President Obama and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan are on the cusp of dramatically moving the U.S. away from testing-centric education to competition-centric education, explains The New Republic’s Seywad Darby:
The really big news about the proposed budget isn’t how much is–or could be–in it; it’s how the new money would be spent. Instead of channeling new funds to states and school districts based on pre-existing formulas, the department wants to reward progress. “Almost all the new money coming to the budget is competitive,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told reporters on Monday afternoon, referring to a full $3 billion in the department’s proposal. “We’re absolutely philosophically and strategically moving more money, a lot of money, into a competitive basis.”
This represents an unprecedented shift in the way the federal government decides how to dole out education dollars. And, if Congress approves the budget as-is, it would build on ground-breaking work this education department has already undertaken–namely with regard to Race to the Top (RTTT), the competitive grant program that will soon distribute stimulus funds to states that have demonstrated plans for major reform. The budget proposal includes a $1.35 billion expansion of RTTT, as well $500 million for the Invest in Innovation program, also created through the stimulus, which “makes competitive awards to develop and expand innovative strategies and practices.” The roughly $1.1 billion leftover for competitive funds would be used, among other things, to improve teacher quality and effectiveness, develop charter and other autonomous schools, and turn around the country’s lowest-performing schools.
