Obama Administration Must Embrace Real Education Reform, Not Just Rhetoric

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In response to President Barack
Obama's remarks today on his Administration's education reform initiatives and
Race to the Top competition, Center for Education Reform president Jeanne
Allen released the following statement:

Today, President Obama championed his administration's education reform
initiatives in a Wisconsin speech, focusing on states that he claims are
leading the charge for education reform.

The Obama Administration has jumped on board the charter school bandwagon and,
in doing so, is telling states they must do better and create or fix laws in
order to compete for their share of $4.3 billion in federal "Race to the Top"
funds.

As admirable as the Obama administration's policy on charters may appear to
be, the President and his Education Secretary are, too often, giving states
credit for talking about charter schools rather than actually changing laws to
improve the likelihood that children will have real school choice.

For example, Education Secretary Arne Duncan's description of reforms in
Tennessee, Rhode Island, Indiana, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Illinois has
been misleading. While the Secretary has said that 'numerous states have
adopted reforms that would have been almost unthinkable a year ago,' this is
simply not the case.

No state cited in this popular mythology has revoked limits on the number of
charters allowed to open this year. Several, in fact, merely fulfilled
budgetary promises of charter funding after having first wiped them off the
books.

In reality, most of the nation's 40 charter laws will need dramatic
legislative changes to develop robust charter laws that actually allow for the
growth of the types of schools both President Obama and Secretary Duncan
routinely credit with raising academic achievement and turning around
students' lives.

We want to see states get bold and adopt strong charter laws - which everyone
knows how to do, but often aren't courageous enough to buck the status quo,
the unions, and even continued ignorance of what precisely a charter school
is. But that isn't happening.

For President Obama and his Education Secretary to claim victory before "Race"
participants have even reached the starting gate is disappointing.

It is time that President Obama and Secretary Duncan stop championing half
measures and start demanding real results and bold changes in state laws.

The Center for Education Reform drives the creation of better educational
opportunities for all children. CER changes laws, minds and cultures to allow
good schools to flourish.

SOURCE Center for Education Reform

Jonathan Oglesby of the Center for Education Reform, +1-800-521-2118,
jonathan@edreform.com