Duncan's "Race" Becomes Forced March

During the few minutes yesterday that I could watch our superlative-spewing jock-Secretary, Arne Duncan, on CSPAN, I learned that Arne doesn't see the RTTT as a race at all but, rather, a unending kind homework practice without instructions that must continue until states get it right. Those states whose applications are rejected by the Gates goons who are designing the applications, reading the applications, giving tutoring on the applications, and judging the applications, are expected to apply again, and again, and again until they get it right, in a kind of tree-mangling, years-long game of high-stakes charades, where tons of paper are shipped back and forth between Washington and starving state departments of ed desperate to just make payroll.

Sensing the absurdity of this non-race fully enacted, Governor Granholm asked, in a not so patient way, if the Dunc would not just tell the states what they are expected to do so that cowed legislatures like Michigan's could simply rubber stamp the papers and get the cash rolling. The truth of the matter is that Gates and Broad (and Obama) do not want to to be the fall guys in, yet, another failed experiment by big business to make education policy. As long as the states are ostensibly in charge of their own reckless "reforms" with regards to public education, no one but the applicants, themselves, can be blamed for the misery that teachers, children, and parents will inherit as a result of the Business Roundtable's takeover of American education.

From the Washington Post:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many teachers and educators across the United States are at risk of losing their jobs in the next few months, the nation's education secretary told a meeting of the National Governors Association on Sunday.

"I am very, very concerned about layoffs going into the next school year starting in September. Good superintendents are going to start sending out pink slips in March and April, like a month from now, as they start to plan for their budgets," said Arne Duncan, referring to the slips of paper included in some paychecks to notify a person of being fired.

As tax revenues in most states continue to plummet because of weak economies, states and cities are considering cutting education to keep their budgets balanced. Every state in the union except one, Vermont, is required to balance its budget.

The economic stimulus package, pushed last year by the administration of President Barack Obama and approved by Congress saved at least 320,000 education jobs, Duncan told the governors.

The plan included the largest transfer of money from the U.S. government to states in the nation's history, according to the Pew Center on the States.

It created a stabilization fund of $48 billion that provided cash directly to states, mostly for schools. But those funds will likely run out before the end of the year.

Last week, Obama warned of the possibility of layoffs in state governments when the stimulus ends.

Late on Sunday, the White House announced that it will put $350 million into new competitive grants states can use to develop educational standards designed to prepare students for college.

Meanwhile, Duncan said the $1.5 billion "Race to the Top" grants included in the stimulus plan are on track to be distributed soon, with the finalists for the grants announced next week.

Obama has proposed extending the program, as well as expanding it by $3 billion, to fund new education innovations, especially at semi-autonomous charter schools.. . . .

Who could have guessed that it would be the first African-American president who would be in charge of a national education plan that assures the resegregation of American schools.