Obama announces new education effort to let girls learn

WASHINGTON (AP) — Saying every girl "has value," President Barack Obama announced a more-focused government effort today to help tens of millions of girls around the world attend and stay in school. Michelle Obama said she's heading to Japan and Cambodia later this month to promote it.

Obama said that, as the father of "two fabulous, extraordinary, awesome young women," he wants to help make sure that "no girl out there is denied her chance to be a strong, capable woman." Yet more than 60 million girls are being denied schooling for a variety of reasons, he said.

Obama said the U.S. works quietly to support educating girls, but its many programs must become a single, coordinated strategy.

"We're making it clear to any country that's our partner or wants to be our partner that they need to get serious about increasing the number of girls in school," Obama said, announcing the "Let Girls Learn" initiative at the White House with the first lady standing beside him.

Mrs. Obama said the issue is personal for her because "I see myself in these girls. I see our daughters in these girls."

The Obamas are parents of teenagers Malia, 16, and Sasha, 13, and say their own success would have been impossible without education.