Christian churches oppose Race to the Top, Obama blueprint
Here is an extraordinary letter that should erase any doubt thatopposition to the Obama administration's $4 billion Race to the Top is wide and deep.
Sent recently to President Obama and U.S. lawmakers by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, a community of 36 communions with a combined membership of 45 million people, this letter expresses deep concern about the education priorities of Race to the Top and of Obama's “blueprint” for education reform.
It criticizes the administration's effort to push states to increase the number of charter schools, its plan to turn some of the federal money used to help poor children into competitive grants, its punitive approach to dealing with low-performing schools, and the "ugly" demonization of public school teachers.
The letter says:
*“We are concerned today when we hear the civil right to education being re-defined as the right to school choice.”
*“While competitive, market based “reforms” may increase educational opportunity for a few children, or even for some groups of children, do they introduce more equity or more inequity into the system itself? We reject the language of business for discussing public education.”
