Jobbing school reform: House Dems put union jobs over improving education
House Democrats are looking to pull the rug out from under President Obama's education agenda - a rousing success so far - by stealing $800 million from programs that push reform and investing that money in the status quo. They must be stopped.
This wrongheaded effort, led by Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, would yank $500 million from Race to the Top - the federal competition that's driven states, New Yorkincluded, to overhaul teacher evaluation, lift charter school caps, improve data systems for tracking student progress and more - plus $300 million from other funds, including one intended to encourage development of charter schools.
That $500 million is only about 15% of the $3.4 billion left for the second round of Race to the Top, but it's the same amount as the largest award in the first round, won byDelaware. Tennessee, the only other first-round winner, got $100 million. And 36 states are competing for the remaining funds.
Yet Obey would rather drop that money into a $10 billion pot available to states to stave off teacher layoffs. With no guidelines as to which instructors should be spared.
That's not just a thumb in the eye of Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, whose reform agenda rankles many in the party, but to children throughout United Stateswho are receiving subpar educations in perpetually failing schools.