Why We're Failing Our Schools

[tonysam]

More trashing of public education--what else is new--and teachers' unions:

A remarkable thing happened in New York recently: the state legislature, in effect, turned down the chance to win $700 million in federal money. No one does that, except extremely conservative Southern governors (who inevitably relent and take the money) — oh, and occasionally teachers' unions. A few years ago, I wrote here about the Detroit union that forced the local government to reject a $200 million philanthropic gift to build 15 charter schools using a model that was already succeeding in the city. And now we have New York's United Federation of Teachers (UFT), a storied crew, thwarting the state's attempt to file an application that might have won $700 million in Race to the Top education funds — and again the issue is charter schools, with a substantial dollop of teacher accountability thrown in.

If you haven't heard about Race to the Top, shame on the Obama Administration. It was one of the most creative pieces of last year's $787 billion stimulus package. It established a $4.35 billion fund that Education Secretary Arne Duncan could distribute to states on the basis of their willingness to reform their schools. Duncan's definition of reform — a common one these days — demanded more school choice and competition as well as an emphasis on teacher evaluation and accountability. "Duncan really nailed this," says New York City Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey. "You can use federal funds to drive a reform agenda. You can buy change, even from state legislatures ... although in our case, the opponents were pretty ingenious — invidious and ingenious."

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