Obama Backs Rewarding Districts That Police Failing Schools

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that he favored federal rewards for local school districts that fire underperforming teachers and close failing schools, saying educators needed to be held accountable when they failed to fix chronically troubled classrooms and curb the student dropout rate.

The president outlined his proposal to offer $900 million in federal grants, which would be made available to states and school districts willing to take aggressive steps to turn around struggling institutions or close them.

The president’s proposal, which was included in his 2011 budget request to Congress, is his latest criticism of America’s failing public schools. In a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Obama said federal aid would be available for the districts that are home to the 2,000 schools that produce more than half of the nation’s dropouts.

He spoke alongside former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma, who lead America’s Promise Alliance, an advocacy group dedicated to combating the school dropout rate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/us/02obama.html?th&emc=th

[Hannah Bell]

1. Powell's bullshit foundation: funded by the usual suspects:

America's Promise Alliance

Our Donors

Thank you to our investors who have made a gift of $10,000 or more to America’s Promise Alliance.

Corporations/Associations

AdvancePath Academics
American Express Company
AT&T Foundation
Bank of America Foundation
Boeing
Business Roundtable
Capital One
Chevron
The Coca-Cola Company
FedEx
Fidelity Investments
Ford Motor Company Fund
General Mills Foundation
GlaxoSmithKline
Goldman Sachs Foundation
ING Foundation
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Lockheed Martin
M.I.C. Industries
National Association of Chain Drug Stores
National Restaurant Association
Pearson Foundation
Saks Fifth Avenue
Southern Company
Staples
State Farm Companies Foundation
Target
Wal-Mart Foundation
WE tv


Foundations

Annenberg Foundation
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Atlantic Philanthropies
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Bounce Network
Buffet Early Childhood Fund
Eli & Ethel Broad Foundation
Emerald Foundation
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Case Foundation
Casey Family Programs
Claire Giannini Fund
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
David & Lucile Packard Foundation
Foundation for Child Development
Gordon and Llura Gund Foundation
Greater Milwaukee Foundation
J.P. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation
J. Willard & Alice S. Marriott Foundation
Joyce Foundation
MCJ Foundation
Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Pew Charitable Trust
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
Voice for America’s Children
W.K. Kellogg Foundation


Individuals

Anderson Charitable Fund
Michael Ansari
James and Donna Barksdale
Katherine Bradley
Eli Broad
G. Staley & Elizabeth Cates
Eugene and Ruth Freedman Family
Diane & Guilford Glazer
C. Boyden Gray
Charles and Ann Johnson
Thomas Kean
William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust
Patricia Kluge
Marlene Malek
Martin J. Marrion
Bonnie McElveen-Hunter
Steven Miller
Peter O’Malley
Donald & Catie Marron
John Murray
C. Gregg Petersmeyer
Deborah Quazzo
Robert & Harley Raiff
Jin Roy Ryu
Stephen & Karin Sadove
Ron Sargent
Simon Foundation for Education
Robert & Gillian Steel

http://www.americaspromise.org/About-the-Alliance/Our-Donors.aspx

[Catshrink]

2. That's right, Obama.

Hold teachers responsible for povery, inequitable distribution of resources. Hell, why not just blame them for cancer and global warming while your at it? It makes about as much sense.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. It's time to fire the president

He has failed to fix

the economy

health care

the war

[tonysam]

4. I've come to that conclusion he is hopeless.

Yet you will have people who are willing to walk through the looking glass and say he is a progressive and a liberal and a Democrat for destroying public education.

After all, you have people claiming Ted Kennedy was the one who invented NCLB and ignoring the timing of its passage (9/11 and the "need" for bipartisanship), which is the ONLY reason that piece of shit legislation passed easily through Congress.

[FBaggins]

5. It's a big club to join... we'll get t-shirts

I worry that the pain the party must go through in order to learn this lesson is more than we can stand... but I honestly don't know what the alternative is.