Race To Politics? Drop Out, Tune In…

Yesterday word came from MA that the AFT affiliates there, which include the big districts, were not going to participate in round two of Race to the Top, and now there is this from Colorado where the Colorado Education Association is dropping out.* Rumbles in other places, too.

Starting to look like there could be an emerging unholy alliance between teachers’ unions who don’t like the policies and some states increasingly annoyed that stimulus dollars are being used in a leveraged way like this and in their view not being distributed fast enough.

*Mike Johnston’s bill is common-sense, by the way, and refreshingly bipartisan.  We’re in a bad place  if it’s a breaking point.

4 Replies to “Race To Politics? Drop Out, Tune In…”

  1. States need to remember that Race to the Top is not just about money–it’s about good policy. Yes, Race to the Top is being used to incent reforms, but the key is that these reforms have proven to be effective in raising student achievement. Let’s hope the naysayers realize that all of these policies–including helping teachers know how effective they are in the classroom–are going to help our kids catch up with the rest of the world. Hats off to Colorado’s move on the teacher effectiveness issue–we expect them to pick up serious RTTT points for that. http://www.conncan.org/learn/blog/competition-9

  2. Governor Crist just vetoed the Florida bill. It looks as though the tide might be turning in favor of child advocates: the people who actually work directly with our young people – parents and teachers.

  3. My conservative friends are fond of telling me they don’t have a conspiracy. They just happen to all feel strongly about the same thing.

    Perhaps this is everyone rejecting Obama’s Bush impersonation.

  4. Johnston’s bill is “commonsense”? Really? Did you read it? Where did the good politician (former teacher and principal in all his 35 years) get his 50% and 2/3 benchmarks from exactly? Research?–I don’t think so. The bill is actually quite vague and leaves a lot of details up to the “Governor’s Council on Educator Effectiveness, whose work is just getting underway, and to the State Board of Education.” And who will staff those positions and will it not depend on the next election cycle and how will it be chosen and, and…

    Typical piece of legislation from a politician, despite his good work with principals and a few schools. And now the predictable response from the union (of which I am NOT a member though I am a teacher)–we want out. Can’t we ever get off this endlessly repeating Groundhog Day ferris wheel of politicians vs. teachers vs. parents vs. reality?

    PS, in my view, reality is defined as the crisis we are facing in education which exists only to the extent we all wish or need to define such. This is social science, not physics, and so, humans have to create the parameters for success in education but the thing is, for the past century, we have kept the (perception) of failing schools going.

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