President-elect Barack Obama and his team started work this week on a transition that includes searching for the people who will bring to life his agenda of expanding preschool, improving the quality of teachers, and fixing the major federal law in K-12 education. Within 24 hours of his election, the Illinois Democrat assigned a team of campaign advisers and staff members the task of hiring political hands and policy experts to lead the incoming administration's efforts and to develop a plan to turn campaign ideas into reality. Obama, who defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona in a hard-fought campaign that concluded November 4, has promised to add $10 billion a year to federal preschool spending, "recruit an army of new teachers," double federal funding for charter schools, and provide scholarships to college students and to professionals from other fields who agree to pursue careers in teaching. With budget pressures driven by deep troubles in the financial markets and in the broader U.S. economy, the Obama administration may have difficulty generating public support for the campaign's ambitious education agenda and the spending that would be required for the programs in it.