Race to Domination
Today's the day that states must submit their applications to the U.S. Department of Education to compete for round-one "Race to the Top" grants. But no worries if your state's a little behind: Not only will there be another application round for the $4.35-billion dash-for-cash, but as President Obama announced today, he wants a $1.35-billion sequel to what was supposed to be a one-time, stimulus-funded contest.
The important question, of course, is whether sponsoring this race is worthwhile for federal taxpayers. The clear answer is no.
Sure, in response to RttT states have been raising charter-school caps, allowing teachers to be evaluated using student performance, and instituting other changes, but they've done little of real substance. Just raising caps won't make it much easier to get good, competitive charter schools since most of the charter-supply problem revolves around over-regulation and painful authorization processes. And while states have eliminated prohibitions on using student test results to evaluate teachers, they haven't done much to actually base teacher evaluations on student performance or other meaningful metrics.
What has RttT done that is of substance? Unfortunately, push yet more power into federal hands, forcing states and districts to jump through all manner of hoops for a chance to get back some of their citizens' money. Indeed, it is becoming painfully clear that President Obama intends to put Washington firmly above the states in the hierarchy of education power.
For his $1.35 billion RttT expansion, President Obama plans to allow districts to directly compete for federal funding, bypassing states completely. And then there's his crusade for national curricular standards. His administration has been talking up "common" standards since almost day one, and in the "fact sheet" accompanying the RttT expansion announcement the first bullet states that RttT emphasizes "designing and implementing rigorous standards and high-quality assessments, by encouraging states to work jointly toward a system of common academic standards."
Don't be fooled, by the way, by the "states" working "jointly" thing, or utterly unbelievable administration denials. If the feds are paying states to adopt common standards then those standards will be de facto federal. Either that, or the feds will let states adopt any old joint standards and still get paid. Six of one bad thing, half dozen of the other...
Thankfully, there is resistance to Obama's bribe-to-the-top scheme. Texas, most notably, has refused to participate in RttT, with Gov. Rick Perry declaring that "we would be foolish and irresponsible to place our children’s future in the hands of unelected bureaucrats and special interest groups thousands of miles away in Washington.” And Texas is not alone: According to a New York Times article appearing yesterday, states and districts around the country are refusing to put on their track shoes and run for the federal funds.
Still, federal money -- taxpayer money -- can be a tough thing for any elected offical to turn down. Sooner or later, if we let him, Obama will almost certainly find an amount that no state or district can resist.
