A Step in a Good Direction?

by rrusczyk, Jul 25, 2009, 1:19 AM

Well, if we're going to federalize education (which I'm not a huge fan of), there's some hope that Obama's new initiative (released peculiarly on a Friday in July -- I'm not sure what to think of that) might be a decent way to do it. I'm having a hard time finding any real information on it, but it seems to be being publicized as giving states incentives to tie teacher pay to student performance, and there are some comments about having it not be a rigged game like NCLB (states setting their own standards to hit).

I'm torn, I admit. Federal government versus teachers' unions. It's like Aliens vs Predator Goes to School.

On a more serious note, I'm torn because I generally don't like to see the feds grabbing hold of this or that, but I don't see many options that are likely to break down the teachers' union deathgrip on some of these education issues. Maybe I should just think of it as Teddy Rooseveltian-style trustbusting? (Assuming it comes to pass, of course, and that we're not just replacing one trust with another.)

I imagine there are a fair number of people who feel the same way about health care. But at least there, there's an obvious first step (cut link between employment and health care) that's broadly supported (except by a few extremely powerful people...)

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Official release.
The standard reason to release something on a Friday is that you don't want the media to pay much attention.

It's on a much smaller scale than that, at least for now. They're only talking about 10 billion dollars. This is grant money to develop ideas and see if they work.
The California-specific issue is this: teachers are afraid of standardized test scores being used to label them bad without regard for context. Because of this fear, they got an overreaction of a state law preventing anyone from even collecting the data. Under the draft guidelines, that lack of data prevents any California schools from qualifying for any of these competitive grants.

by jmerry, Jul 25, 2009, 2:01 AM

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I realize that's the usual reason for announcing it on a Friday, but my question is, why are they trying to bury this? Or are they just trying to be able to talk about something other than the ridiculous Gates story (I'll bet there's a comment Obama wishes he could take back -- just a mistake for the President to wade into a little pissing match between two guys who got their hackles up and wouldn't back down. I have to think Obama went to bed the last couple nights thinking, "Goodness, shouldn't the Presidency be about more than this?").

by rrusczyk, Jul 25, 2009, 4:49 PM