Mutually Contradictory
Barack Obama managed a spectacular feat last year when he convinced fellow congressional Democrats to set aside $5 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for what became his Race to the Top school reform initiative. Obama won some well-deserved praise for using those dollars, along with his bully pulpit (and that of his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan), to coax even states such as California to remove restrictions on the expansion of charter schools and subject teachers to private sector-style performance management. This has weakened the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which have long counted on the Democratic Party (and their influence in statehouses) to dominate