After more than a year when the focus remained fixed on the doctor's office and the hospital room, attention switches this week to the classrooms of America. Today, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will announce the first-round winners of the Race to the Top, the $4 billion competition he set up to reward the states with the most motivated plans for improving their public schools.
When I asked Duncan last week what he hoped people would say about this extraordinary contest, he responded, so many were skeptical when we announced this a year ago as part of the stimulus package. I hope they recognize now that a very high bar has been set.
Duncan, the tall former Chicago schools chief who plays pickup basketball with the president, has been given what none of his predecessors in the Education Department ever had a giant chunk of cash, borrowed from abroad as part of the two-year, $787 billion effort to liberate the economy from subside. Fifteen of the 40 states that submitted plans were named as finalists in the Race to the Top earlier this month, along with the District of Columbia. The winners will pick up millions for their advance projects.
When I asked Duncan last week what he hoped people would say about this extraordinary contest, he responded, so many were skeptical when we announced this a year ago as part of the stimulus package. I hope they recognize now that a very high bar has been set.
Duncan, the tall former Chicago schools chief who plays pickup basketball with the president, has been given what none of his predecessors in the Education Department ever had a giant chunk of cash, borrowed from abroad as part of the two-year, $787 billion effort to liberate the economy from subside. Fifteen of the 40 states that submitted plans were named as finalists in the Race to the Top earlier this month, along with the District of Columbia. The winners will pick up millions for their advance projects.
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