California and Race To The Top

The following was posted on an emaillist of which I am a member, and I've received permission from the author to repost it here:

State Democrats need to take some of the blame for pushing through acceptance of RTTT in California. Pressure on unions is a good thing, but it's hard to see what we gained by agreeing to drop the standards. We got no money from RTTT, and now the administration is going to be lucky to get $500 million for the next round (down from $4 billion) from the incoming Congress. That's $500 million for the whole country. That means Ca. will never get a dime for dropping the standards and committing to writing new ones, along with paying for new textbooks and staff development. Brown should act quickly to extricate the state from RTTT. If he doesn't, it means textbook companies, test writers and research institutes looking for a killing are prominent among his advisers, although it's hard to see what sources could fund their windfall.

I supported the goals of No Child Left Behind--still do--but to be honest, I'm still fuzzy on the major components of RttT. Oh, and for those of you who were sure that the purpose of NCLB was to end public education--why, after 4 years of Democratic control of the Congress and 2 years of Democratic control of both the Congress and the White House, is NCLB still the law of the land? Could it be that your extremist viewpoints have been shown to be not so realistic? I'll accept your admission of wrongitude now.