Secret is out -union endorsements win ‘Race to the Top’ funds

August 31, 2010 06:31


An official from one losing state steamed, “To have peer reviewers praise the application up and down but still explicitly penalize us because of our union opposition is almost too much to bear.”

Frederick M. Hess at National Review Online

EXCERPTS:

‘Heralded education-reform states Colorado and Louisiana were left out in the cold, while Duncan bizarrely found himself naming Ohio, Maryland, New York, and Hawaii among the ten round-two winners.’

‘Several of the winners clearly trail the pack on key reforms that Duncan had said RTT would reward.’

‘Louisiana has been ranked a top-ten state for teacher policy, data systems, and charter schooling. Colorado enacted the single most important piece of legislation to come out of the RTT process — its remarkable Senate Bill 191, which overhauled teacher evaluation and tenure and introduced a smart statewide framework for gauging teacher performance.’

‘Moreover, when announcing round-one winners Tennessee and Delaware in March, Duncan took pains to note that the two states had had 100 percent or near 100 percent signoffs from their local teachers’ unions. Not surprisingly, the judges followed Duncan’s lead. Among the winners, North Carolina, Ohio, and Hawaii had 100 percent of their union locals signing off on their proposals, and New York had 70 percent doing so.’

FULL STORY



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