DC's Impact on Education

The first article I found this week was "Does Money Lead to Real Reforms? This article focused on what Arne Duncan has stated in the past about stimulus money going to individual states and how he hopes it will be spent. It repeated the fact that Duncan wants to use the economic stimulus aid for education to accelerate improvement in schools. The article was quoted as stating:

To keep states that want more federal funds on the school reform path, Duncan attached some conditions to the stimulus money released earlier this month. He even asked governors for data that could potentially embarrass them.

Duncan wants governors to pass over information that could show that few schools districts in the country use student achievement to evaluate teacher performance and that most teachers, even the least effective, are given great evaluations. Hopefully this information will all for better reform in school districts if they are held accountable by the federal government. The article even mentioned that Duncan could use the information to shame states with poor records into actual reform. However, there were others quoted within the article as believing that Duncan and the Education Department would have to demand more and more from the states in order for them not to manipulate the system by changing their data.

I believe that Duncan is doing a lot to ensure that the states spend the money that they receive from the stimulus package wisely. I hope that he can make sure that the schools that receive extra benefits, such as the $5 billion special fund for reform, do actually deserve this money more than other schools in our nation. However, I believe that with his background, that he will be smart with his decisions and has the opportunity to bring about a lot of change.

In an article entitled, "Unemployed Seek Training for 'Green Collar' Jobs", describes the story of many community college students enrolling in courses which offer training for jobs for "green-collar" jobs. This large surge of students are learning how to install solar panels, repair wind turbines, produce bio fuels and do other work related to renewable energy. To meet the growing demand of courses in this line of work, two-year colleges are expanding or launching green job training with money from the federal stimulus package. The stimulus package set aside tens of billions of dollars to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. According to the article, this will also create thousands of jobs retrofitting government buildings and public housing to make them more energy-efficient. Although the green energy industry has not been able to avoid cutting back during this recession, there is hope that once the economy rebounds there will be a strong demand for green-collar workers.

Personally, I hope that this will allow Obama's campaign for alternative energy to create millions of jobs that do not require a four-year degree. This could be great for our future economy and for the millions who cannot afford to attend a four-year university in our current economic situation.

The last article that I found about Washington's impact on schools was about D.C. schools in particular. In "White House Reaches Out to DC's Troubled Schools", the article lists the many things that the White House and especially First Lady Michelle Obama have done in order to make the White House more public to students within Washington. The article states that not only did the First Lady invite dozens of high-achieving local girls to the White House for a pep talk from herself and 21 other accomplished women, but that since Obama took the presidency on January 20, DC students have been invited to break ground for a new vegetable garden, celebrate Black History month, and received tickets to the Easter Egg Roll.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the White House is reaching out to support the efforts of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and schools superintendent Michelle Rhee, who are taking aggressive steps to turn around Washington's struggling schools.

This article was intriguing to me because having visited some DC schools and hearing about the rest, I was astounded that a city's school system located within our nation's capitol which works so hard for educational reform, could produce such low student achievement. I am very happy to see that the President and his wife are working towards supporting the work of the new superintendent and the mayor who worked hard to be able to fire the old superintendent. This district is an example of won of the worst in the nation and it is uplifting to see the government take notice of the reform that is occurring there.