Journalist Michael Gerson gives the president an A+ for his efforts to reform education. But wait. What's the word about how these efforts are shaping up in New York State? Recently it was announced that the state is among the 16 finalists for a federal Race to the Top award, for adopting reforms related to teacher preparation and student assessment. But the state Legislature, kowtowing as ever to the all-powerful teacher unions, has refused to enact the rest of the reforms that would enhance New York's chances to win the award. These reforms include lifting the cap on the number of charter schools statewide, allowing the use of student test scores in tenure decisions, and changing the disciplinary process that now permits discredited teachers -- at outrageous cost to the public -- to spend years in useless "rubber rooms." Peter Murphy, policy director of the NY Charter Schools Association, cautions that it would be a bad education outcome for the state to be awarded a minor grant, and not only because such a grant (in the first round) would disqualify it for a maximum grant ( in the second round). Even being awarded a minor grant would allow the opponents of education to crow -- to appear to be vindicated in their self-interested obstruction of serious reform. Murphy goes to the heart of the matter: In Obama's Race to the Top program, just where is the "Top"?
The worst outcome for New York students and their hope for public-education reform would be for the Obama administration to relax its vigilance by rewarding states for going merely halfway toward adopting the comprehensive changes demanded by its Race to the Top program.
