http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=1109570While President Obama continues to praise his Race to the Top education initiative, one public policy expert believes the $4.35 billion program will make things worse for America's students.
Speaking last week to the National Urban League, the president pledged to fight for Race to the Top, saying he will not tolerate a status quo where the U.S. lags behind other countries in education achievements.
But Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, contends that the president's policies are contributing to the problem.
Neal McCluskey (Cato Institute)"The federal government through Race to the Top is telling all states, 'If you want to compete for this money, which came from your taxpayers, you have to sign on to national standards or national tests.'" He points out that that "is a huge centralization in a system that's already far too centralized, far too bureaucratic, which is the main problem in American education today."
President Obama also described education as "the economic issue of our time" in his address to the NUL, but the Cato Institute associate director believes he is going about it the wrong way.
"If you look at the evidence, what works is not more centralization, not more government control, but school choice," McCluskey notes. "Give the money to parents, let schools be autonomous, and then schools have to compete. They innovate, and that's what works, not just in education, but throughout the economy."
He adds that the president is right in saying the country needs well-educated people. However, he is wrong in how he is going about trying to get them.
Topic: School choice vs. gov't control (Read 956 times)