Obama Education Grants Politicized, School Choice Advocates Say

Politics may have played a role in the awarding of some Obama administration education reform grants, say pro school-choice groups that believe the reforms did not go far enough.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Tuesday that nine states and Washington, D.C. qualified for “Race to the Top” grants in the second phase of a program that rewards states for promoting charter schools -- public schools run by non-governmental entities, which tie teacher evaluation to student performance.

With 18 states vying for a $3.4 billion pie, the department awarded grants to the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island. Only Delaware and Tennessee received grants in the first phase of the program.

“These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children,” Duncan said. “Every state that applied showed a tremendous amount of leadership and a bold commitment to education reform. The creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking. We set a high bar and these states met the challenge.”

However, while accountability standards were raised, teacher unions have played an inordinate role in determining a state’s reform plan, said Robert Enlow, president of the Foundation for Educational Choice.

“(The Obama Education Department is) seeking plans with strong, clear support from teachers’ unions, which makes me think they are asking people who have been in charge of the poor quality of education to be in charge of the new reformed quality of education,” Enlow told CNSNews.com. “I applaud the intent of Race to the Top. But the devil is in the details. Can the current group of people who got us into this mess get us out?”

He cited Indiana, which had a strong reform plan, but failed to get the full support of the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA), despite a plea from Tony Bennett, the state superintendent for public instruction.

“It is clear – from the reviewers’ comments of the two RttT [Race to the Top] winners – that one factor is crucial to a successful application: Strong statewide support from the teachers’ union,” Bennett wrote in the April 8 letter.

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