Education: Race to the top

Democrats for Education Reform comments on the education component of the stimulus:

To be blunt, the reality of state-level education politics in many states is such that there is tremendous pressure to pass legislation which assures a firewall-like separation between teachers and student performance. In New York (as well as other states such as California and Wisconsin) such legislation has been passed with very little opposition – making it now illegal to base teacher tenure decisions on student achievement. If this nation is to live up to its obligation to bring our education systems into the 21st Century, this type of progress-killing legislation should instantly disqualify a state from even being considered for ―"Race to the Top" funding..