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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 DAVID BROOKS 
7

President Has Delivered Real Change in Education

Race to the Top program has sparked a 'quiet revolution' in education

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(Newser) – President Obama's huge success in education reform has been overlooked amid all the carping about his failure to deliver as much change as expected, writes David Brooks. The $4.3 billion Race to the Top fund Obama and Arne Duncan established has helped accelerate real reform in education and has won the president praise from everybody "from Newt Gingrich to Al Sharpton," Brooks writes in the New York Times.

Obama has held the line and refused to water down the program in the face of pressure from state governments and teachers' unions, who'd like to use the money to subsidize the status quo, Brooks writes. States are now changing their laws to win awards from the fund, leading to more—and better—charter schools, and initiatives to link teacher pay to student performance. "President Obama understood from the start that this would only work if the awards remain fiercely competitive," Brooks writes. "He has not wavered."

President Barack Obama talks to third and fourth grade students at Viers Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. last week.
President Barack Obama talks to third and fourth grade students at Viers Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. last week.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
President Barack Obama talks to third and fourth grade students at Viers Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. last week.
President Barack Obama talks to third and fourth grade students at Viers Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. last week.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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We’re not close to reaching the educational Promised Land, but we may be at the start of what Rahm Emanuel calls The Quiet Revolution. - David Brooks

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7 comments
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riffran
Oct 23, 09 6:37 AM CDT
I have mixed feeling about the link pay to student results thing...what if some poor teacher takes a job in really crappy sh**hole of a school, such as portrayed in one of my favorite Morgan Freeman movies "Lean on me"....To be honest..there just aint a lot of "Joe Clarks"...in any profession...THAT man was one in a few million...the average teacher in that kind of situation doesn't have a chance...so what will they do?.....Go to a different school...and the kids just continue to go to sh**.....But baby steps...it's a start.....I do hope Reply
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Doctor_Zaius
Oct 23, 09 6:46 AM CDT
I have the same concerns but when what you are doing isn't working....
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RockyPneumonia
Oct 23, 09 7:47 AM CDT
riffran, if done properly, the "results", in those cases will be based on how much the students improve.
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cochiserocks
Oct 23, 09 6:38 AM CDT
Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in. -- Abraham Lincoln Reply
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Reader83447774
Oct 23, 09 9:30 AM CDT
Education is not a competition, every child deserves the best possible teachers and education. The "reform" is no reform. Poor schools and poor districts still lose. Reply
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+2

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