SAN FRANCISCO — Although the Obama administration’s $4 billion Race to the Top initiative to reform public schools continues to weather criticism, there are no plans to suspend or slow down the signature program, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Tuesday.
Duncan addressed participants of the annual American Educational Research Association conference. At times, his remarks drew boisterous applause from a standing room-only crowd; at other times, boos and groans.
An educator who described himself as a former teacher, principal and superintendent told Duncan he has spoken to colleagues and peers throughout New York, one of the states that secured Race to the Top funding.
“Do you get out of the office much?” he asked Duncan. “Do you know what Race to the Top is? Despite the rhetoric from your office, [the program] is marginalizing and suffocating educators.”
The man said Race to the Top has dissolved “the joy of education,” as several rows of seated audience members rose and clapped loud enough to drown his voice.
Eventually, the man suggested Duncan relieve the stressed-out educators by issuing a moratorium on Race to the Top. He identified himself only as sharing the same first name as Duncan, adding that Race to the Top “is ‘No Child Left Behind’ on steroids,” referring to the 2001 law that supports standards-based education reform.
