Obama’s public education race to the bottom

I know, I know, it's the WSWS, but this writer is absolutely correct about the disastrous "Race to the Top" blackmail scheme by Arne Duncan:

Presented by Duncan as an enormous amount of money, the $4.35 billion fund is a tiny fraction of Obama’s outlays for the military and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about 2 hundredths of 1 percent of the $23 trillion Washington has made available to the finance industry. The grand total allotted for education is less than the individual personal fortunes of about 60 Americans, and a fraction of the Christmas bonuses that Wall Street will pay its executives and traders next month.

By 2011, the combined state-level funding gap for schools will be $20 billion. This does not include local revenue shortfalls, much of it resulting from collapsing real estate tax assessments. Scores of school districts will be bankrupt by the end of the year. The state of Hawaii has gone so far as to cut the school week to four days.

Only a handful of states will receive any “Race to the Top” money, possibly fewer than 15, according to the Wall Street Journal. “This is going to be highly competitive, and there are going to be a lot more losers than winners,” Duncan bluntly declared in announcing the 30-plus criteria that will be used to judge the states.

These blackmail tactics are already having the desired effect. A number of states have in recent months passed legislation promoting charter schools, expanding testing and other metrics, and channeling funding to those schools whose students perform well. These policies will starve the very schools that need funding the most.


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I reel from the fact a Democratic administration can be so anti-public education.

...just as surely as the republicans-- the two parties just favor different screws when they shaft us.

Only when states get kicked off the island, it's their students who will suffer. It boggles the mind that anyone can think this is a good idea. Since when did Democrats embrace the idea of Social Darwinism—for children, no less?

to privatize education. The only thing "new" is the fact so-called Democrats are promoting privatization.

Quick, neat, and with finesse.:headbang: :yourock:

would switch over.. the Unions would jump including teachers.. and the Ind. would also migrate.. tired of corruption and b.s. Dems are crap.. def not FDRish enough for these times.

Imagine that.

And I do believe his lack of public school experience adds to his blatant lack of support for them

and send this off to the greatest page.

I'm not reeling; I saw this coming from a long way off. I'm enraged, although that might be putting it mildly.

I'm certainly not giving the Democratic Party a pass on this one. I WILL remember it every time I'm marking a ballot.