Ed Policy as Seen from the Key Swing State of Ohio

Like
Obama has, Prater cited the congressional Republican budgets Romney has
supported as evidence he plans to cut education spending. She said
Obama?s background of promoting education funding was a major factor in
her group?s endorsement.

But Romney has praised Obama?s Race to the Top, a $4 billion program from the stimulus law that had states offer competing school-improvement plans that the government would agree to fund. Among the criteria being rewarded were an expansion of charter schools and merit pay for teachers. Ohio was one of the states to have its plan funded.

West?s primary criticism of Race to the Top was that it was too small a chunk of the $100 billion in the stimulus for education. Most of that money went to stabilizing state budgets and preventing teacher layoffs, or, in West?s words, ?propping up the status quo.?

Obama education adviser Jon Schnur, who appeared with West at a forum this month at the American Enterprise Institute, said the positives of No Child Left Behind include new nationwide data and a focus on racial and income achievement gaps among students.

But the proficiency standards proved unattainable for many states, and many altered their standards to compensate. The Obama administration allowed states to get a waiver from the law?s requirements if they came up with acceptable alternative achievement measurements.

?Instead of the one-size-fits-all of No Child Left Behind, we have given incentives for state and communities to do what they want,? Schnur said.

Romney?s campaign argues that Obama should have fought harder for an overdue reauthorization of the law, with reforms, and that the waivers are a slapdash solution to a serious problem.

Brookings Institution scholar Russ Whitehurst, who worked at the Department of Education under George W. Bush, said the chances are better for a reformed No Child Left Behind to be authorized under a Romney administration that can bring the Republican House along with its plan for funding tied to the student rather than the district.

?One of the problems is there is really no one left in Congress that supports No Child, the premise behind it,? Whitehurst said. ?The premise behind it is that the federal government should be carrying this big accountability stick for schools around the nation. I don?t think Republicans ever had much of an appetite for that. ? It has been a wildly unpopular law. And that is really what has allowed the Obama administration to take the license it has with waivers. There?s been no one to stand up for Congress.?

Whitehurst said even though the administration has taken some overly aggressive steps, its zeal should be commended and its success will be judged years from now.

?The Obama administration is full of education reformers of a new ilk, and they are not well-aligned with the traditional political parties,? Whitehurst said. ?They are folks who are terribly dissatisfied with the status quo, think education reform is critical and want to go at it in ways that are disruptive to traditional school districts and teachers unions.?

Ryan said the presidential choice in education policy can be divided this way: Romney wants to spend less money and give more authority to the states, while Obama will spend more money but with tighter federal rules.

?If you think you could do more with flexibility in how you spend the money, Romney will be more appealing with you,? said Ryan, whose organization, as a non-profit, does not endorse candidates.

?If it?s just about more money and you don?t mind some strings attached, I think you could find where President Obama is going more appealing. But there are a lot of similarities in what they think on this issue.?

Source: http://theprincipal.blogspot.com/2012/11/ed-policy-as-seen-from-key-swing-state.html

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