From a blogger at the Gainesville Times.
It has been in several papers around the state the past few days but not in the Times so I’ll post it here I guess.
From the Marietta Daily Journal:
Twenty-three local school districts have signed on to partner with the state in implementing Georgia’s Race to the Top plan. These districts, which make up 41 percent of public school students in Georgia, include Atlanta, Ben Hill, Bibb, Burke, Carrolton, Chatham, Cherokee, Clayton, DeKalb, Dougherty, Gainesville, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Jones, Meriwether, Muscogee, Rabun, Richmond, Rockdale, Spalding, Valdosta and White.
U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) ripped the federal program.
“While the lure of federal money is always tempting, the cost of this slush fund will be felt through the further erosion in local control of education and more power to the federal government. Like the rest of the stimulus, this program relies on the false premise that all our solutions reside in Washington,” Price said.
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) was equally critical.
“While I applaud the president for his commitment to improving our country’s educational system, I believe that this is, once again, an attempt to give the federal government more control over our schools. In the over 40 years since the creation of the Department of Education, Washington’s involvement in local education has not narrowed the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers,” Gingrey said.
State and local educators are in the best position to measure individual student progress, provide resources to those students in the most need, and know how to best use technology in the classroom, and they should have the maximum flexibility to make these important decisions, Gingrey said.
“Yet, the Race to the Top Fund only will create more bureaucracy diverting the attention of educators from their real duty – improving educational opportunities for their students,” Gingrey said. “Furthermore, Race to the Top will pick winners and losers among applicants, leaving the distinct possibility that the achievement gap we are trying to close will only widen.”
As you can see, Hall County already has signed up. One of 23 districts out of Georgia’s 180. Our Hall Schools Superintendent, Will Schofield, is on the Race to the Top Committee, appointed by the Governor.
Guess he and our board are all for more Federal strings and control of our local system when it suits them despite all rhetoric to the contrary. So apparently our school leaders are not only inviting more Federal control in, they are one of the architects attempting to make it happen statewide.
Funny, I would believe the majority of this community would be strongly against more federal interference in local education at any cost, but here we are diving right in without really even knowing what the future consequences and strings may be and without really even informing the public.
Money and power talks while teachers walk I guess
