UK: Education For The Wealthy Only?

With the current credit crunch paralyzing many families in the United Kingdom, the reality for the hopeful young students from underprivileged minority groups in particular fear being left out lucrative jobs.
The U.K. government has previously used a scheme of paying tuition fees for the unprivileged students and then charging them when they start work after University.
According to a former lecturer at Oxford and Southampton Universities, Professor Colin Morris, a historian, the policy enabled most families on low incomes to pick up assistance towards their children’s tuition fees. “Its going to be very expensive for many students from the poor families,” Professor Morris said, referring to ending of such grants.
The universities also have been helping out from a scheme known as bursaries. In most cases this has also helped students get low-interest students loan from banks. This low-interest help full time students with their living costs whilst they are at university. The loans are also repaid upon graduation when the students start working.
The U.K. government now argues that graduates have an advantage in the job market so should therefore make a payment towards their education at the university. Full time undergraduates are now legally responsible to pay tuition fees of up to £3,225 per year beginning 2009 - 2010. Minority and low-income communities will be most disproportionately impacted.
Enrolment will decline for fear of accumulating debt. Tuition fees had long held at £1,000 until it went up to £3000 in 2006.
“Tuition fees make it harder for the working class portion of the public to further their education,” said Rebecca Glithero, a student. “If it wasn’t for student loans, only the upper classes or those who could afford it, would be able to attend university, especially as the cost of tuition fees are on the rise.”
She said anyone is eligible to apply for a student loan so can, effectively, afford to go to university but the problem is paying back the loan when a student has finished their degree.
John Linford said fees would naturally prevent students from applying to University, arguing that in an ideal world, there wouldn’t be any tuition fees as this would give everyone an equal opportunity to choose to go to University and succeed in their career.
“I certainly do not feel that a prospective student should be penalized and subsequently prevented from attending University because they do not have the financial means,” he said. “What I would like to see is a financial penalty imposed on students who sign up to do a course and then do not attend; complete the course etcetera, thus costing the taxpayer money.”
“I don’t think that this is an exception to the UK; I think that this is happening all over the world,” he added.
Lisa Rose reasoned that the rationale that students who have attained a degree will find better paid work automatically is inaccurate and too much of generalization, which would give a huge unfair advantage to those students from a wealthy background.
"Graduates are finding it harder than ever to find jobs after university, the extra cost of tuition fees will no doubt put a lot of potential university student off applying,” Rose said.
Separately, Simon Kemp, from Higher Education Statistics Agency insisted: “The government will offer some loans to students."

NASCAR champion Johnson gives local schools $150,000 in education grants

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Three-time reigning NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has donated $150,000 in grants to four Charlotte-area school systems.
The grants will be available to schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Mooresville, Cabarrus County and Iredell-Statesville school systems.
The grants will come through the Lowe's "Toolbox for Education" program. Lowe's is the primary sponsor of Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet.
Johnson and his wife, Chandra, have launched similar programs in their hometowns of El Cajon, Calif., and Muscogee, Okla. The total donations so far from the Jimmie Johnson Foundation are $500,000.
Monday's announcement coincides with Johnson's ongoing "Helmet of Hope" campaign. Each week, he draws two charities submitted by media and fans and donates $1,048 to each entry.

Aus official to visit India over education concerns

 

SYDNEY — Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday said she would visit India in a bid to soothe concerns over attacks on its students and dishonest education providers.

Gillard recently launched a sweeping review of Australia's lucrative international education sector in response to a series of violent assaults on Indian students and claims they were being targeted in study scams.

She said Australia's 12.7-billion-US-dollar international education industry would be chief among the issues she would discuss with senior Indian officials during her visit, between August 30 and September 3.

"The government is committed to taking its relationship with India to a higher level and engaging with India on a long-term, strategic basis," said Gillard, who is also the national education minister.

"During the visit (I) will discuss the government's recent moves to improve the quality of education for overseas students in Australia, including the re-registration of education providers, the review of the act governing international students, and the international students roundtable in September," she added.

Gillard said she also planned to meet with students who had studied in Australia and to visit a number of educational institutions in Delhi and Chennai.

A series of attacks in Sydney and Melbourne boiled over into street protests last month, amid accusations from students that police were not doing enough to halt violence.

Australian authorities have played down any racial aspect to the attacks, saying the jobs that Indian students do to support their education mean they are often in dangerous areas or on public transport late at night.

But the issue has strained relations, prompting Australia's prime minister and foreign minister to offer India's foreign minister their personal assurances during a recent summit of Pacific leaders here.

Left unattended, the issue risked "poisoning" international attitudes to Australia and souring relations with China and India, the major Lowy Institute think-tank warned this week.

Broward wants new classroom additions, despite empty seats

 

The Broward School District is asking the state for permission to build 226 new classrooms at nine overcrowded western Broward schools -- despite declining enrollment countywide and projections the district will have 34,800 empty seats in the next three years.

The district wants to conduct spot surveys at the nine schools to determine whether classroom additions are justified, said Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter.

The surveys would allow them to build 16 classrooms at Pioneer Middle School in Cooper City; 16 at Glades Middle School in Miramar; 50 at Falcon Cove Middle School in Weston; 26 at Indian Ridge Middle School in Davie; 14 at Silver Trail Middle School in Pembroke Pines; 16 at Tequesta Trace Middle School in Weston; 36 at Cypress Bay High School in Weston; 16 at Everglades High School in Miramar; and 36 at Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines.

The district also wants to change the designation on Elementary School C, now under construction in Hollywood, to a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school.

Should it get the go-ahead, the additions would considered for next year's capital budget, which pays for construction and major purchases such as computers and buses. But with the district in budget-cutting mode, the new classrooms could knock out other projects as money gets shifted around.

It's unlikely that the state will agree to let Broward add more classrooms while there are empty desks, said Nick Sakhnovsky, chairman of the school district's Facilities Task Force. The task force's members are examining how the district is using its schools, including the problem of underused schools in the east, he said.

"We're still one district, and we have to start looking at it as one district," Sakhnovsky said.

He also thinks a comprehensive look at boundaries is in order. Classroom additions will take years to build and that won't help the students now sitting in overcrowded schools.

"At best, these construction solutions are taking care of children who are in diapers right now, and that's not good enough," he said.

But Notter said the multimillion-dollar, one-time expense of building a classroom addition is less costly than the recurring expense of busing students to empty seats in eastern schools.

"Instead of again being forced to domino kids from the Everglades to the Ocean... we want to be able to say to the state, 'We need some relief at this school, and we believe this number of classrooms would relieve it,'" he said.

State education officials already have turned down the district's request to build a new middle school in west Broward, saying the district has too many open seats to justify a new school.

The schools where the district wants to add space are among the more crowded. Falcon Cove Middle, for instance, is 76 percent over capacity, while Flanagan High is 35 percent over capacity.

Adding portable classrooms is not an option, Notter said, because the district needs to be in compliance with state growth management laws. And those rules don't allow districts to count portables toward permanent capacity.

But additions don't come cheap. Adding 36 classes at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland cost the district $13.99 million, while an 18-classroom addition just finished at Embassy Creek Elementary School in Cooper City cost $5.97 million, according to district budgets.

Analysis: Conflicts Deepen For State Education Chief

BATON ROUGE, La. -- The state's public education chief, Paul Pastorek, has lawmakers calling him arrogant, school board members lambasting his policies and education groups calling for his ouster.

Pastorek's got the most important backing to keep his job as state superintendent of education, the support of Gov. Bobby Jindal. But can he be an effective leader with a style that rankles even some who agree with him and with local educational leaders refusing to talk to him?

In recent weeks, the Louisiana Association of Educators and the Louisiana School Boards Association have called for Pastorek to be removed from his post. Both groups say he has lost the trust of education officials. The school boards association refused to even meet with the superintendent.

"For such a meeting to be fruitful there must be a modicum of trust between all parties involved," said a letter to Pastorek signed by Tammy Phelps, president of the school boards association, and Nolton Senegal, the group's executive director.

Pastorek, in office since 2007, has said he won't step down and will continue trying to reach out to education groups. Each time a complaint is raised, Jindal issues a statement of support for Pastorek.

"We are disappointed that these organizations perceive my efforts to improve public education as 'an assault on public schools' rather than my genuine intent, which is to dramatically raise the quality of Louisiana's education system," Pastorek said.

Much of the conflict centers on Pastorek's push for the state to take over failed public schools and convert them to independently run charter schools, and his attempt to revamp laws governing local school boards to lessen their authority. Pastorek won approval for the school takeover plan from the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, but lost his bid in the state Legislature to change school board laws.

Each step of the way, Pastorek has angered some local education leaders as he pushes for striking change in the way Louisiana educates its 650,000 public school students. Supporters say that's what it takes to revamp a public school system that has failed students for generations.

Opponents say Pastorek refuses to consider the ideas of local officials and is undermining public education. And those angry local education officials have sway with the state lawmakers and BESE members that Pastorek needs on his side to get his agenda passed, raising questions about whether Pastorek's approach is undermining his own efforts.

"Superintendent Pastorek has created conflict rather than education reform," LAE President Joyce Haynes said.

The education superintendent isn't known for his soft touch and diplomatic skills. Instead, Pastorek approaches his agenda with an aggressive, in-your-face manner and only so much tolerance for people who fail to feel his same urgency for change.

"I think it's possible that style issues could overwhelm substance, but I would also say that I think what you're really seeing is the groups that oppose reform efforts are using this to go after reform efforts in a different way," said Barry Erwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana and a staunch Pastorek supporter.

The situation has grown tense enough that another statewide teachers union, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, called on Jindal last week to mediate the disputes between Pastorek and education groups.

It seems unlikely _ at least so far _ that Jindal will intervene.

However, an intervention of sorts might be needed so the disputes don't create a stalemate that renders Pastorek ineffective or stymied as superintendent.

LFT President Steve Monaghan summed it up in his letter to Jindal: "The last thing our children need at this moment is a bitter feud between the superintendent of education and the organizations that represent teachers and school boards."

Statesville High students get natural education at Yellowstone

Two years ago, during a trip to Yellowstone National Park, Parks Collins began thinking of ways to transform the national landmark into a giant outdoor classroom.

A science teacher at Statesville Senior High, Collins did just that this summer.

Collins, along with nine SHS students, traveled to Wyoming for "SHS Project Yellowstone."

The students explored Yellowstone and engaged in activities with a wildlife photographer and a wolf biologist. Working in small groups, the students were responsible for conducting research, recoding climate data, and logging wildlife species they observed.

"It's an opportunity for them to get outside the classroom," Collins explained.

The trip, which was funded by a grant and community contributions, targeted mid-level students and incorporated hands-on lessons in biology, chemistry and earth science.

SHS junior Paul Harold, 16, said he signed on for the adventure because of his desire to experience a world he's seen only on television.

"I wanted to get out and see wildlife on my own," he said. "I heard about Yellowstone on National Geographic channel so I've always been interested in wildlife."

Harold said he was grateful Collins asked him to consider going because that was his first trip to the area.

While there, he learned about wildlife and plant life preservation. Beyond that, he was amazed to see "how bright the sky was with the stars at night."

"I don't think I would have learned half that stuff inside a classroom," he said. "It's better to see in person because you get a hands-on feel."

To gauge the success of the trip, Collins is considering monitoring students' academics before and after the trip. He will look at their GPAs, discipline referrals and more, before and after the trip.

"The main goal of this trip is to get them excited about higher learning," he said.

Donations are needed for the June 2010 trip. Interested in donating visit Collins' web site at http://iss.schoolwires.com/1686204410132510/blank/...

coursesmart puts textbooks on your iphone

iPhone/iPod touch: You may be doing your best to get your textbooks for free, but for those times you're thinking about buying, consider CourseSmart, a new iPhone application that puts textbooks in your pocket.

CourseSmart the-mobile-app is the baby of CourseSmart the-web-site, which sells digital versions of over 7,000 textbooks from most of the leading textbook publishers. When you buy a book from CourseSmart, you also get access to it (for free) on the CourseSmart iPhone app.

And while your iPhone screen certainly isn't the best place to pore over hundreds of pages of your bio textbook, it's probably not a bad tool for a little last-minute cramming or studying on-the-go. CourseSmart is freeware, iPhone and iPod touch only

India passes free education bill

A quarter of private school places will be reserved for poor children

The Indian parliament has approved a landmark education bill which seeks to guarantee free and compulsory education for children aged between six and 14.

The bill, passed by the lower house of parliament, will set up new state-run neighbourhood schools.

It will also force private ones to reserve at least a quarter of their places for poor children.

Currently about 70 million children receive no schooling, and more than a third of the population is illiterate.

The bill was passed by the upper house last month.

It now needs presidential assent - a mere formality, correspondents say - to become law.

'New era'

India's Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal described the passage of the bill as "harbinger of a new era" for children to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

"We as a nation cannot afford our children not going to schools," he said.

The minister said the bill covers children with disabilities and that the government is planning to set up special schools for them.

"This bill provides for the inclusion of children who are disadvantaged because of disability. The government is not only setting up special schools for them but doing all it can to provide education to them in all types of schools," Mr Sibal said.

The bill also ends widespread practices by which schools impose admission fees on parents to guarantee their children a place and bureaucrats enjoy discretionary powers on deciding who to let in.

Achieving universal education is one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals to be met by the year 2015.

Critics of the bill, however, say it is not clear how the government plans to pay for this.

Also, they say it does not cover children below the age of six and therefore fails to recognise the importance of the early years of a child's development.

They say it also does little to address India's inequitable school system under which there are vast discrepancies between well-funded private schools and state-run schools with poor quality teaching staff and infrastructure.

At the moment India spends a little over 3% of its GDP on education.

Rules fuel more 'exemplary,' 'unacceptable' ratings for Texas schools

The number of campuses and school districts receiving the state's highest "exemplary" rating more than doubled this year, while the number of districts performing poorly also reached a high point.

Also Online

School ratings

Link: TEA ratings page

Both trends were caused by two major changes in the state's school ratings rules. One tweak helped schools by considering some students as passing state tests who did not. But tougher new dropout standards caused some schools and districts problems.

Without either of the changes, the number of best- and worst-rated Texas campuses would have remained virtually unchanged.

School ratings are closely watched, as they are considered marks of quality that matter to parents, lawmakers, campus educators and neighborhood reputations. Ratings are based mainly on TAKS scores and how many students stay in school.

A report from the Texas Education Agency shows that 73 districts and charter operators and 1,111 campuses were rated "exemplary" only because they benefited from the so-called Texas Projection Measure, which overlooks failing scores if students are predicted to pass in the future.

The Dallas school district, for example, was helped by the projection measure -- with 40 percent of 201 campuses ranked "acceptable" or higher because of the new rule, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis.

Advocates say the measure is fairer to struggling campuses and students because it gives credit for big improvements, but critics say it waters down the meaning of coveted ratings such as "exemplary" and "recognized."

State Education Commissioner Robert Scott on Friday gave full credit to the new adjustment factor in helping schools jump in the ratings, but he also noted the change was approved by both the federal government and the Texas Legislature this year. He added that the projection numbers are proving to be very accurate predictions where they've been checked out.

"I know there has been some concern [about the measure], and I share that concern," Scott said at a briefing. "It is going to help schools in their ratings. But I don't want it to help too much, and I don't want it to create a false impression of excellence when the performance is not there. We will continue to monitor the data, and if it doesn't bear out [the results], we won't use it."

Of about 1,100 North Texas schools rated "acceptable" or higher, nearly 400 got a boost from the new measure, according to an analysis by The News.

But the measure didn't keep Dallas' Spruce High School off the low-performing list.

Spruce received the state's lowest rating of "academically unacceptable" for a fifth straight year. The campus was affected by the stricter way of counting dropouts.

The Pleasant Grove school faced closure if its rating did not improve, but the state gave it permission to open this year.

DISD officials say Spruce was spared because of big gains on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test and a major restructuring of the campus last school year that allowed only incoming freshmen and graduating seniors who wished to return. Also, the completion rate is based on 2007-08 information, before the school reorganized.

DISD projected that Spruce would receive the state's second highest rating -- "recognized."

Scott said he plans to talk to the district about its plans for Spruce. He said the school would be "subject to closure" if it doesn't get off the state's low-performing list next year.

Samuell High School, which remained on the state's low-performing list for four consecutive years, became "academically acceptable."

Scott said two factors contributed to the high number of "unacceptable" campuses -- low scores on the TAKS science test and the tougher dropout standards. The number of "unacceptable" school districts jumped from 32 to 87 -- a record in the history of the Texas accountability system, according to TEA.

The commissioner gave school districts a break the past two years by delaying implementation of the new dropout standards -- based on the new federal definition of a dropout. But the reprieve was lifted this year and 48 districts dropped to "unacceptable" because of it.

"We set a very high standard on dropouts this year, but I am still not happy with a standard that only requires 75 percent of students to complete high school," he said.

The dropout rule had an impact on McKinney ISD, a suburban Collin County district used to high state ratings. McKinney High School received the "unacceptable" rating because of completion rates for Hispanic and low-income students, district officials said. McKinney school officials plan to appeal the rating.

Richardson ISD, which had predicted that all of its schools would be at least "recognized," had one school fall to "acceptable" because of the dropout rate. Lake Highlands High School fell two students short of an 85 percent graduation rate for Hispanics, Richardson schools spokesman Tim Clark said. The district also plans to appeal the rating.

In Dallas, the number of schools rated "recognized" and "exemplary" increased from 103 to 128. At the same time, the number of "academically unacceptable" schools increased slightly from 21 to 22, in large part because of the completion rate rule, the district says.

Dallas schools Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said in a news release that some ratings would be appealed, but did not name the schools. Overall, Hinojosa said, the TEA ratings "are a fairly accurate assessment" of where DISD is right now.

Staff writers Sam Hodges and Jeffrey Weiss contributed to this story.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM AREA DISTRICTS

Garland

The Garland district is celebrating its improved "recognized" status. Officials said the district was helped by the new Texas Projection Measure. And the district's high school completion rate was more than 85 percent in all schools across all student groups, so that factor did not pull the district's rating down. Overall, the district has 33 "exemplary" campuses, 20 "recognized" and 13 "academically acceptable" schools.

Karel Holloway

McKinney

The McKinney ISD plans to appeal McKinney High's rating of "unacceptable," an embarrassing turn of events for the suburban Collin County district. Superintendent Tom Crowe said the rating was due to high school completion rates for Hispanic and low-income students. But those rates, he said, are owed to a handful of coding errors by McKinney High officials as they tracked students. He said the district accepts responsibility and has put in systems to avoid more mistakes. "It is a real shame that one indicator has caused this rating," Crowe said.

Sam Hodges

Lancaster

The Lancaster school district received an unusual "unacceptable" rating because of a high dropout rate among middle school students. The district reported a 2.1 percent annual dropout rate for seventh- and eighth-graders. The state requires a rate of no more than 2 percent.

Holly K. Hacker

Carrollton-Farmers Branch

The district slid to an "academically acceptable" rating this year from a "recognized" rating the previous year. The district has flip-flopped between those two ratings for several years. The district did not meet required improvement on high school completion rates for Hispanic students.

Katherine Leal Unmuth

WHERE ARE FINAL TAKS SCORES?

Normally, the Texas Education Agency releases school-by-school TAKS scores during the summer, before school ratings come out. This year, the state's test score release has been delayed because of retesting related to the swine flu. A date for the 2008-09 results has not been set.

COMPLETING HIGH SCHOOL

Completion rates take on new meaning, as they are now figured into Texas school ratings. Here is a sampling of the area's latest district rates, which were released Friday.

District
Completion rate

Dallas
77.8

Lancaster
81.9

Irving
85.9

Texas
88

Carrollton-Farmers Branch
91.1

Garland
91.8

Richardson
93.4

McKinney
93.8

Mesquite
94.6

Lewisville
95.1

Rockwall
96.2

Frisco
96.3

Plano
97.4

Allen
97.7

Carroll
99.2

Highland Park
99.6

Note: The completion rate is the percentage of students graduating from high school in four years or continuing in high school for a fifth year.

SOURCE: Texas Education Agency

A STRICTER DEFINITION OF 'DROPOUT'

Statewide, 88 percent of the Class of 2008 graduated from high school four years after the start of their freshman year or were enrolled for a fifth year. This year, the following students are now counted as dropouts.

Those who fail the TAKS graduation test. About one in seven seniors failed the exam last year.

Those who return for a fifth year of high school, but fail to show up during the first month of the new school year. Previously, students could return any time during the fall semester.

Those enrolled in GED programs but who have not received their GED. Previously, students in GED classes were not counted as dropouts.

Resources for the Development of Natural Sciences Education

The goal of this project is to provide fully furnished learning environments for the natural sciences, which in the Macedonian curriculum include biology, chemistry, physics, geography, and mathematics. In order for students to have optimal circumstances for learning they must have access to the necessary equipment. In the natural sciences experimentation and tactile discovery are an integral part of the learning process. To this end, this project aims to supply the natural sciences teachers with necessary instruments and equipment. In addition to scientific instruments, a laptop is needed to be used in conjunction with the LCD projector that the school is providing. Teachers can then incorporate many more visual and audio materials into their lesson plans. Instead of simply reading about an experiment, students will be able to watch a video of the experiment on the projector and then conduct the experiment themselves with the equipment purchased. Natural sciences education will be made more accessible to more students who have learning styles that do not conform to the traditional textbook method.
The school is providing an LCD projector, a printer, and a photocopier to the project. Teachers will be able to use these to create supporting materials for their lessons, from supplemental handouts to assessments of what students have learned. In order to complete the project the school is requesting the funds needed to purchase classroom equipment for the natural sciences and a laptop to go along with the LCD projector.

Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’

The Obama Administration unveiled its new “Race to the Top” initiative late last week, in which it will use the lure of $4.35 billion in federal cash to induce states to improve their K-12 schools. This is going to be interesting to watch, because if nothing else the public school establishment is no longer going to be able to say that lack of money is its big problem.

Four billion dollars is a lot of money, but it’s a tiny percentage of what the U.S. spends on education. The Department of Education estimates that the U.S. as a whole spent $667 billion on K-12 education in the 2008-09 school year alone, up from $553 billion in 2006-07. The stimulus bill from earlier this year includes some $100 billion more in federal education spending—an unprecedented amount. The tragedy is that nearly all of this $100 billion is being dispensed to the states by formula, which allows school districts to continue resisting reform while risking very little in overall federal funding.

All of this is on top of the education spending boom during the Bush years to pay for the 2001 No Child Left Behind law. Democrats liked to claim that law was “underfunded,” but the reality is that inflation-adjusted Education Department elementary and secondary spending under President Bush grew to $37.9 billion from $28.3 billion, or 34%. NCLB-specific funding rose by more than 40% between 2001 and 2008.

It’s also worth noting that the U.S. has been trying without much success to spend its way to education excellence for decades. Between 1970 and 2004, per-pupil outlays more than doubled in real terms, and the federal portion of that spending nearly tripled. Yet reading scores on national standardized tests have remained relatively flat. Black and Hispanic students are doing better, but they continue to lag far behind white students in both test scores and graduation rates.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Obama

So now comes “Race to the Top,” which the Obama Administration claims will reward only those states that raise their academic standards, improve teacher quality and expand the reach of charter schools. “This competition will not be based on politics, ideology or the preferences of a particular interest group,” said President Obama on Friday. “Instead, it will be based on a simple principle—whether a state is ready to do what works. We will use the best data available to determine whether a state can meet a few key benchmarks for reform, and states that outperform the rest will be rewarded with a grant.”

Sounds great, though this White House is, at the behest of the unions, also shuttering a popular school voucher program that its own evaluation shows is improving test scores for low-income minorities in Washington, D.C. The Administration can expect more such opposition to “Race to the Top.” School choice is anathema to the nation’s two largest teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which also oppose paying teachers for performance rather than for seniority and credentials.

NEA President Dennis Van Roekel told the Washington Post last week that charter schools and merit pay raise difficult issues for his members, yet Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said states that block these reforms could jeopardize their grant eligibility. We’ll see who blinks first. The acid test is whether Messrs. Duncan and Obama are willing to withhold money from politically important states as the calendar marches toward 2012.

Race to the Top is bound to have some impact, and lawmakers in several states—including Tennessee, Rhode Island, Louisiana and Massachusetts—already have passed charter-friendly legislation in hopes of tapping the fund. But the exercise will fail if it is merely a one-off trade of cash for this or that new law. The key is whether the money can be used to promote enough school choice and other reforms that induce school districts to change how the other $800 billion or so is spent.

Charter schools and voucher programs regularly produce better educational outcomes with less money. But as long as most education spending goes to support the status quo, Race to the Top will be mostly a case of political show and tell.