History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
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Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Obama has long way to go on education reform
- 01-31-2011
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Opinion by Pedro Noguera/CNN
Pedro Noguera is a professor at New York University and director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education.
President Obama should be applauded for keeping education at the top of the nation's policy agenda at a time when so many other important issues -- the ongoing recession, two wars, health care, etc. -- demand his attention. He was right to urge parents to do their part to reinforce the importance of education with their children, and he is to be commended for recognizing the important role of teachers who so often are blamed for the failings of our nation's schools. But Obama should be less boastful and more circumspect in describing what his administration has accomplished in education. When he declared that Race to the Top was "the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation," he clearly went a bit too far. First of all, only a dozen states received funding under this initiative, and there is evidence that rural states and states that lacked the resources to put together applications that met the federal government's requirements -- and in time for the deadline -- were at a disadvantage. (more...)
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