Assigned Reading

The teachers’ unions have expressed concerns about Commissioner Gist’s application for federal Race to the Top funding. I side with the NEARI and most RIFT affiliates, and would not sign on to the application, although probably for some different reasons.

The unions are critical of Gist’s plan to use standardized testing as the most significant factor in evaluating teachers. I am equally critical. Gist’s plan is the final straw in a plan to take away local control of public schools. RIDE defines the learning objectives for all students, designs tests to monitor these objectives, and now hopes to have the most significant role in determining which teachers stay and which will be replaced.

Why on Earth would a local district turn over such power to state government? The simple answer is cash. The state, over the past several years, has defunded local education; now it offers these financially desperate cities and towns federal money if they sign over more power to the state.

The federal bureaucrats are ponying up the money to only a handful of states which agree, not surprisingly, to mandates. The feds increase their power as well.

Those on the right seen so interested in slamming teachers’ unions that they will support anything the unions oppose. But do Republicans and conservatives really want state and federal education departments to have more power in their local school districts? Anyone familiar with federal special education laws knows what happens when big government gets too involved.

The increase in charter schools outlined in the application is a good idea. But it’s precisely the autonomy of charters that have allowed for greater success. Many charters are free of union entanglement and bureaucratic oversight.

Gist is allowing teams of community members, or “share-holders” at six consistently failing schools to overhaul their schools, to turn them into charters, or even to shut them down. Gist is taking the power out of the hands of bureaucrats and unions, and returning it to the parents, teachers, students, and other communities members. This is a great plan.

But the RTTT application, and its attempts to tie teacher evaluations to state testing results, is usurping power from the districts. It won’t help individual school communities to grow. It’s selling the future for cash now. And I’m afraid it’s selling souls to the devil. There will be no turning back.

Note: The grant application was submitted today. The commissioner’s website, however, has yet to provide the application online. The site says, simply, “under construction”.