Compounding error

Unfortunately, it appears that neither President Obama nor his education secretary read their hometown newspaper which over the weekend headlined a scathing report on Renaissance 2010, which has morphed into Race to the Top...

...because now they'd like to extend Race to the Top.

The states have only just sent in their applications, not one iota of evidence that this has resulted in a better educational system has been collected, but it is already "a successful venture that [they want] to expand"? Have we collectively lost our minds?

It seems not, if you dig far enough into today's New York Times. While the headlines are about the forty states that have applied, the news is different at the local level (you know, where education actually takes place?).

Thousands of school districts in California, Ohio and other states have declined to participate, and teachers’ unions in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida have recommended that their local units not sign on to their states’ applications. Several rural states, including Montana, have said they will not apply, at least for now, partly because of the emphasis on charter schools, which would draw resources from small country schools.

And Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said last week that his state would not compete for the $700 million that the biggest states are eligible to win in the $4 billion program, known as Race to the Top, calling it an intrusion on states’ rights.

What will be worth watching is if this increases or decreases as the changes of Race to the Top hit the states.