Stimulus to Help Retool Education, Duncan Says

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Stimulus to Help Retool Education, Duncan Says

Stimulus funds will be used to encourage states to expand school days, reward good teachers, fire bad ones and measure U.S. student performance against that of others, Education Secretary Arne Duncan says.

By Bill Turque and Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 5, 2009; Page A09


To help struggling schools, the federal government will use stimulus funding to encourage states to expand school days, reward good teachers, fire bad ones and measure how students perform compared with peers in India and China, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday.

History has shown that money alone does not drive school improvement, Duncan said, pointing to the District of Columbia, where public school students consistently score near the bottom on national reading and math tests even though the school system spends more per pupil than its suburban counterparts do.

"D.C. has had more money than God for a long time, but the outcomes are still disastrous," Duncan said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters. He said the unprecedented influx of cash, which will begin to flow in the next 30 to 45 days, would target states, local school systems and nonprofit organizations willing to adopt policies that have been proven to work.

"The challenge isn't an intellectual one, it's one of political courage," said Duncan, who developed a reputation for a willingness to experiment and disrupt the status quo in seven years as chief executive of Chicago schools.

The stimulus law, which will channel about $100 billion to public schools, universities and early childhood education programs nationwide, will help prevent teacher layoffs, overhaul aging schools and educate low-income children. But it also gives Duncan unusual power to shape change.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/04/AR2009030403523.html