by Mark Silva
Today, while the balance of power in the U.S. Senate is on the block in Massachusetts, President Barack Obama will travel to a suburban Virginia elementary school to tout additional spending for his signature program of education reform.
The president will seek an additional $1.35 billion in his proposed 2011 budget this year for the "Race to the Top,'' a program offering states additional federal aid for plans designed to boost student performance.
The government already is offering more than $4 billion in grants for the program, part of the spending included in the economic stimulus act enacted early last year. With the deadline for states to apply for some of the money approaching, the White House says, the president will be seeking an additional $1.35 billion for the program.
This is among the initiatives that the public is likely to hear about in the president's first State of the Union address, scheduled for a joint session of Congress on Jan. 27. And it will be part of the new budget that the president proposes in February.
The plan will "envigorate district-level reform by expanding the Race to the Top beyond just states but to school districts ready to embark on system-wide improvement of their educations policies and practices,'' the White House says.
Obama will promote the plan this morning at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Va., where he will meet with students before delivering an address.
""We want to challenge everyone -- parents, teachers, school administrators -- to raise standards, by having the best teachers and principals, by tying student achievement to assessments of teachers, by making sure that there's a focus on low-performing schools, by making sure our students are prepared for success in a competitive 21st century economy and workplace," Obama says in prepared remarks.
Under the program, states are competing for shares of federal money available to support programs which designed to spur student performance. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is pressing the plan with the support of a bipartisan alliance that includes, among others, former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who tied student performance to state education spending.
"This competition has generated an overwhelming response from over 30 states in just the first round of funding,'' Duncan says in a statement released by the White House. "By continuing, we have an opportunity to create incentives for far-reaching improvement in our nation's schools.''
The White House says the program encourages "thee design and implementation of "rigorous standards and high-quality assessments, by encouraging states to work jointly toward a system of common academic standards that builds toward college and career readiness, and that includes improved assessments designed to measure critical knowledge and higher-order thinking skills. ''
It also is intended to attract and retain "great teachers and leaders in America's classrooms'' with expanded support for teachers and principals; reforming and new methods of teacher evaluation and pay. Programs are supposed to "encourage and reward effectiveness and increase the number of effective teachers in our schools.''
Comments
Is it that hard to cut $1 billion elsewhere from our $4 trillion budget?
Posted by: John | January 19, 2010 9:30 AM
Since the DNC Swamp will only present the opinions of one side (Obama's) on this program, here's a link to the "other side": a news item on how the Lexington, MA school system, administrators and teachers alike, declined to participate in "Race to the Top" because they figured the massive paperwork they'd have to fill out would eat up all the money they'd get!
http://www.wickedlocal.com/lexington/news/education/x1820918888/No-Race-to-the-Top-for-Lexington-Public-Schools
Presenting both sides. What a concept.....
Posted by: Bruce, amused again | January 19, 2010 9:34 AM
Actually, every teachers union in the USA is opposed to tieing teachers salaries to student performance.
In Illinois, the Illinois Teachers union's have declared this program poison. No way will they have their salaries tied to student performance.
It's a good idea, I'll give it a thumbs up. To expect the union's who pumped hundreds of Millions of their member's dollar's into the Obama campaign though, seems a bit of a stretch for them.
I guess very few people really knew what thispolitician was actually going to do when elected president. If you aren't upset over the flip flopping then you haven't actually held a firm opinion on anything.
Campaign promises? just silly stuff to tell the sheeple before election day. After the fact? do whatever you want to increase your power or at least hold onto your elected position.
One & out! Too bad becasue this is one program that would actually be beneficial to Americans of all stripes!
Posted by: springfield | January 19, 2010 11:10 AM
$5.3 billion and more, money wrung out of the taxpayers pockets, for more paperwork.
As the article makes, all this money has little to do with the classroom, and everything to do with: "thee [sic] design and implementation" of "rigorous standards and high-quality assessments", by "encouraging states to work jointly toward" a "system" of "standards" that includes "assessments" (that word, again). ''
In other words, more paperwork. More reports. More conferences. More words. An endless stream of words, in fact, a slush fund financed by a $5 billion loan from the Chinese
that we'll have to pay back with interest.
Posted by: Bruce, further amused | January 19, 2010 11:34 AM
Well, the teachers union voted for him so his programs are theirs to deal with - elections have consequences and sometimes a price to pay.
Posted by: vla | January 19, 2010 3:51 PM
Why is education a federal gov't issue in the first place? Country survived the first 200 years without a department of education - and public education was better without the feds.
Posted by: Terry | January 19, 2010 6:12 PM