President Has Delivered Real Change in Education

Race to the Top program has sparked a 'quiet revolution' in education
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 23, 2009 5:35 AM CDT
President Has Delivered Real Change in Education
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 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." (More Race to the Top stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X