Word: obamas
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...although Kline voiced concern about "federal intrusion into our schools," Mike Petrilli, vice president for programs and policy at the Thomas E. Fordham Institute, an education-reform think tank, argues that Obama's blueprint outlines a hands-off approach that would allow states to craft standards and liberate teachers from the test-heavy focus that became a hallmark of NCLB. "This should be a huge victory for many of the education groups that for years have been complaining about the onerous accountability burden coming from Washington," says Petrilli, who served in the Bush Administration's Department of Education. "I think...
...union leaders - perhaps still reeling from Obama's recent support for the decision to fire 93 teachers at a struggling school in Central Falls, R.I. - skewered the new White House plan, charging that it shifted an unfair burden onto educators. "We were expecting to see a much broader effort to truly transform public education for kids," Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement. "Instead, we see too much top-down scapegoating of teachers and not enough collaboration." The plan puts "100% of the responsibility on teachers and gives them 0% authority," says Randi Weingarten...
...unions, which have long been a key Democratic constituency, issued such scathing assessments of Obama's education-reform blueprint that even some fellow party members were mystified. "It's like they didn't read the document," says Charles Barone, director of federal policy at Democrats for Education Reform. "Apparently their definition of a partnership is that they're the bully and you're the weakling on the playground...
Observers of all political stripes seem to agree that Obama's plan is ambitious but short on specifics. For starters, it's unclear how quickly states would be able to codify collective standards for college- and career-readiness - which would most likely require new exams and curricula - and already Alaska and Texas have signaled that they don't intend to cooperate in the effort. Education-reform experts have also expressed reservations ranging from the feasibility of the plan's college-and-career-ready timeline to its ability to motivate schools that fall in the middle of the pack in terms...
...both parties brace for the House's deciding vote on health reform, they are framing the issue in starkly different ways. To Democrats, it's one last chance to make the moral argument in favor of reform, political repercussions be damned. "We need courage," said President Obama at a speech in Ohio on Monday. To Republicans, it's all about politics, specifically the possibility that House Democrats will employ a relatively rare procedural maneuver to ram through legislation they can't pass by conventional means, and in the process better position vulnerable members for fall re-election battles. These legislative...