In response to Stafford's previous post on edujobs and our discussion, I've got a couple questions for Stafford ? and also Mike, Rick, and Andy, and our audience ? when you all get a chance:
- I know you all are strongly opposed to teacher bailouts with no strings attached, and would oppose HR 4899 for this reason. Fine. But let's side with the economists for a moment, and PRESUME that $10B to save teacher jobs is actually worth the investment on economic grounds, even if it has zero impact on educational performance (By the way, you can't be so sure that immediate mass layoffs wouldn't be bad for education. ?Last hired, first fired? WILL be used in most places, and overall average teacher quality could go down). Not considering the cost or effects of a teacher bailout, then, would cutting the Race to the Top fund by $500M be better overall for American education? This is the silver lining that Stafford mentioned: it would allow Sec. Duncan to be even more selective with choosing winners, since there may be only a few good applications out there. One could argue that Race to the Top in its current form will do more harm than good for many states, by forcing them to make promises that they don't understand or aren't able to keep. Therefore slimming the RTT fund down ? and restricting grants to the cream of the crop ? would be better than not. Agree or disagree? States surely would be outraged to learn that the competition instantly became stiffer. They could also become frustrated by political interference in a grant competition that already required controversial and difficult decisions, and often angered the ever-powerful unions. But then again, Secretary Duncan always told states that the money wasn't guaranteed and that competition would be tough.
- If your answer to part (1) is no, then here's the natural follow-up: is $4.35B the magic number? Should the original amount have been even higher?
- If Race to the Top was really worth $4.35B this time around, should it be funded into perpetuity? I actually have my own opinion on this one, but maybe I'll share it later.
-Mickey Muldoon