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September I - 7,2010
WORLD & LOCAL 3
In “Race to the Top” Schools Nationwide Vie for Grants
Leonard Horne, n
Contributing Writer
leonard .horne@gmail .com
T he U.S. government passed a stimulus
bill, the American Recovery and Re
investment Act of 2009, which awarded a
whopping $4.35 billion to the Department
of Education for the Race to the Top (RTT)
initiative. States apply for funds to help
them implement substantive education re
form.
This program is expected to directly im
pact 13.6 million students, and 980,000
teachers in 25.000 schools. The competi
tion is based on a 500 point scale, on the
following criteria: State Success Factors,
Standards and Assessments, Data Systems
to Support Instruction, Great Teachers
and Leaders, Turning Around the Lowest-
Achieving Schools, the nebulous '‘General”
and “Emphasis on STEM (Science, Tech
nology, Engineering, Mathematics). The
aforementioned criteria make up the RTT
metric worth 25 percent, 14 Percent, nine
percent, 28 percent, 10 percent, 11 percent
and three percent respectively.
President Barack Obama said, in an
nouncing the RTT competition, that it is
not “based on politics, or ideology, or the
preferences of a particular interest group.”
Instead, he proclaimed that the program is
to underline a “simple principle.”
That principal being “whether a state is
ready to do what works.” In this pronounce
ment, he also said “not every state will win”
and not every school district “will be happy
with the results, but America’s children,
America’s economy, America itself will be
better for it—better standards, better teach
ing, better schools.”
Spearheading the competition within the
President’s Cabinet is the U.S. Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan. He and Obama
asserted that the funds are not to be doled
out by schools nationwide. Rather, the pro
gram was brought into existence to incen-
tivize and catalyze the educational reform
process.
Schools are thus given the opportunity
to receive grants based on innovative mea
sures that they devise to ensure that Amer
ica’s youth are learning at a world-class
level.
The competition for RTT funds has been
taxing, calling for governors to swiftly or
ganize existing resources to underwrite
extensive grant-writing
efforts. Some uti
lized sig
nificant
polit
ical energy and leadership to cajole school
districts and teacher unions to, not only go
along with, but endorse applications for the
program. Others had to press legislators to
change state laws on charter schools and
teacher evaluations, causing much strife,
as seen in the educational maelstrom taking
place in Washington with Michelle Rhee,
chancellor of the District of Columbia Pub
lic Schools system.
Over 40 states, including the District of
Columbia, entered the competition initial
ly. The competition has recently concluded
phase two and is pursuant of implementing
a phase three in 2011. Of these states, 16
were named finalists. In late March 2010,
two states, Delaware and Tennessee, were
announced as winners of the first phase.
They both earned a significant amount of
money. Delaware earned $ 100 million (which
translates to $800 per pupil) and Tennessee
earned $500 million (or $500 per pupil). In
each case, the award represents approximate
ly seven percent of the total expendi
tures for elementary and
secondary edu
cation.
Be
cause the two states won phase one’s com
petitive, it was assumed by education pun
dits that Delaware and Tennessee were the
best states of phase two. The reality is that
the margin of victory for these states was
quite slim. According to an Education De
partment press release, while peer review
ers rated the winning 10 states as having
the highest scoring plans, very few points
separated them from the remaining applica
tions.
The deciding factor on the number of
winners selected was therefore contin
gent on both the quality of the applica
tions and available funds. Duncan has
expressed that while he is “very hope
ful” that there will be a phase three of
RTT, he aims to “partner” with every
state that has applied thus far to help
them find ways to actuate their proposed
reforms independent of RTT grants.
Ironically, with the help of the amended
Title I, another educational reform ef
fort put in place under the infamous “No
Child Left Behind” Act of 2001 of the
Bush administration.
Controversy has surrounded RTFs scale
of educational reform success. Secretary
Duncan has inferred that the winning states
were chosen because they outlined the
boldest plans for shaking up their school
systems. The onus to earn money, then,
\ must be on the states.
The Man with the
Plan: Congressman
Introduce Plan to
Economic Recovery
Paul A. Daniels, II
World & Local News Editor
paul .danielsii @ gmail .com
O n Aug. 24, during the U.S. congress’ re
cess, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) intro
duced a five-point plan to the constituents of Ohio
that would lead to economic recovery-barring Demo
crats do not regain the majority in the House and the Senate
in November.
If Republicans were to gain the power (meaning a majority of the
votes) in the Senate and the House, Boehner said that he would call for the firing
of Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary and Lawrence Summers, the head of the Na
tional Economic Council. Boehner also called for the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts.
Republicans, like Boehner. believe that tax cuts pay for themselves by generating
revenue and a consumer market that wants to spend. In an interview on NBC’s Meet
the Press, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan denied that tax cuts, in
the Boehner and his party want them will produce revenue. “I'm very much in
favor of tax cuts but not with borrowed money and the problem that we have gotten
into in recent years is spending programs with borrowed money, tax cuts with borrowed
money...and at the end of the day that proves disastrous. My view is I don’t think we
can pteep subtle policy here,” Greenspan said.
Boehner s speech drew criticism from high-ranking Democratic leaders such as
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Califomia) who said “failed Bush economic
policies that produced a deep recession, record deficits, a loss of eight million jobs and
an unprecedented financial crisis.”
“They took the $237 billion surplus they inherited from the Clinton administration
and left us with a $1.3 trillion deficit, and, in the process, quadrupled the national
debt-all before we had turned on the lights in the West Wing,” U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden Jr. said, in regard to the tax cuts.
On CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” Zakaria reported that the expiration of the Bush
Tax Cuts would reduce the deficit by 30 percent.
The current Federal Reserve Chairman testified in front of the House Financial Ser
vices Committee. “In the short term I would believe that we ought to maintain a rea
sonable degree of fiscal support, stimulus for the economy.. .there are many ways to do
that. This is one way,” Bemanke said.
Referring to the Federal Reserve buying U.S. debt, Bemanke announced on Saturday,
Aug. 28, that “the committee is prepared to provide additional monetary accommoda
tion through unconventional measures if it proves necessary, especially if the outlook
were to deteriorate significantly.”
Now Hiring: D.E.A.
£ Be Needin DenT
Ebonics Translators
Dannieka Wiggins
Associate World & Local Editor
Dwigginl@scmail.spelman.edu
he Drug Enforcement Agency is currently searching for a
unique, extraordinary type of agent to equip their agency
with the ability to crack wiretaps. Due to the use of Ebonics to avoid police de
tection in drug trafficking, the DEA intend on hiring nine Ebonics translators skilled in
understanding what many know as “African American English.”
The search has started with a solicitation to contractors associated with various com
panies across the United States to conjure translators in over 100 languages, including
Jamaican patois.
“I think it’s a language form that the DEA recognizes a need to have someone versed in
to conduct investigations,” Special Agent Michael Sanders explained.
According to a DEA post Fox News followed, the job description insists the position re
quires “monitoring varying numbers of communications intercepts during any given shift
[to produce] reliable and accurate transcripts.”
Fox News also emphasizes the DEA's attempt to deny discriminatory action by making
a inference to the talent certain rap artists such as, Eminem, have in communicating mes
sages with words and dialect DEA officials aren’t versed in translating. However, an in
tense amount of faith is being put into potential translators of predominantly black regions
such as the South East, including Atlanta, New Orleans and Miami.
Wait Wolfram, an English linguistics Professor at North Carolina State University, ar
gued that the concept is right and good.” Although there may be some opposition to the
idea of hiring the translators due to the controversy associated with Ebonics, Sanders rein
forces Wolfram’s ideas by highlighting a positive outlook on the situation.
“Ebonics is no longer spoken only by African-Americans,” Sanders said.
He reminisced on previous investigations when African-Americans, Latinos and white
people spoke Ebonics. “It crosses over geographic, racial and ethnic backgrounds,” he
said.
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