Obama's controversial speech posted online

The transcript of President Barack Obama's speech, planned to be delivered to students Tuesday, is now available online.

You can read the speech by clicking the headline under related content on this page or by going to www.whitehouse.gov

Controversy has swirled around the planned address as some parents in Utah and throughout the country have expressed concern over allowing their children to listen to the president's live broadcast before being able to screen it first for content.

Many school districts nationwide are giving parents the choice of having their child opt out of the event for an alternative educational activity.

In his speech, Obama will tell the nation's schoolchildren he "expects great things from each of you."

The president also tells young people in his remarks that all the work of parents, educators and others won't matter "unless you show up for those schools, pay attention to those teachers."

Obama made no reference in his prepared remarks to the uproar surrounding his speech. He used the talk to tell kids about his at-times clumsy ways as a child and to urge them to identify an area of interest, set goals and work hard to achieve them.

He noted that he was raised by a single mother and that she made him buckle down and work harder at times and said he's glad she did. The president acknowledged that "it's hard to be successful," but told the students in his prepared speech that the country badly needs their best effort to cope in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Obama's planned talk has been controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to delve too directly into local education. But White House officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the charges are silly.

Paul Eggleston, who has a kindergarten student in Granite School District, said he prefers that educators delay the broadcast until parents have listened to it and made a decision. "The classroom is a place for education — not politics," he said.

The speech will air 10 a.m. at www.whitehouse.gov and on C-SPAN. The president will speak at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., directly addressing the nation's students on succeeding in school.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the speech is nothing more than giving students "a little encouragement as they start the school year and asking them to strive for excellence and to stay at what they're doing is an important message."

He points to the fact Ronald Reagan spoke to schoolkids at the beginning of the school year in 1988; George Herbert Walker Bush did it in 1991.

The broadcast comes with classroom activities. For more information, go to www.ed.gov.

Contributing: Associated Press

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