Obama To Announce “Race To The Top” Expansion

Democrats have owned public education since the 60′s and it never gets better. It’s just this side of a sure bet that it will not improve under this president.

nice action and informations

re: Governor Rick Perry ..state’s education system to “unelected bureaucrats and special-interest groups” in Washington.
Hilarious Perry saying that when as you can see from the following that Texas provides a real ‘non-biased’ education for it’s students free of religion and religious dogma
The Republican majority on the board also gave a thumbs down to requiring history teachers and textbooks to provide coverage on the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor,
the board’s social-conservative bloc, Republicans left Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the nation’s first black justice, on the list of important figures
they also added, on a 7-6 vote, Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly, the National Rifle Association, Moral Majority and the Heritage Foundation to the list of persons and groups that students will learn about.
Texas’ State Board of Education adopted new health textbooks that promote traditional marriage and focus almost exclusively on abstinence among forms of birth control. The books were heavily supported by social and religious conservatives and opposed by many educators and public health advocates. Texas has the nation’s highest teenage birth rate.

“Race to the top”..I want to believe it , I do. Three of my kids have graduated from public schools. Our education system is the vice grip of the teacher’s union. My son’s AP physics teacher disappeared for three weeks and returned with an ankle bracelet. He was being monitored as a result of his third DUI. My daughter’s AP chem teacher was so illiterate in her subject, she actually had them watch Pirates of the Carribean in lieu of an exam, and gave them points-(equivilant to those of a test)-for bringing in toppings for an ice-cream sundae party. And yes, I complained bitterly to anyone (the principal, the board, other teachers) who would listen. Both of these teachers are now tenured.

apologies all around, my third post..this officially qualifies as a rant..but if our system stinks so bad, and is turning out kids who are ill prepared for college and the work force..why do we still “teach” HOME ECONOMICS?? My kids were “taught” how to make micro-wave smores at school…How about a class on personal finance instead? How to create a budget, sign a contract, buy a home, dress for success..DITCH THE MARSHMALLOWS!!

“We certainly want to support this type of competition”
Competition? What about the self-esteem of the losers?
“making sure our students are prepared for success in a competitive 21st century economy and workplace,”
I’ve been listening to this crap for 30 years. It hasn’t changed since the days Obama was doing cocaine.

If I were a teacher,good at what I was doing and interested in making more money I would be “racing” for the nearest school that had the best students.
Pity the poor teachers who are dealt a room full of lugheads like myself.

Pity the poor teachers who are dealt a room full of lugheads like myself.
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No pity here. You’re getting paid to teach – get on with it, or get out.

It will be interesting to see how many Republicans pile in with knee-jerk attacks on the administration even though this program is very popular with conservatives since it so strongly (and effectively) promotes charter schools and performance-based education (yes, and the holy grail of teacher pay based on performance).
Performance pay for teachers, allow charter schools, allow the firing of ineffective administrators, based funding on tested results – if they weren’t so distracted by healthcare, the left’s liberal fringe would be howling. The carrot approach has worked well, it is the local state legislators and parents best positioned to put pressure on the teacher unions and the rapid rate of reform successes (law changes allowing charter schools and pushes for teacher pay for performance) are concrete proof of this.
“States that do not have public charter laws or put artificial caps on the growth of charter schools will jeopardize their applications under the Race to the Top Fund,”Secretary Duncan June 8, 2009

If I were a teacher,good at what I was doing and interested in making more money I would be “racing” for the nearest school that had the best students.
david | Jan 19, 2010 7:40:28 AM
That could prove pretty foolish. It is far easier to take a room of D students (never do homework, sleeping in class, making pictures on the test scantron sheets as a joke, etc) up to a room of C+ students than raise a room of B+ students (already doing homework, focusing, studying) to A+. Performance pay can be tied to the *improvement*, and the worst students usually have a lot more potential improvement starting up an easier slope.

“Nonsense. The Republicans have been in power many times since the 60′s.”
Posted by: tierra | Jan 19, 2010 2:09:11 AM
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Most of the large urban school districts have been controlled by the Democrats for the past 60 years. Yet it’s these same urban school districts that are failing and have very high dropout rates. That’s because the Democrats are more interested in the rhetoric–and having a perpetual campaign issue–rather than actually solving the problems.

Many of these comments seem to be coming from people who have not been in the educational field of “teaching.” We pass laws, offer pay for excellence, and we deal with the product cast forth. In a business world we can cast out the inferior products. What a ruckus if we did that with children. Some people need to get a real life in touch with real people and try education for a while.

Education will mean little if there are no jobs in the US, unless we all want to emigrate to other countries.
There must be government incentives to manufacture products and goods within our own borders, or jobs will not exist here.
We can either be taken over by China, for default on our debt, or we can be taken over because we have no means of support. The end result is the same.