Sunday, January 31, 2010

RTTT will have "More Losers Than Winners," Duncan tells Forbes

This from Forbes:

Obama's Classroom Fixer

Education Secretary Arne Duncan on

reforming America's schools

--with the help of private enterprise.

...40 states and the District of Columbia had applied for $4.35 billion in federal funding, part of the administration's Race to the Top program to reform America's K-12 education system. It's a free-market-style competition, and Duncan warns in an interview with Forbes that when the results are announced in April, there will be "more losers than winners." ...

On principals and the private sector:

"I'd love the private sector to help train principals and to help administrations on how to manage better. I would argue that today our principals everywhere are CEOs. They're instructional leaders, they are often managing multimillion dollar budgets, they're sometimes managing a couple hundred employees. They're managing a large physical plant, physical facility. They have to work with the community, work with the media. We should be training principals as CEOs. I think the private sector can really help us do that."

And:

"Obviously we're going to dole this money out over time and have real accountability with them. And if something goes wrong, or we don't think they're acting in good faith, or they're not getting results, we'll just simply stop investing there and invest some other place."

1 comment:

Steve Hyndman said...

More losers than winners...humm...I'm sure that will be very comforting to those "kids" who lose in April.

If "something goes wrong", "we'll just stop investing there and invest some other place". Wow...maybe the State should emulate that approach. Got a bad district...just stop funding them. Heck, maybe school districts could even follow that lead...got a bad school...just take your (oh, excuse me again, our) money and walk away.

I understand what he is trying to do, but there is something completely wrong with this guys outlook or dare I say...disposition...

Old Brand -- No Child Left Behind

New Brand -- Free Market Competition: Educating the Chosen Few