We all know that the federal government really has no business meddling in education. Yet, when we listen to President Obama’s rhetoric regarding his “Race to the Top” program, it all sounds so wonderful:
- More charter schools.
- More accountability for TEACHERS and schools.
Yet, here is what is actually happening:
It’s not the federal government’s job to set state and local education policy, but if it’s going to do so, it should at least put its muscle to good use. Initially, it appeared that this was what the Obama administration was doing with Race to the Top: In the scramble for federal funds, education secretary Arne Duncan promised, states that capped the number of charter schools would be at a disadvantage, and states that banned the use of student test-score progress in teacher evaluations wouldn’t even be eligible. But the finalists for the first round of funding have been announced, and results aren’t promising: New York, which both caps charter schools and bans the use of student test-score data in tenure decisions, is on the list; so is Kentucky, which doesn’t allow charter schools at all. Meanwhile, the process has been shrouded in secrecy: Neither the judges’ names nor the states’ actual scores on the 500-point scale will be released for another month. We’re awaiting announcement of the winners, but so far, Race to the Top is stumbling out of the gates.
How big a sham is “Race to the Top”?
from Delmarva Dealings
3 comments:
This is yet another classic example of the kinds of deception our elected officials are engaged-in.
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Just like the 'green industry revolution - but instead - it moves to China.
How much more malarkey can the public take of these so called elected representatives.
His rise was very fast and his fall will be the same.
Now the federal government is going to set the "money" hook into the mouths of the charter schools and reel them in just like it has the local (state) school system.
The uninformed continue to think, "Well, that's great that the federal government is going to help subsidize our local schools." What they fail to realize is that there are strings attached to every dime of that money (your tax dollars to begin with), and the feds will pull that string when it best suits their interests.
I say it's come to the point that we boot the feds out of our everyday life (with a corresponding reduction in fed tax structure) except for those concerns covered by the Constitution and funnel those tax dollars back to the local government where we citizens can more readily hold the people approving expenditure of that money accountable.
Government on the federal level has it's place, but it should be a very limited place, not some cancer that grows exponentially and spreads to try to control every aspect of the individual's life.
The Repubs couldn't do that, the Demos right now are growing the bureaucracy at an alarming rate, so what options are there? Dump the two party establishment.
Is the tea party the answer? Only time will tell, but I suspect if they do become powerful enough to challenge the two party establishment, then they too will become a domineering force to be reckoned with down the road.
The only solution that has any enticement for me is that of strict term limits. Politics was not meant to be a career. It was to be everyday citizens taking a turn at the helm, doing their best for a short time, and then passing the wheel to another. Until we get this (or something akin to it) in place, the good ol' boy network (on both sides of the aisle and across the aisle) will continue to drive our great country straight into the rocks of destruction.
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