Teacher money does go to education

Editorials

July 17, 2010

The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sat Jul 17, 2010, 03:55 AM EDT

President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress find themselves in a peculiar dispute over funding to save teachers’ jobs. The House has passed a $10 billion bill that would save the jobs of about 138,000 teachers across the country.

Obama supports spending the money to save the jobs, but he has threatened to veto the bill.

Why? Because the House bill takes $500 million from the president’s $4.3 billion Race to the Top program. And it takes $200 million more from an initiative to create pay-for-performance programs for teachers, and another $100 million to help fund new charter schools. Both are key Obama reform initiatives.

The president and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, insist that all that education reform money be left alone, and that the money for the jobs program come from other sources. They are working to ensure that the Senate passes a version of the bill that steers clear of those programs.

That’s fine. The president has a right to fight for his signature education reform ideas. If the Senate can find another source for the $800 million the House would take from those initiatives — and if the House goes along — then the problem is solved. But if not, the president would be foolish to stand in the way of desperately needed legislation that would keep teachers off the unemployment lines and in classrooms helping kids.

Race to the Top gives money competitively to states whose applications show they are pursuing education reforms as outlined by Duncan. Among other things, that includes allowing charter schools to flourish, allowing states to tie student test scores to teacher evaluations and making it easier to get rid of incompetent teachers.

It’s a controversial approach. It has won praise from many education reform groups but has alienated the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association. Without doubt, Race to the Top is already having an impact, despite the fact that only two states — Delaware and Tennessee — have received awards so far. States across the country have changed laws and policies in order to better compete for the funds. This summer, New York bolstered its second-round application by lifting its cap on charter schools and approving new teacher evaluation standards. Those are reforms that will stick whether or not the state gets any Race to the Top money.

But such reforms cannot help schools that are busy cutting teachers. And Race to the Top money obviously won’t help any state that doesn’t win a grant.

The most pressing need that school districts across the country have right now is money to maintain teachers who otherwise will be lost to deep budget cuts. If the president’s reform experiment must be trimmed a bit to meet this emergency, so be it.

— The Post-Standard of Syracuse

Text Only

Editorials

‘Mailing it in’ is not good enough
The U.S. Postal Service has been mailing it in for years. It has stuck like an old postage stamp to a business model that was going nowhere fast, literally. Snail mail is still the USPS stock in trade, and it has increasingly earned its nickname. And for a poorly run operation, it certainly does cost a lot. USPS must offer competitive shipping options, guaranteed faster delivery times and overall service enhancements — or the death spiral of an American institution will continue.

March 2, 2012
OUR VIEW: Time for Mongielo to face the music
Town of Lockport auto repair shop owner David Mongielo has gone over the line in his violation of a town sign ordinance.

January 2, 2012
OUR VIEW: At dawn of New Year, a call for civility
Each new year brings with it an inherent hopefulness in our own lives and the larger world around us, this one in particular — if only because it isn’t 2011.

January 2, 2012
Have a safe New Year's Eve
This isn’t the Prohibition era, and we’re not into moralizing about alcohol consumption.
We have no beef about adults having a few drinks on New Year’s Eve, as long as no one else gets hurt in the process. Your choice — hangover, no hangover. Check yes or no.
But, with one very important proviso: Don’t drink and drive.
And we’re very much against hosts of a New Year’s Eve party sending their guests out to their cars when their guests have overindulged. Especially when there are safe options to avoid behavior that risks your life and that of others you may encounter on the road.

December 31, 2011
The bus stops here
The NFTA’s proposed cuts to local bus routes have the potential to really hurt the little guy, the rider who relies on the bus to get to work, to shop, to get to the doctor’s.
It just shouldn’t happen.

December 28, 2011
OUR VIEW: Lockport taxpayers lose again
We find it highly inappropriate that the City of Lockport — via its development corporation — is again punishing taxpayers for renovations to 57 Canal St.

April 26, 2011
CHEERS & JEERS
We applaud Lockport Town Court and Judge Leonard G. Tilney Jr. for recusing themselves from the driving-while-intoxicated case against local attorney Daniel E. Seaman due to conflict of interest.

April 26, 2011
OUR VIEW: Recharge N.Y. is a plus for us
We’re encouraged that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s visit to Niagara County this week brings a new and improved version of the Power For Jobs program to our area.

April 21, 2011
CHEERS & JEERS: The US&J’s view on the best and worst of the week
April 21, 2011
OUR VIEW: Cleanup is up the creek
New York state had an Eighteenmile Creek cleanup within its grasp — and now it’s trying to change horses in mid-stream. And that could leave the cleanup effort up the creek without a paddle.

April 21, 2011
More Editorials Headlines

Editorials

Search Results

Teacher money does go to education

Site Map

Contact Us