A Race to the Bottom The Big Money:
"The Department of Education is having the most decadent Employee of the Month contest ever. On Thursday it released applications for its $4 billion “Race to the Top” program, a competition designed to reward the states most in line with the Obama administration’s educational values. The idea is to bait states into Obama’s reform agenda with the promise of millions of dollars, and then highlight the ones who do it best. The contest is typical of the way the Education Department has used its stimulus money. With incentives, they think, reform can happen. It’s a grand experiment in behavioral economics.
And they’re right: With incentives, reform will happen. But the incentives are not limitless. There’s only $4 billion to go around, and not all states will get the rewards. (In fact, it’s likely most will not.) And so, for some, the Race to the Top is also a Slide to the Bottom. This is where the administration’s experiment breaks down. What’s the reason for those left behind to keep reforming once the incentives have expired?"
"The Department of Education is having the most decadent Employee of the Month contest ever. On Thursday it released applications for its $4 billion “Race to the Top” program, a competition designed to reward the states most in line with the Obama administration’s educational values. The idea is to bait states into Obama’s reform agenda with the promise of millions of dollars, and then highlight the ones who do it best. The contest is typical of the way the Education Department has used its stimulus money. With incentives, they think, reform can happen. It’s a grand experiment in behavioral economics.
And they’re right: With incentives, reform will happen. But the incentives are not limitless. There’s only $4 billion to go around, and not all states will get the rewards. (In fact, it’s likely most will not.) And so, for some, the Race to the Top is also a Slide to the Bottom. This is where the administration’s experiment breaks down. What’s the reason for those left behind to keep reforming once the incentives have expired?"
