The Obama Watch
School Choice Even Obama Supports
Teachers unions are losing the battle over charter schools.
(Page 2 of 2)
For many conservative and libertarians in the school choice movement, Obama’s effort to expand charter schools is no substitute for vouchers. The presence of the federal government in dictating state decision-making further assaults their senses. Cato’s Neil McCluskey complains that Race to the Top is “this is just another escalation of politicized, destructive, federal education interference.” Mike Petrilli, a former Education Department official and now vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, calls the entire package “Washington Knows Best at its worst.”
Yet Race to the Top is no different than previous efforts by presidents to use federal funds to change state behavior, including raising the drinking age from 18 to 21, and No Child itself. More importantly, if federal money is to be spent on state priorities, then Washington must set the rules for how the money is to be spent. As Robert F. Kennedy prophesized in 1965 during the debate over the Elementary and Secondary Education Act — and as borne over the five decades after its passage — states will waste money if the federal government doesn’t hold them accountable.
In light of the abysmal graduation rates in the nation’s high schools, expanding choice by any means necessary may not be such a bad thing.
About the Author
RiShawn Biddle the editor of Dropout Nation , is co-author of A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCLB Era. He can be followed at Twitter.com/dropoutnation.
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LQQKY| 10.9.09 @ 8:09AM
The only school choice the messiah likes or supports is for his own children and those of his cronies. The rest of us are SOL.
Pingback| 10.9.09 @ 9:02AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : School Choice Even Obama Supports [s links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
LQQKY| 10.9.09 @ 9:58AM
oh my gosh! are you serious about this.
might as well just create dorm rooms for ALL schools!
Pingback| 10.9.09 @ 10:47AM
SBC Charter Roundup 22 – Schools Building Communities links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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All In One Information » The American Spectator : School Choice Even Obama Supports links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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ADF Alliance Alert » “School choice even Obama supports” links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Groucho| 10.9.09 @ 3:12PM
Obama just wants to set up sex clinics in schools to convert children into fascist socialists. Obama's plan to destroy America depends on his brain-washing of the children.
Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 7:50PM
I SUPORT PUBIK SKOOLZ
Cowboy| 10.10.09 @ 4:38AM
Our educational system could not be any more broken if we had sucontracted with a corupt labor organization to destroy our childrens future.
Flee| 10.10.09 @ 4:51AM
Sorry to break the news to you Cowboy, we have subcontracted this to a corrupt labor organization(s). Here in CA it's UTLA. I'm sure you have them where you are too. The unions have ruined our public education system and they are kicking and scratching like a playground fight to keep their spoils. The last thing a union wants is a competitive process where legitimate success is rewarded and legitimate failure is shown the door. It's sort of like a new president winning a peace prize when he has done nothing concrete to create peace in the world.
Jim O'Brien| 10.10.09 @ 7:43AM
The best "school choice" would be all private schools. Parents of K-12 students should vote with their feet by taking their kids out of public schools. If there are not enough private schools, private education companies would be happy to provide them. About 50% of state and local taxes are for schools, and that money would be returned to the free enterprise world. Competition creates more choices, higher quality, and lower prices when government gets out of the way.
amerskine| 10.10.09 @ 2:22PM
Complains AFT President Randi Weingarten: "It looks like the only strategies they have are charter schools... That's Bush III."
Weingarten is just another liberal fool - The ONLY strategy Obama has is Obama - I am amazed that anyone believes that Obama has any ethical or moral core - the man is as hollow as a straw - and gives a damn only about himself.
Liberal Reader| 10.10.09 @ 5:20PM
Amerskine --
Any evidence for these claims? Or, are you just gushing?
Margie| 10.11.09 @ 1:17PM
Cowboy~
You are exactly right. and LibReader always picks on the ones who post here like us who speak the truth. Just ignore her.
~As for Obama... He said he thinks our Constitution is obsolete. He makes himself a dictator, then, by that statement, and has been proving it for the past several months. Thus I present this quote:
"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
~Thomas JeffersonFebruary 10, 1810
~~~~Vote the phony dictator out next election!
Margie| 10.11.09 @ 1:19PM
*Meant to reply to Amerskine.
Tenn Slim| 10.11.09 @ 7:35AM
ALL
NE Arkansas Charter school is laboring in the wilds of the Arkansas School System. Buried in a Manufactured Home building, the school has a waiting list multiple children long. Sitting alongside a Public School system in place since the 1920's this innovative effort shines. The folks there understand the difference, know how to work the system and above all know NOT to trust the Guvmnt any further than you can toss a cat.
end
Semper FI
Jocon307| 10.11.09 @ 3:54PM
The teachers unions are the most destructive force in America today. They should have been crushed back in the 60s.
And don't tell me about some nice old teachers, if they are in the union they are destroying this country. Let all the nice old teachers resign from the union and let Randi Weingarten, et al stand on the unemployment line, then we can talk.
In fact it is all the gov't worker unions that are killing us, I'l probably be dead before things change.
NO, I have no hope
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