California as the Prototype
Justin Bathon on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:20AM If you haven't noticed, California is gearing up the wheels of education reform. The Governor has even called a special session to work on reforming some laws that conflict with the Obama Administration's demands for federal "Race to the Top" dollars.
What I see happening here is that the Obama Administration intends to use California as a prototype for the kinds of education reforms that they want to push through in the coming years. The typical arguments that you hear from the federal government these days (merit pay, charters, transfers, tying performance data to evaluations) are the same kind of policies that are in the California reform package.
Of course, California also has the same kinds of teacher's union prevalent across most of the country, so how the fight plays out in California will be a precursor to how the flight will likely play out across the U.S. if the Obama Administration continues with their reform ideals. In fact, don't be surprised if the national unions begin devoting a lot of their time and resources to the California fight.
So, long story short ... keep an eye on California over the next few months because how the national debate will play out will probably reflect the California prototype.
Reader Comments (3)
I don't see why it would be California. What they want out of RttT from states like California is to get them to change their laws without actually giving them any money in the end. They'd rather pour the money into states that are further along their course like Louisiana, Florida, Colorado or whatever.
I agree Tom on your principle, but at some point they are going to want to fight the unions. I think Calif. is the beginning of that fight and a good national test case for just how difficult that fight will be.
The beauty of the RttT strategy is that they get their fight and they still don't even have to give California any money!