Comments on: Marcus: RttT Is No Kabuki

By: The Left, Pro-Educational Choice? « NAS Blog

The Left, Pro-Educational Choice? « NAS Blog — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:25:24 +0000

[...] Obama administration’s pro-charter rhetoric has been more than just talk. Charter caps are being lifted because the administration really does support [...]

By: Jay P. Greene

Jay P. Greene — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:44:46 +0000

I tend to agree with you Greg, but the danger that RttT or other federal reward for reform strategies will reward negative reforms should not be minimized. It already looks like RttT may be used as a backdoor way to get bad national standards.

By: Greg Forster

Greg Forster — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:23:26 +0000

That's not an argument against RttT, it's just an argument that RttT isn't as good as it was originally advertised as being. But what political program ever ends up being as good as it was originally advertised as being? Some of the extravagent things voucher supporters promised in the early 1990s came back to haunt them after the policy went through the sausage grinder of legislative and bureaucratic implementation and came out a lot less robust than it had been in conception. That doesn't mean vouchers haven't been a good policy! It just means they've been implemented gradually. I seem to recall a certain blogger around these parts likes to talk about gradualism being a good thing. The important question is not whether the support for lifting charter caps or funding charters equally has been watered down. The important question is whether even one (1) state actually lifts its charter cap or funds charters equally because of RttT. It's looking like that's going to be a yes. If so, RttT will have been a good thing, at least as regards charters. If it does damage in the area of standards, as also looks plausible, then it will be another question whether RttT as a whole did more harm than good. And Andy Smarick's point about the danger of Trojan Horse applications is well taken. But if we're in the realm of weighing its good influence on charters against its bad influence in other areas, we've already conceded the point that whatever RttT is, it isn't kabuki.

By: Jay P. Greene

Jay P. Greene — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:20:37 +0000

While I do appreciate the rhetorical support for charter schools, merit pay, etc… in RttT, I am alarmed by how diluted those goals have been in the actual implementation. We went from the Administration declaring that states had to lift their charter cap to get a slice of RttT funds, to lifting the cap would be one of the criteria for allocating RttT funds, to one of the criteria will reward lifting the cap or the development of other innovative schools (without clear definition).

I fear that RttT will ultimately disappoint reformers.