All you need to know about priorities: Race to the top gets 700 mil more in new budget

[n2doc]

Budget deal: Cuts of $38 billion include accounting gimmicks, target Obama priorities

By Philip Rucker, Tuesday, April 12, 9:49 PM

snip:

Although the pain would be felt across virtually the entire government — the deal includes a $1 billion across-the-board cut shared among all non-defense agencies — Republicans were able to focus the sharpest cuts on areas they have long targeted. The Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments, which represent about 28 percent of non-defense discretionary spending, face as much as a combined $19.8 billion, or 52 percent, of the total reductions in the plan.

In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency, long a target of conservatives, will see a $1.6 billion cut, representing a 16 percent decrease from 2010 levels. At the Department of the Interior, affected agencies include the Fish and Wildlife Services ($141 million cut from last year), the National Park Service ($127 million cut from last year) and “clean and drinking water state revolving funds” ($997 million cut from last year).

Democrats were able to beat back the most severe cuts originally proposed by House Republicans and protect funding for some cherished programs, such as Head Start, AmeriCorps and the implementation of the new health-care and food safety laws.

“Race to the Top,” Obama’s signature education reform initiative, will receive an additional $700 million in funding.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/38-billion-in-cuts-in-budget-deal-will-cover-various-domestic-areas/2011/04/11/AFJihQMD_story.html

[xchrom]

1. ...

:mad: that's just money to support some one's business enterprize.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Gravy for someone.

Bully for me, chilly for you....

[spedtr90]

3. Duncan's proven failure keeps going

New names, new places, with new faces selling it - but even the CATO institute disproved Arne Duncan's "Chicago Miracle". It would be so easy for some network to blow this RTTT garbage out of the water with some basic research and reporting. If they wanted to.

[msongs]

4. it is Obama's failure, Duncan is just an employee doing the bidding of his boss nt

[spedtr90]

9. failure belongs to both of them

[mopinko]

5. you got a link for that?

and the latimes did some basic research and reporting, time magazine did some basic research and reporting, and seems to me they mostly agreed with the plan.
my very progressive and very savvy state representative here in illinois worked very hard on our application, and was very proud of the steps that we had to take to apply. she thought they were long overdue reforms.

[spedtr90]

10. CATO report on Chicago

Check the graphs and conclusions:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ey8ulWzYtWsJ:www.cato.org/pubs/researchnotes/coulson-questioning-chicago-miracle.pdf+chicago+miracle&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShEGDrYZm9QbOBbPLUObLsDRwGc7y1ciO2jLK_vjEwngZJHiY-Q2UULrkdnbhNsQgGzK-3UY63tfQpNVwbo3UR9-mgkIgT9uXsb3IKotPazcNXrCUJTL0N8VJxjPFGrpRVAvYbi&sig=AHIEtbRNozuvz6YPhZbcSNtIvEI5yev_UA

Time magazine? Basic research, yes. Even du has more in depth info. I love the madfloridian!

[mopinko]

12. the funny thing is-

i haven't heard anyone here in chicago talking about any miracles. i don't know where this claim is coming from, except as a strawman.
i'll go read this.

[spedtr90]

15. do a bit of research - here's one link

into the claims of progress made when Duncan was there, or Huberman. Maybe check the Chicago papers for Duncan, Huberman. Do a google search at least.

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2010/09/latest-on-chicago-schools-miracle.html

[mopinko]

16. the only mentions that i saw of the word miracle come

from those for whom it is a useful strawman. i see no citations of any claim that there was such a miracle by any official at the city, or at boe.
i am telling you, i live here, no one, no one, here refers to any such miracle.

[spedtr90]

17. sure can't blame them for not wanting to talk about it

[mopinko]

18. now there is a cozy little circle.

nobody here ever said their was a miracle here. we don't want to talk about what we never said?

[spedtr90]

19. in that case

it's miracle you understood what I was talking about

[spedtr90]

14. NEPC looked at LA Times research

In February, 2011 the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) released a report reanalyzing the same dataset from the L.A. Unified School District and disagreed with their findings. Good post on this at the link: (quote below form the link also)


http://inschoolmatters.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/national-education-policy-center-vs-los-angeles-times/

"It’s a convention of journalism, when different researchers come to different conclusions, to throw up your hands and report the story as a “he said, she said,” “studies differ” sort of affair. But in this case, the point of the NEPC report is that, well, studies differ. If equally valid approaches produce markedly different results, is it responsible to base a high-impact project on results that, quite simply, may be wrong?"

[mopinko]

6. some people might see this as team obama

fighting for education funding in the midst of a hard fought budget fight.
just sayin'

[n2doc]

7. That's if you think RTTT is a good thing

some don't
just sayin'

[mopinko]

8. and some do.

also just sayin'

[spedtr90]

11. funding for charters...

...funding for Teach For America

Who could know the "best and brightest" eligible for TFA only need a 2.5 college GPA?

Who could know the intensive 5 week program that prepares the TFA teachers consists of 2 hours of teaching a day - 1 hour with 4 to 5 students and 1 hour teaching a class?

Who could know a TFA teacher get the same salary & benefits as a fully certified teacher, but they also get over $5,000 a year from Americorps because their teaching is "service to America"?

Who could know Wall Street and big corporations favor TFA on resumes of prospective employers - somehow the teaching experience Republican supporters belittle is excellent preparation for other careers?

Anyone who cares to browse their website.

[mopinko]

13. parents here in chicago wanted and got charter schools

and continue to entrust them with their children. we got many choices in public schools as well, but we wanted choices. most of the public school options are of the academic variety, and the majority of the charters are of a philosophical sort. the things that big bureaucracies do well got done within, the things they don't do well, they let charters for.

and we wanted teachers that were not mired in the last century. don't take that as a bash of all teachers, it isn't. but with a system as big as chicago's, it is hard to keep an adequate staffing level. one reason why it is hard to get rid of a teacher here.
and people are not that enamored of pieces of paper here. there are certainly plenty of them floating around. higher education is a huge part of the economy here, but we also still have a lot of respect for street smarts and natural gifts.

again tho, nobody here thinks there was any kind of a miracle.

[Smarmie Doofus]

20. RTTP is about privatization and union busting.

Hence bipartisan support from GOP and Hedge-fund Dems like the prez.

If the party leadership thinks I'm supporting this shit next year they are in for a rude awakening.

I doubt very much that I'm alone.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. You are definitely not alone

This is for sure a bunch of shit.