Obama and Duncan Launch NCLB 2.0

This from Diane Ravitch at Bridging Differences:

We promised to keep a close watch on what is happening at the federal level, and now it begins to get interesting. And a bit scary, if you care about the future of public education.

The U.S. Department of Education announced its plan to spend at least $3.5 billion to push local officials around the country to close failing schools and reopen them with new teachers and principals. At this time of fiscal crisis and budget cuts, districts are
desperate for federal dollars. To qualify for these dollars, districts must do one of four things: 1) fire the principal and at least half the staff and reopen the school with new staff; 2) turn the school over to a charter operator or other private managers; 3) close the school and send the students to higher-achieving schools in the district; or 4) replace only the principal and take other steps to change the school. Sounds just like the sanctions in NCLB.

The Obama-Duncan plan might as well be called "NCLB 2.0." ...

Is the charter movement up to the challenge? According to a thoughtful report by Tom Toch, the best charter management organizations are already overstretched. They don't have the financial resources to grow (but the federal dollars will solve that problem), but more importantly, they have a high rate of turnover among principals and teachers. Not every teacher can sustain that 60-65 hour work week that is expected of charter teachers. Tom wrote the original report (a draft of which was printed on Dean Millot's blog), but defenders of the charter movement at Ed Sector edited the report so heavily that Tom took his name off the report before it was released. Is the charter movement so fragile that it must muzzle the voice of a friendly critic? ...