In the Buckeye State there is serious worry about the state's health and future well-being???? ???????? the statistics are bleak and unrelentingly bad ???????? and there is increasing concern that counting on the federal government to make things better is fool's gold.????
Conservatives, and an increasing number of moderates, look grimly at the prospect of government-run health care, and they see our elected officials ???????? at both the state and local levels ???????? begging DC for stimulus funding and federal contracts with increasing distress. Can't we solve anything for ourselves? Do we really need DC to fix everything?
Enter into this general anxiety education reforms like Race to the Top and Common Core. I've heard rumblings that it is disconcerting, and even distasteful, for our state officials to march off to DC and grovel for Race to the Top dollars. Why, some ask, should Ohio and other states have to make a pitch to the Feds to distribute ???????? some would say redistribute ???????? taxpayer dollars back to citizens via a competition designed by federal bureaucrats? Will states that lose the RttT sweepstakes take the rejection well or will there be serious finger pointing?
Further, to many Ohioans, the effort to create national standards seems like an effort by experts far removed from children to tell states and local communities what they should teach their children. No Child Left Behind was sold as a great national endeavor to improve public education, yet almost everyone associated with that effort has moved to disown it or large parts of it. Why should states have any confidence that this time will be any different?
What is seen as federal intrusion into education is especially galling to some as they argue the Constitution makes clear that education is an issue for states and local governments. Under what authority are the Feds getting deeper into the day to day operations of public schools? In Fordham's surveys of citizens' attitudes over the years Ohioans regularly say they trust educators closer to children (teachers and principals) more than they trust state officials to do right by kids. No doubt they trust state government more than they trust Washington.
There is great excitement in the education reform community about the power of Race to the Top to be a game-changer, especially for our neediest children. There is real hope that the move toward common national standards will ultimately lead to better educated high school graduates. I share in this excitement, but sense that many in the heartland are greatly skeptical of these efforts and see them as nothing more than Washington intruding deeper into their lives and that of their children. I worry that this could end badly.
-Terry Ryan
