The Thomas B. Fordham Institute staff can’t seem to agree about the proper role of the federal government in education reform. Andy Smarick, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, has been reviewing the finalists for the $4 billion Race to the Top competitive grant program and has found the state plans wanting. (This is the same person who
hoped Secretary Duncan would accept just three out of 41 applications and demand more state action in exchange for funds.) Here he is summing up those reviews:
I hope that person is showing the secretary these weak provisions, reminding him that he is under no obligation to fund a single one of these applications, and telling him that a three-word response to these states will ensure this program lives up to its lofty name and potential:
Not good enough.
So the feds should be stricter, huh? Well, not so fast. Here’s an excerpt of Fordham’s
Gadfly from last Thursday, in which Mike Petrilli (Fordham’s Vice President for National Programs and Policy) says the feds are practicing “fickle federalism.” Here he credits the Obama Administration for being loose in their new
Blueprint for ESEA
