The $100 billion windfall headed for America’s schools as part of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan may fundamentally reshape and reform the landscape of public education for years to come -- or not.

In the new issue of Education Next, Richard Lee Colvin, Director of TC’s Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, reports on a growing rift in the Democratic Party over the nation’s education reform agenda. One side backs strong accountability through reforms such as performance pay for teachers and more support for model charter schools that practice longer school days and longer school years. The other side looks to augment the current system with more support programs such pre-kindergarten, afterschool and summer programs.

 

With a historic amount of federal funding soon to become available to districts and schools across the country, the debate among Democrats over what tack to take on reform could soon become even more contentious, forcing President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan off a policy tightrope they have managed to walk on until now.

 

Colvin’s article, “Straddling the Democratic Divide,” reveals the back story behind the battle in the party for control of the agenda for America’s schools and the challenge its poses for the Obama administration.

 

To read the article, go to the Education Next Web site at http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/Straddling_the_Democratic_Divide.html.