For the past few decades, the federal government has continuously increased its power over local schools, through funding with strings attached, with depressing results. Since the 1970′s federal spending on education has nearly tripled, yet student achievement has remained flat and graduation rates have not improved. However, that increased spending has had a major impact on the amount of red tape, paperwork and administrative costs imposed on local schools and teachers, taking valuable time away from their core mission – educating children. While federal policymakers are busy spending billions to …
“No Child Left Behind [NCLB] and the Race to the Top [RTTT] grants are likely to be the high water mark of federal involvement in schools,” says Jay Mathews in a Washington Post editorial this week on why the Obama Administration’s further overreach into national standards will fail. His argument? Washington simply can’t afford to get any more deeply involved in local schools. On that point, Mathews is absolutely right. We also hope he’s right about the collapse of the national standards project, but it will take some effort to …
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Yet when it comes to education, that’s one lesson the federal government hasn’t learned. Maybe it’s time to put some history teachers on the case. They would have to look no further than President Barack Obama in writing their lesson plan. Yesterday the President delivered a commencement speech at a high school in Memphis, Tenn., in recognition for its achievement in his Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, a competition for schools to demonstrate their commitment to preparing students for …
Earlier today, President Obama delivered a commencement speech to students graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Booker T. Washington high school won the president’s Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, designed to have high schools demonstrate their commitment to college readiness as part of a competition to have President Obama speak during their graduation ceremony. The school was chosen because of performance gains and increases in graduation rates. President Obama spoke to the graduates about the value of hard work and the importance of education. But …
Race to the Top, President Obama’s signature education program, has been spared in the race to cut spending. As part of the new six-month spending deal, the program will receive $700 million in new funding, according to details released by House Republicans early this morning. That’s just shy of the $800 million Obama requested in his budget. With the additional funding, the Obama administration will be able to continue its top-down approach to education. Since the program’s inception, Race to the Top dollars have been tied to state adoption of …
Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan were on the road at a high school in Wilmington, Del., this week to celebrate the anniversary of the first Race to the Top awards. “We were able to help jump-start some of the farthest reaching education reforms in history,” Biden said at Monday’s event. “All across the country, Race to the Top is inspiring the same kind of change we’re seeing here in Delaware.” The vice president is right about at least one thing: The reforms were far-reaching. Delaware received …
This Friday, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush will join President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Miami Central High School to discuss President Obama’s education agenda. Bush, whose sweeping education reform agenda led to monumental gains in student achievement in Florida, told the Miami Herald that he plans to promote the Florida reform model to the Administration during the visit: Because of high expectations for students, hard-edge policies that focus schools on learning and an array of choices for families, the Sunshine State is leading the nation in rising …
If there existed a company that for nearly half a century had failed to improve upon its product, had watched as other companies passed it by in its ability to be innovative, and all the while had more than tripled its overhead costs, it’s unlikely that company would be in business much longer. And let’s imagine for a moment that the company, adding insult to injury, was planning to go back to its shareholders to request yet more capital, expecting to be granted the new money because this time—without any …
One by one, all but seven states have succumbed to pressure to adopt national academic standards. But in a recent bid to retain local control, members of a regional school board in Massachusetts asked state officials to reconsider that decision, according to Education Week. The Massachusetts school board expressed concerns that the Common Core State Standards, endorsed by the Obama administration, would result in the loss of local control. Its opposition is the latest knock on national standards, following criticism from leaders in South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. (Click here …
Texas Governor Rick Perry was at The Heritage Foundation on Monday to speak on his new book FED UP! Its message is bringing limited, constitutional governance back to Washington and the role that state governments should play in that restoration. In his speech, the Governor stressed that the election was a clear message to lawmakers in Washington to return to exercising their constitutionally defined powers and that the federal government needs to support the states, not work against them. One of the areas in which the Governor has demonstrated the …
