President Calls to Expand “Race to the Top”

I like this program. The competition is not based on politics or ideology.
States must show how teacher and administrative salaries are tied to test scores; schools must adopt international benchmarks; states are required to loosen legal caps on charter schools.
The best, successful solutions are rewarded as low performing schools are turned around. Like President Obama has said to students, “You can’t drop out of school and into a good job’”.

Oops. Meant THEIR hands, not they’re. Can’t have the son of a teacher making such a basic grammatical error.

If there’s one thing Obama knows how to do…..it is SPEND!!!!!
Rick McDaniel | Jan 19, 2010 12:24:23 PM
Meanwhile, back in documented reality, Race to the Top costs a tenth what the Republican “No Child Left Behind” act did AND Obama’s program is successfully creating charter school programs, reigning in teacher union opposition to merit pay programs, and effectively firing poor performing administrations.
This is EXACTLY the sort of effective spending the Federal government should be doing, and honest conservative commentators support the program (often in articles that start with “I’m as surprised as anyone that the teacher’s unions haven’t gutted this, but…”)

So we’re OK with taking these steps towards Federal influence of curriculum, testing, data records, etc.?
Once the money is accepted, included in the budget, the schools won’t be dependent on Federal handouts forever?
And we’re OK with that because of the amazingly great job they’ve done with “federalizing” other programs that were once the exclusive domain of the States?

Yes Paul, I’m more than “OK with Federal influence of curriculum, testing, data records”.
We have 14,000 school districts around the country, many of these school boards are ill-equipped to make coherent educational decisions.
In the 50 largest US cities around half of the kids no not graduate. This is a crisis.

Oh, wait! Obama and Congress killed that fund, that’s right. Too much of a threat to the Education unions.
Carol | Jan 19, 2010 12:48:41 PM
You are laughably ignorant of the Race to the Top program. You attack Congress for closing down a charter school, while Race to the Top is leading to dozens of legislatures creating (collectively) thousands. Talk about missing the forest for the tree.

Also, “States can compete for a ONE time award” doesn’t exactly mesh with the article which is about funding a subsequent round of money for award in 2011. Um, if it was a ONE time award, why budget for it a second time?

Since the 1980s we have had a string of political and economic problems that have affected education. Rather than solve these underlying problems it appears that we are going to pour money into the testing and assessment business, and rely on Federal programs like Race To The Top (RTTT). All forms of testing and assessment extract energy and money from the system, and recent experience indicated questionable benefits. In connection with RTTT, I would think that distributing Federal education funds based on competition as opposed to need would be unconstitutional. Also RTTT holds children hostage to the nature of a State’s political characteristics and to any peculiarities in judging the competition. I would suggest that the first steps in fixing the system would be to insure that every teacher has appropriate sized classes, a first class educational environment, and a reasonable wage. For students I would recommend a TLC environment with proper nutrition, parents with jobs that provide a reasonable income for the hours worked, and a home not in foreclosure.

pete1234 | Jan 19, 2010 1:22:34 PM posted: “For students I would recommend a TLC environment with proper nutrition, parents with jobs that provide a reasonable income for the hours worked, and a home not in foreclosure.” Speaking as a teacher who worked with kids in poverty, that would be ideal.
Unfortunately, some children are bathed in a family atmosphere that promotes education, but increasingly many are not. Graduation rates peaked in the 60s at 80%. Today, according to an educational advocacy group founded by Colin Powell, almost HALF of high school students in the 50 largest American largest cities do not graduate.
This lack of educational attainment puts our country at risk, threatens our long term prospects, and widens the gap between rich and poor.
According to economist James Heckman’s report called “Schools, Skills, and Synapses”. America’s educational decline is not because of falling school quality or tuition costs. The core problem starts much earlier – according to Heckman, it’s because of deteriorating family environments over the past 40 years.
Heckman’s study shows it is possible by age 5 to predict who will complete college and who won’t. Programs like Head Start are critical for these kids’ lives, for future graduation rates, for our country.
It is not outsourcing, trade unions, or illegal immigration that widens inequality and weakens America. It’s a basic SKILLS GAP. Boosting educational attainment at the bottom will always be vastly less expensive and more beneficial for America than trying to bully or reorganize a global economy in our favor.

jhw, how many times must you be told No Child Left Behind was Ted Kennedy’s baby and he was by no means a Rep.

CenterOne,
Based on your criteria, then, I’ll be waiting for Obama to kill the “Great Society” HeadStart program since his own HHS study shows the $7 billion a year program “provides meager benefits to children at huge costs to taxpayers”.
No need to respond, I know the answer: It addicts so many more systems across the nation to the Feds, unlike a single, unique voucher program for the poor in DC that embarrasses Democ-RATS in their own shining city.

Carol, ..even worse, Headstart got its start in 1965!!..think that’s enough time for a program to prove its worthiness? The gov’t giveth and never taketh away..regardless of how ineffective a program is.

No Child Left Behind is a total failure. It means no one progresses if there is one who will not, and entire schools can fail because of one child.
The underlying assumptions are utopian and ridiculous.
Egalitarian opportunity does not translate into equal outcome. It’s stupid to think otherwise.

Carol | Jan 19, 2010 2:25:18 PM posted, “It addicts so many more systems across the nation to the Feds, unlike a single, unique voucher program for the poor in DC that embarrasses Democ-RATS in their own shining city.”
I’m not sure where you read that Head Start “provides meager benefits to children at huge costs to taxpayers.”
Check out the Head Start Impact Study Final Report – it was just released this month. In summary, Head Start benefits 3 and 4 year olds in cognitive, health and parenting. As with any program, there are pluses and minuses. But unlike the Washington D.C.’s voucher program, the evaluation found Head Start, on balance, has been successful.
Surely it makes sense to study results, spend where programs work, and improve programs that don’t. Again, I encourage you to download and read the PDF instead of resorting to name calling.

This so called President
Posted by: Joeray
what exactly does that mean? ‘so called’

Headstart got its start in 1965!!
Posted by: cindy
what part of ‘head start’ are you referring to?

cindy | Jan 19, 2010 2:22:47 PM posted, “I can’t think of any area the unions have messed up more royally than education”.
Cindy I cannot agree more that we need to eliminate ineffective teachers.
But if doing away with Teachers Unions is the solution, why does South Carolina, a state that prohibits teachers unions, have 38 of the worst 100 schools in the nation?
As with everything, the history of Teacher’s Unions has pros and cons. For example, they push school districts to promote small class size and training for appropriate use of fast evolving technology in the classroom. But Unions also have lobbied for tenure, increased taxes, and against dismantling the US Public School System – I suspect it’s the underlying reason why we see a corporate / Evangelical crusade against Teachers Unions.
Most teachers became teachers because they care about kids, not the fabulous salary or loving the long voluntary hours. But clearly not everyone should stay in the profession. President Obama supports improved teacher development and mentoring for new and less effective teachers, and has announced he is shaping new processes to remove ineffective teachers.
Basically, in this Race to the Top program, it appears Ed Sec Arne Duncan plans to identify programs that are actually succeeding and give them money to continue. It’s the classic example of states serving as laboratories of Democracy. We’re just one year into changing policy from 8 years of NCLB.

Center, with four kids, I can really only speak to what I myself have dealt with in systems in California, Pennsylvania, and Florida. I have observed the mentoring of “less effective” teachers..its a joke, it wastes time and money. Why can’t teachers be fired if they are AWFUL? In education, as opposed to other areas, awful is pretty easy to measure! To me this is like ignoring TORT reform in a healthcare bill. While I applaud some of these new fangled initiatives, the easiest, most cost effective way to help kids RIGHT NOW is to allow these principals to FIRE every teacher they have already identified as dead wood.

I feel that kids can be taught, at least a majority of them but any kid has the odds stacked against them if their home life sucks…the politicians can say this or that about education, pay more have better schools etc, but we as parents have to insure stability after school and that is difficult to do these days with so many from single parent homes.

Center, the worst thing about Mr DUI was that after his third offense he was forced to take a leave of absence (jail?) and left all the kids in his class without a teacher in the critical weeks leading up to the AP Physics exam. I still get so mad when I think about it. He was back with an ankle bracelet that fall. At least he had an excuse, alcoholism I guess, but the chem teacher was just plain not able to teach the material. The kids got credit for watching movies in her class etc, they all got As and they all “failed” the AP exam with 1s and 2s.. (My son chose not to take it.)..I wont rehash it all, but the worst part was feeling so abandoned when I went before the (impotent)principal. This woman was tenured the following year. Anyway, 3 of my 4 are in college and grad school now so I need to get over it…or get therapy, haha! It was good talking to you, and if we are going to launch these new programs, I do hope they work.

I love the comments about teachers. They are ALWAYS the same. That teachers only work 10 months a year and make 80k+ a year.
First off, I work at a Charter, no one makes more than 55k a year. Secondly, we work a paid 8 hour day, with many teachers staying as late as 7 or 8pm on most nights.
Yes, there is a lot of time off, but teachers aren’t paid for that time. That is simply “furlough” time.
Firefighters and Police officers, with less education, have the opportunity to work overtime and make 6 figure salaries. Teachers will never have that opportunity, and because of that will never make as much.

Get rid of Duncan. This RTTT is ridiculous. RTTT will take this country down. Education is not a race, but rather a lifelong pursuit. Many kids are dropping out of school, because of NCLB and high stakes testing. RTTT is just another arm of the horrid NCLB Act. Now the yahoos want the LEARN Act, which has all the failings of NCLB, and a bone thrown here and there to make this LEARN Act look like there is something different and hopeful in it.
Getting an education involves far more than being college and workforce ready. The corporate giants (unchecked), our military machinery (unchecked) with the assistance of government (unchecked) have ruined this country as well the rest of this Earth.
Teachers cannot be accountable for the ills of society. Blaming teachers is a smoke screen. Wake up folks.