“Race To The Top” is fixed: just say No!

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by Derek Sheriff

When the federal government decides it’s too risky to usurp the powers reserved to the states respectively, or to the people with outright force or fraud, it often employs a softer approach involving bribery. It should surprise no one that the Department of Education (DOE), under President Obama, is at it again.

The Obama administration’s “Race To The Top” (RTTT) stimulus grant program should really be called the “Race to Nationalize Education”. Like the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” program, it is nothing but another measure designed to enable the central government to take over control of our local schools and establish a government of occupation in the territory that exists between our children’s ears.

According to a DOE press release, the “centerpiece of the Obama administration’s education reform efforts”, in its “$4.35 billion RTTT program, “..will include adopting internationally benchmarked education standards.”

The question immediately arises, “What are internationally benchmarked standards?”. The word “international” often sends shivers down the spine of many conservatives who understandably worry about the loss of American sovereignty.

It turns out that the former Governor of my state, Janet Napolitano, now turned Homeland Security overlord, was one of the Co-Chairs of the International Benchmarking Advisory Group. However, I must admit that after reading, “Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education.”, which was a 2005 joint report published by the International Benchmarking Advisory Group, my level of concern was actually reduced from what it was initially.

Besides having a lot of nice pictures of children holding globes and smiling at the spherical representation of the earth, there was a lot of bad news about how far American kid’s lag behind those of other developed countries in math, science, reading and problem solving. But the report didn’t state that we needed to teach more about global warming, population control, world government, or the United Nations. In fact it seemed like a very reasonable appeal for states in the U.S. to adopt basic educational standards that would match those of other developed countries.

It’s not the “international benchmark” standards that we ought to object to. It’s the central planning of of our children’s education and the loss of parental and local control over those standards that ought to bother us. One could argue very persuasively that international benchmark standards should become our state’s educational standards for K-12. Perhaps this would be a good idea.

What all people should all recognize, however, is the failure of large scale central planning when it comes to meeting our economic needs or our educational needs. In fact, if there was one thing that caught my attention when looking at the countries in the report that consistently outranked the U.S. in academic performance, it was the fact that nearly all of them were small, both geographically and in terms of population. Canada was the most notable exception in terms of geography, but as of 2009, it had under 34 million people compared to over 308 million that live in the U.S. today.

So what does this point to in terms of human scale as it relates to academic excellence? With the sole exception of Canada, the world’s best performing students have their schools run by people who live closer to and are probably more accountable to their parents. The difficult and controversial decisions, such as what kind of education our children should receive, how many hours per day and how many days per year our children should attend school are best made close to home.

Lots of people in in their own areas have met their Superintendent of Public Instruction. Few have met Obama’s Education Czar.

The result of accepting RTTT funds is described by Prof. Allen Quist, Professor of Political Science at Bethany Lutheran College. He writes, “This [RTTT program] will create a de facto federal curriculum. The Department of Education will financially reward those states that teach what DOE wants [to be] taught.”

Do you, as a citizen of your state, want the children of your state to be taught what the government that rules us in Washington, D.C. wants them to learn? Or would you rather have them learn what you as a parent, grandparent, employer or just plain concerned citizen of your own state want them to learn? Who should decide?

Although it shouldn’t come as any great surprise, Arizona Governor Brewer chose to go after after the carrot on a stick placed in front of her by our central planners in Washington. In fact, she and Dr. Duvall, Mesa School District Superintendent and Special Advisor to the Governor, wasted no time in creating a plan to apply for and comply with the terms of the RTTT grant.

According to the Arizona Education Network, “In order to apply for a Race to the Top grant, local education agencies (LEA’s)– public school districts and charter schools–have to fill out a participation agreement outlining specific actions to be taken under the four reform areas, as well as a memorandum of understanding. Arizona plans on meeting the January 15, 2010 federal deadline for funding. The winning states will be announced in April and if Arizona is chosen, school districts and charter schools would have to submit a written plan within 90 days. Implementation would take place in August/September 2010. If Arizona is not chosen in the first round, the state can reapply in June, 2010.”

While I sympathize with their desire to acquire additional funding forschools and teachers, the funding they seek comes with strings attached. The application, or participation agreement referred to above, lists a whole host of federal requirements that our state must comply with in order to receive funding. On page 25 of the application, it requires that evidence must be provided of the state’s, “..participation in a consortium of States that – Is working toward jointly developing and adopting a common set of K-12 standards (as defined in this notice) that are supported by evidence that they are internationally benchmarked…”.

Besides having to adopt internationally benchmarked standards, the DOE has added other conditions which will further its own agenda as well. For example, the state must also commit to increasing the amount of time students spend in school. The state must, “Establish schedules and implement strategies that provide increased learning time (as defined in this notice); and..Provide ongoing mechanisms for family and community engagement.”

In order to qualify for the RTTT funds, states must score points on the application by promising to implement a variety of other reform measures, some of which may include: “[creating] community-oriented schools, such as– (A) Partnering with parents and parent organizations, faith- and community-based organizations, [ACORN?] health clinics, other State or local agencies, and others to create safe school environments that meet students’ social, emotional, and health needs [what kind of health needs?]; (B) Extending or restructuring the school day [more time under the control of the federal government and less time with family] so as to add time for such strategies as advisory periods that build relationships between students, faculty, and other school staff; (C) Implementing approaches to improve school climate and discipline, such as implementing a system of positive behavioral supports or taking steps to eliminate bullying and student harassment; or (D) Expanding the school program to offer full-day kindergarten or pre-kindergarten. [Nationalized day care]. So in other words, if any state accepts these RTTT funds, their schools will have to agree to change not only our children’s school curricula but their school schedules to meet federal guidelines.

Now before you say that many of these conditions seem harmless, take a moment and remember the kind of people that make up our president’s administration and some of their radical backgrounds and agendas. Is it possible or even likely that these kind of individuals were involved in creating this program and will be part of its implementation and oversight?

However, even if this is not a concern, the question we should ask ourselves is: “Do we really want the government in far off Washington, D.C. deciding the subjects and content of our children’s daily school lesson plans and how much time they spend at school?”.

If we the people of wish to retain any measure of self-determination for ourselves and for our children, we must work to reverse the process which has slowly been centralizing all decision making power in the hands of the federal government and their unelected bureaucrats. The corrupting influence of federal money has been used to bribe our state office holders into looking the other way while the federal government ignores the 10th Amendment and usurps the powers which rightfully belong to the states or to we the people. It is time for it to stop!

We must demand that our elected state officials from the governor on down reject federal money such as RTTT funds, which are always given with strings (or chains), attached. The good news is that it’s not too late to stop our state office holders from accepting this bribe.

Please contact your governor’s office and tell them to reject the offer of “Race To The Top” money. Texas Governor Rick Perry has already said “no” for his state and so should the rest! Tell them that our school curricula and school schedule needs to be determined at the local, or at the very most, at our state level!

Tell the members of your school board or your school superintendent the same thing. The states did not become dependent on federal money overnight and it will be a long program of rehabilitation if we are to help our elected officials break the cycle.

The first step is getting our elected state officials to understand that they are trapped in an abusive relationship with the federal government. They have become dependent upon the fix that federal money provides for our state’s budgetary problems. They must admit that have a problem, stand up for themselves and for us and just say NO!

Derek Sheriff [send him email] is a research analyst for the Tenth Amendment Center. His articles have appeared in various publications, and he writes regularly for the Center on issues related to state sovereignty and nullification. His blog and podcast "Principles of '98" can be found at www.PrinciplesOfNinetyEight.Com. View his Tenth Amendment Center blog archives here, and his article archives here.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 2:38 am. It is filed under Current Events, Federalism and tagged with Education, Race to the Top. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.