SOTU: is Race to the Top mainly privatization or a good strategy to fund Pre K?

[Chiquitita]

It seems the President is using Race to the Top to try to channel some money to early childhood education while keeping privatizers happy by letting them get the rest of it for their tests and assessment systems. Maybe it's worth it?

From his speech:

"I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need."

On the other hand, as a supporter of public K-12 teachers I still felt very dissatisfied with this next part because there is something here that just isn't true:

"Race to the Top, with the help of governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance. Teachers and principals in schools from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. are making big strides in preparing students with skills for the new economy – problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering, and math. Some of this change is hard. It requires everything from more challenging curriculums and more demanding parents to better support for teachers and new ways to measure how well our kids think, not how well they can fill in a bubble on a test. But it’s worth it – and it’s working."

There isn't anything in Race to the Top that supports teachers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/28/obama-on-education-in-sotu-text/