President Obama is dangling $4.3 billion in stimulus money to promote charter schools, merit pay and standardized tests for evaluating teachers. He says states with laws against such evaluations won't get any money, which rules out New York and California. Even in other states, Education Secretary Arne Duncan could be up against opposition from teachers' unions, a major force in the Democratic Party. Will the prospect of all that money turn the unions around? What's the future of what the President calls "Race to the Top?"
Federal Money, Teachers' Unions and Education Reform
Credits
Guests:
- Michele McNeil - Assistant Editor, Education Week
- Marilyn Stewart - President, Chicago Teachers' Union
- Elizabeth Purvis - Executive Director, Chicago International Charter School
- Arthur Rothkopf - Department of Education's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity
- Audrey Soglin - Director of the Center for Education Innovation, Illinois Education Association