Today, AEI released my third report on the education portions of the federal stimulus.?? This edition focused exclusively on the Race to the Top.?? (First two here and here.)
I'm as hopeful about this program as anyone.?? But as we progressed through 2009 and 2010, I saw that many education observers had turned into cheerleaders instead of critical analysts. Too many folks, it seemed to me, were behaving as though RTT was already an unmitigated triumph. Indeed, the administration has asked Congress for more than a billion additional dollars for a new RTT and is looking to make the program permanent.
So I set out to figure out what's really been going on and what the likely implications are. Although I scoured lots of federal documents and tracked the administration's pronouncements, I also closely tracked events in the states???where the real action is.
What I found???what the report calls The Full Story on the Race to the Top???is much more complex and less celebratory than the convention wisdom. The report is not an indictment of the program but it is, I hope, a wake-up call.?? (See Rick Hess's review here; Daniel Lautzenheiser and Jenna Schuette discuss it here.)
I was aiming to make two contributions with the report.?? First, dig deeper into the RTT details than has been done heretofore and construct a coherent narrative of what's occurred; and second, tie the various strands together in a way that clarifies for observers the program's past and trajectory and provides policymakers with some possible options moving ahead.
Give it a read, and let me know if I accomplished either goal.
--Andy Smarick