and i quote:
“Thirty-nine other states and the District of Columbia have told the U.S. Department of Education they intend to apply for the first round of the Race to the Top funding. The $4 billion will go to those that embrace certain reform efforts such as national standards, charter schools and the use of student test scores in teachers’ job evaluations. Texas and Alaska are the only states not to join a common standards initiative. Perry’s decision to stay out of the grant contest drew praise from local teachers groups, who oppose some of the ideas promoted by the grant. State lawmakers generally split along party lines. Based on its size, Texas could have qualified for $350 million to $700 million — or $75 to $150 per student. Bill White, the former Houston mayor and a Democratic candidate for governor, said ‘To improve our schools at no cost to local property taxpayers, we need to get back the tax dollars sent by Texans to Washington.’”
endquote
apparently, the central focus of the opposition to applying for the federal grant money was that a portion of the requirements to qualify for the grant included adopting national standards in education. according to governor perry, texas has good enough standards as it is. well, let’s see here…
according to statemaster.com, a wonderful statistical tool, texas ranks #20 in % of Students Above Basic Grade 8 Math, #35 in basic grade 8 reading and science and (woot!) #16 in writing. so, yeah…. we’re doing fine. no need to get us up to any higher standards here. nope.
yeah, having national standards for education is a goverment conspiracy! it’s just another way for the government to control you!! nothing good can come of national standards!! noth-
100% literacy rate in japan
oh. well, okay, there is that.
people just absolutely drive me crazy.
way to go, guvner