Standing Up for Common Sense
Every once in a while, there is good news:
Alaska opts out of Race to the Top school grants
TOO MUCH CHANGE: State leery after failures of the No Child Left Behind Act.
By Jeremy Hsieh
The Associated PressWhile many states have accepted an educational reform challenge in the federal Race to the Top program, Alaska is watching from the sidelines.
Applications in a second round of bidding to the U.S. Department of Education are due June 1.
Alaska could compete for up to $75 million in grants, but Education Commissioner Larry LeDoux said the state will continue to forgo competing for the grants.
The grant structure rewards extensive education planning and policy changes. LeDoux says that means Alaska must give up some sovereignty to an inflexible program calling for too much change, too fast.
“Alaska has the right to be suspicious of an initiative where we hand over authority,” he said, especially after the state’s experience with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That law requires states to use standardized testing to measure math and reading ability and establish consequences and improvement plans for schools that fail to meet annual, escalating testing goals. For the 2008-2009 school year, 224 of 505 Alaska schools failed to meet the goals.
It was a bad fit for Alaska because it was top-down, rigid and urban- centric, LeDoux said, characteristics he also sees in Race to the Top. Meanwhile, Alaska has its own education reforms under way.
“I don’t disagree with what they’re trying to do, it’s just how we get there,” LeDoux said.
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, has urged Republican Gov. Sean Parnell to apply and pursue the reforms.
“Alaska must capitalize on every opportunity to bring resources to bear to produce young Alaskans fully prepared to meet the rapidly changing challenges of the global economy,” he told the state Legislature in a March address.
But just applying for Race to the Top requires a significant commitment. Bids for a grant facilitator to help with the first round of applications — winners were announced in March — came back with a $300,000 price tag. Of the 40 states that applied, only Delaware and Tennessee received awards.
Note that Mark Begich “D”-Alaska, who campaigned against NCLB, shows us just how morally bankrupt the Democrats are, and helps to snuff out any flicker of hope for progressive change to come from the Obama administration.
There is no race, and there is no top.
Why do I want to repost everything you write?
Interesting that a state with a republican governor is against this. Of course, NCLB was ‘bipartisan’ too. I was originally shocked to find out that my representative, George Miller, was one of the original proponents of it. I probably shouldn’t have been shocked, but I had blamed NCLB on Republicans at first. I’m getting over that naivete. (Still hoping your last line is wrong, though.)
Sue, I agree that it’s hard to understand the politics here, and I should try to explain a little more about how I see it all fitting together. I wrote George Miller a letter a couple of years ago, when the previous ESEA re-authorization was being discussed, and I was disheartened by his response. Like you, I thought NCLB was the Bush administration’s baby.
At this point, I don’t have much faith in either the Democrats or the Republicans. But, of the two, I have less faith in the Republicans, and nobody should think that I’m on board with any of their nonsense. What’s going on here is more Tea Party politics than anything else. It just so happens, now, that their obstructionism is slowing down the runaway school reform train. Also, our Dept of Ed does seem willing to admit that what’s been tried has not worked, which is where I see the application of common sense.