Race to the Top

Two teachers' groups support Gov. Rick Perry in opting out of the competition for additional federal stimulus money for schools.

Perry's office sent this statement: "Despite tremendous education successes, Texas’ application would be penalized by the U.S. Department of Education for refusing to commit to adopt national curriculum standards and tests and to incur ongoing costs." Read the press release here.

Both the Texas-American Federation of Teachers and the Texas Classroom Teachers Association support his decision.

Texas AFT President Linda Bridges sent a letter to Texas Commissioner Robert Scott, with the following points:

* "First, the Race to the Top rules for sanctioning schools with low test scores actually would take thestate backward."

* "The Race to the Top regulations also give unwarranted priority to school turnaround measures suchas closure of schools and dispersal of their students to other campuses and the handoff of control overstruggling schools to private or charter management."

* "The federal regulations for this grant program also would encourage the state and local schooldistricts to go down another avenue of bad policy relating to use of "value-added" methodologies forhigh-stakes employment decisions. Under these regulations, states are rewarded for basing individualteacher and principal evaluations on students’ scores on standardized state tests."

Another letter from Jeri Stone, executive director of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, included this statement:

"We think the price is far too high for Texas to pay. We do not need or want an increased emphasis on high stakes testing, the federal government dictating employment practices, essentially unchecked charter school growth, or the institutionalization of policies that are neither grounded in research nor good for Texas students and educators."