WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama wants to see 5,000 failing schools close and reopen with new principals and teachers over the next five years.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says children have only one shot at a good education. He said today that chronically underperforming schools need a new start.

Obama doesn't have authority to close schools himself. That power rests with local school districts and states.

Duncan said the idea is to be "more targeted and more strategic."

"We really want to put a laser-like focus on those schools that have historically underperformed," Duncan said.

The administration's goal is for the lowest-performing 1,000 schools — about 1 percent of schools nationwide — to close and reopen each year for the next five years.

But the president will have unprecedented money to offer schools from a federal school-turnaround fund. And states have an incentive to act in the federal economic stimulus law, because they must help failing schools improve to be eligible for the dollars.