MANCHESTER, N.H. — Senator Obama on Monday will take his education plan to a meeting with New Hampshire’s largest teachers union in an effort to gain its endorsement.

Securing the support of the 16,000-member National Education Association-New Hampshire can provide a presidential candidate with a late boost in a contested primary season. The NEA’s New Hampshire group, which backed Vice President Gore in 2000 and Howard Dean in 2004, says internal surveys show that it boasts the nation’s highest percentage of members voting with the endorsement, 70%. Its voting base represented about 7% of the Democratic primary electorate in 2004.

Senator Edwards, Senator Clinton, and all the Democrats with the exception of Joseph Biden, Dennis Kucinich, and Michael Gravel have already met with the NEA New Hampshire, said the group’s director of public affairs Rick Trombly. On the Republican side, Michael Huckabee of Arkansas has also met with them.

Unveiling his education plan here yesterday, Mr. Obama made a direct appeal to New Hampshire teachers centered on his opposition to No Child Left Behind. “It’s pretty popular to bash No Child Left Behind out on the campaign trail, but when it was being debated in Congress four years ago, my colleague from Illinois, Dick Durbin offered everyone a chance to vote so the law couldn’t be enforced unless it was fully funded,” Mr. Obama said. “A lot of senators, including Senator Edwards and Senator Clinton, passed on that chance. I believe that was a serious mistake.”

Mr. Obama steered clear of mentioning the words “merit pay,” which earlier drew the ire of teachers and his opponents. But he voiced qualified support for the idea. “Where our teachers go above and beyond the call to make a real difference in our children’s lives, I think it’s time we rewarded them for it,” Mr. Obama said, citing, as he did at the annual meeting of the National Education Association in July, the example of Denver. “We can find new ways to increase pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them and not just based on an arbitrary test score.”

His plan involves funding “innovative programs” in school districts, rewarding teachers who work in less attractive inner city and rural areas and serve as mentors to students, and finding money for teachers who gain new knowledge and skills.

Campaigning in Iowa on Monday, Senator Clinton, according to the Associated Press, called merit pay “demeaning and discouraging,” but likewise said she backed encouraging teachers to work in subject areas and regions where teachers are scarce.

The Illinois senator also voiced support for early childhood education. He called for the establishment of federal grants earmarked for state education programs directed at students younger than five.

Mr. Edwards, in a statement released by his communications director, Chris Kofinis, said Mr. Obama “supported No Child Left Behind as an Illinois state senator before he opposed it as a presidential candidate.”

The Obama campaign responded that the candidate “voted to get the little money that was made available by NCLB, but has been consistently critical of its design and implementation and believes it should’ve been fully funded from the start.”

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee, Danny Diaz, took issue with Mr. Obama’s plans to finance his education plan, in part, by cutting the space program. “It is ironic that Barack Obama’s plan to help our children reach for the stars is financed in part by slashing a program that helps us learn about those very stars,” Mr. Diaz said.

Mr. Obama delivered his speech energetically, loudly, and formally, with a podium and teleprompter, from a stage in a relatively small school activity space. Attendees at the invitation-only event praised the spirit and level of detail in Mr. Obama’s remarks. “I wanted to run up and hug him,” said a former teacher from Hopkinton, N.H., Cynthea Warman. Deb Barry of Stratham, N.H., said that Mr. Obama’s speech reflected weeks of back-and-forth between the Obama campaign and “Educators for Obama.” She said that local educators participated in a conference call with the campaign’s education policy advisers several weeks ago at which officials asked the supporters about their concerns. Soon after the conference call, Mr. Obama’s answers on questions, such as No Child Left Behind, became sharper and more focused.

Francis Warman took this as a sign the candidate has been learning and growing on the campaign trail. “I think it’s good that he’s still learning as opposed to people like Hillary who think they know everything already and want to tell us what to believe,” he said.

But for some, such as Gabrielle Grossman of Exeter, who hooted the candidate had changed her life as he exited, Mr. Obama’s appeal transcended the specifics of his speech. She said the candidate’s announcement of his presidential campaign coincided with her toddler son’s diagnosis with autism. “Every time he sees me he asks about my son,” she said. “Every time I see him I find hope.”