With the launch of Race to the Top for school districts, the U.S. Department of Education demolishes federalism,
Congress should de-fund the Race to the Top.
Arne Duncan has absolutely no justification for foisting his unfounded, evidence-free ideas on the nation’s school districts.
Should every school district look like Chicago, one of the nation’s lowest-performing districts, which he led for eight years?
A reader in Louisiana writes:
MY COMMENT:
“The competition comes as the Education Department, which has focused on state-level reform in previous Race to the Top contests, switches gears and tries to use money to advance its education ideas at the local level. . . “
Translation – This RTTT motive, like the first RTTT initiative, is to bring about FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONTROL of PUBLIC education which has served as a model of a democratic system of taxpayer, voter, citizen local control by elected school boards. This FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONTROL is covertly accomplished by requiring state, and now local, PUBLIC education systems to voluntarily, under the guise of “helping schools become engines of innovation” and similar crapola rhetoric, give up their control in order to gain desperately needed funding.
The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER is assisted by “reformers” who have infiltrated state and local levels as “policymakers” – school board members, legislators, state board of education members and most prominently Chambers of Commerce and other BUSINESS/CORPORATE interests. Their primary role has been to convince the public that our public school system in toto is an abject FAILURE so as to open the dialogue for replacement by “autonomous” CHARTERS and PRIVATE/PAROCHIAL SCHOOL VOUCHERS. This under the guise of CHOICE.
Interestingly, the U.S. Dept. of Ed under a DEMOCRATIC Administration in the interests of government control has teamed up with the REPUBLICAN corporate ANTI-GOVERNMENT takover in the interest of privatization. Strange bedfellows. This dichotomous relationship is bringing about what may predictably become the most destructive undermining of our Democracy that has ever taken place.
The U.S. Dept. of Education has NO AUTHORITY to dictate or influence state education policies such as curriculum and funding, but it believes it has found a way to circumvent that restriction by bribing states and now districts to bring about initiatives like the Common Core Standards, de-centralization of local school systems, budget decisions and teacher evaluations – to name a few.
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCTION NEEDS TO BE CHALLENGED IN COURT FOR THIS EGREGIOUS OVERSTEPPING!!!! WAKE UP AMERICA .
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Can we agree that the Department of Education is a roadblock to good education and abolish it. The only good thing it does is spend money. And in a horribly inefficient manner.
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Arne Duncan has done what most people would have considered impossible.
He has made the US Department of Education so heavy-handed that both conservatives and liberals would prefer to see it abolished.
That is historic.
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“He has made the US Department of Education so heavy-handed that both conservatives and liberals would prefer to see it abolished.”
That might be the only reason to vote for Obama, so that Duncan can continue his current practices and it would cause said abolition.
Nah, too many other problems with his presidency.
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I have a Congressional representative and two Senators. I’ll email them and post or forward their responses to you. I’m curious as to their thoughts. When I hear back, I’ll let you know.
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You know…when a grant is referred to as a “contest”…well something just doesn’t smell right.
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This has been the goal from the beginning U.S. schools were NEVER failing so they had to come up with a metric to sell their case and in doing so have shortchanged and damage a decade of children. This is class warfare at its worst. The policy is designed to train worker bees for jobs the elite choose and only let the chosen into management ranks and opportunity. This is a fundamental socialist change in the countrys direction and a crime against the population.
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Diane I wanted to ask you your opinion. But do you believe that it would be a good idea to abolish the department of education? Or do you believe we should keep it and just work to HEAVILY re-organize what it does?
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The person who is Secretary of Education must have a sense of federalism. He or she must understand that the job is not to be superintendent of schools for the nation, but to be a cheerleader for good education, a defender of the rights of children, a protector of excellent research and information. That’s the federal role. It is not the federal role to impose mandates and tell everyone how to reform their schools. Congress should rein in Arne Duncan and set limits on the Department. Abolish NCLB and RTTT. That’s a start.
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I think I remember hearing about her. Too bad she did not become SOE.
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Oops, that last comment was for the last comment by Alec.
Anyway, I wrote my congressman about these issues. I would encourage others to do the same.
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am secretly hoping for a Romney victory. Just to see Arne Duncan go back to playing basketball or whatever, would be priceless!
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Leaving all other political issues aside I really hope Obama does not get second term just because Arne would continue as SOE and there would be no change in how things are being run. Romney would be a nice change but I think he is a little misguided on education as well. I think when presidential nominees choose advisors they really need an education advisor too!!
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Romney has lots of education advisors: they are all from the rightwing and believe in free-market remedies for everything despite lack of evidence.
Obama had a great education advisor. Unfortunately he did not choose her (Linda Darling-Hammond) to be his Education Secretary.
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You think Linda Darling-Hammond would have been a great Education Secretary?! Good grief. Hammond is part of the elite education establishment in teacher training that has helped bring us to despair in public education. I say that as a retired math teacher and school principal who saw the sad preparation of teachers in content knowledge.
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