RTTT news around the country

There's been some varied reactions coming in around the country on Race to the Top over the past few days. I've already posted on President Obama's pre-election push in Wisconsin earlier this week; we're now hearing from, for example, Louisiana, where school boards are saying they're going to forgo the funding. The first link there gives an "anti-stimulus funding" spin to it that the EdWeek report does not. EdWeek frames this in terms of two issues: local control (the American tradition) and long-term funding.

I was also pleased to see this report from New York on a former Obama advisor's concern about the administration's education policies:

Edley said that transforming schools requires not just an infusion of competition into the system, but also regulation. He said that while some charter schools are excellent, “most of them are schlock,” and added that school choice does not provide a way to export best practice to the majority of schools.

It's that "majority of schools" that I fear are being left out of RTTT and much of the administration's policies in general. This focus on closing schools, firing teachers, and opening charters ignores the fact that most children in America attend regular public schools. It is those schools with which we need to most concern ourselves.