Arne Duncan has been arguing for money to help prevent the hundreds of thousands of teacher layoffs next year. Problem is he doesn't want anyone touching his discretionary money which is thought to be about 4.3 billion. He wants it to come from somewhere else so his funds can be saved to "reform" schools.
As a matter of fact he said in a
CBS Face the Nation interview that he had 10 billion in discretionary funds.
SCHIEFFER: And, obviously, these are decisions that have to be made by local school boards and by the states. But the way you encourage that, I take it, is by telling them, if they’re willing to do these things, then the federal government is willing to compensate.
DUNCAN: Right. We have unprecedented discretionary resources. Again, states can compete for them. And you talked about the $4.35 billion race to the top. We actually have, collectively, more than $10 billion in discretionary resources.
We’ve never had so much money to invest. And I talk so much about the challenges. But I’ll tell you why I’m so hopeful and so optimistic. We’ve never had more great teachers, more great classrooms, more great schools, more great school districts in the history of our nation. There’s been this flourishing of innovation and entrepreneurial educators.
In fact no DOE has ever had that much walking around money, never.
There was a conference call with Arne Duncan and Melody Barnes. They made it very clear that a bill like that of David Obey would warrant a veto.
Duncan, Barnes Reiterate: Veto Education Jobs Funding If Race to the Top CutI just got off one of the stranger conference calls of my conference call career. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes joined others on a call to argue for an immediate education jobs fund to save the careers of teachers facing layoffs. They laid out all the reasons why teachers must stay in the classroom and why we risk failing our students without this funding. They were very passionate about this. They rejected the notion that the White House has been unclear or aloof on the issue, noting in painstaking detail all the times that the President on down have advocated to save teacher jobs.
And then, Barnes said, “We don’t have to make a choice between reform and making sure teachers are able to stay in the classroom,” and that if the education jobs fund got paid for with a sliver of stimulus money dedicated to the Race to the Top program, they would recommend a veto.
Then I got whiplash.
There are actually three stimulus programs that would get a cut in funding under the bill passed in the House as part of the war supplemental: Race to the Top, the Teacher Incentive Fund (which is about performance pay and encouraging teachers to work in hard-to-staff, low-income areas) and the Charter Schools Fund. Barnes and Duncan want to find other means of offsetting the jobs fund. The Education Secretary said that he would “work with Congress” on that. “I’m happy to have skin in the game,” Duncan said. But he gave no specifics of potential offsets, likely to come from the Education Department.
It’s important to recognize what the Race to the Top program is. It’s a pot of money. The Education Department dangles it in front of the states to get them to change their education policies to what they prefer. And then it slowly dribbles it out. $4.3 billion dollars was appropriated in the stimulus for RTTT. Only $600 million has gone out, to two states (Tennessee and Delaware), 18 months later. So Arne Duncan has already cost teacher jobs by holding back $3.7 billion for a year and a half to try and entice more desperate states to change their policies.
David Obey learned the hard way that you do not touch Arne's money. He did get a bill through the House to use part of that money to help save teachers' jobs...but Obama threatened to veto it.
Obey tries to cut RTTT funds to save teacher jobs...Obama threatens veto if RTTT cut.“Reformers” Upset as Obey Tries to Save “Edujobs”
Who with one degree of common sense would push for building more charter schools or Race to the Trough funding for innovation, while at the same time cutting hundreds of thousands of teachers from the schools of this country and jamming more and more students into a classroom? Congressman David Obey (D-WI) seeing the crisis that some have referred to as a teacherpocalypse has tried to cobble together the funds to save teacher jobs. His bill would would cut $500 million from the Race to the Top, $200 million from the teacher incentive fund (TIF), and $100 million from the charter school program. It would also secure $10 billion to save 140,000 teacher jobs in this coming school year.
Congressman Obey explained his action this way, “When a ship is sinking, you don’t worry about redesigning a room, you worry about keeping it afloat.”
However as Education Week pointed out Obey's bill would likely
bring a veto from the president.President Barack Obama is urging Congress not to cut his signature education reform initiative.
"The President believes that we need to keep teachers in the classroom, and we have worked with Congress to find a way to pay for it. But the President also feels very strongly that we should not cut funding for Race to the Top, one of the most sweeping reform initiatives in a generation," Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House, said in an e-mail.
(UPDATE (6 p.m.): The administration turned that up a notch tonight, warning Congress in a statement: "If the final bill presented to the President includes cuts to education reforms, the President's senior advisors would recommend a veto.")
Another warning came from the
National Alliance of Charter Schools."In this difficult economy, we understand and support Chairman Obey's efforts to save educators' jobs. However, we strongly oppose the reductions in education funding he proposes. It is short-sighted to propose saving jobs by cutting other jobs in the same sector. Currently, 420,000 children are hoping for the chance to attend a charter school, and the federal Charter Schools Programs can help make that dream a reality. These funds provide invaluable resources to help charter schools start up, hire staff and afford children new educational opportunities. Chairman Obey's $100 million cut, which is 40 percent of the program's yearly funding, would mean 200 fewer new charter schools, and as many as 6,000 charter school professionals in jeopardy of losing their jobs or never having a chance to work for a charter school.
...""The National Alliance strongly opposes these cuts and looks forward to working with Congress to eliminate them."
The "reforms" will continue no matter what. The money will most likely stay in Arne's coffers. The staggering war costs that get little resistance compared to the opposition to really funding education..showing our priorities now as a country.
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