Obama, who was joined by education secretary Anne Duncan, started by saying: "I'm a product of your work," in a reference to her education in Chicago. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along.

"And I am committed, as well as my husband, to ensuring that more kids like us and kids around this country, regardless of their race, their income, their status, the property values in their neighbourhoods, get access to an outstanding education."

Her appearance was the first of several scheduled at government agencies over the coming weeks. As a former hospital executive, she is thought to want to make the often criticised US health care system the top of her agenda.

With two young daughters, Sasha and Malia at school in Washington DC, she is also passionate about improving education standards.

Mr Obama has told Republicans he will scale back some of his spending plans to get his stimulus package approved by the Senate.

"We're going to be trimming out things that are not relevant to putting people back to work right now," Mr Obama said. He said he would remove those proposals which were not directly aimed at creating jobs.

Republicans had threatened to derail the stimulus Bill, which will be voted on this week. Mr Obama wants the money released by the middle of the month. In an interview with NBC he admitted that if his multi-billion-dollar rescue package does not work he would be out of a job at the end of four years.

"If I don't have this done in three years then there's going to be a one-term proposition," said Mr Obama.