The states of Delaware and Tennessee have convinced the Obama administration their plans for a public school system overhaul are innovative, and will be rewarded a combined prize worth $600 millions. The White House announced its "Race to the Top" competition in January, promising federal grant money to those states that show "exemplary progress in areas that President Obama considers crucial to education reform." The winning innovations? Delaware will receive $100,000,000 for eliminating those teachers who have been rated "ineffective" for three years, and Tennessee will get $500,000,000 after passing a law that allows the state to intervene in its own failing schools. It should be noted that these are only some of the proposed innovations, which were apparently more promising than those submitted by 38 other states.
Meanwhile, out in the Pacific, Hawaii has determined its education funding necessitates a four-day school week. Teachers will work the same amount of hours in what officials are dourly calling "Furlough Fridays," but cafeteria employees and bus drivers will see their pay decrease by--that's right--twenty percent. The Department of Education responds: "Generally, we are concerned about financial constraints leading to a reduction in learning time." Hawaii joins seventeen others states that have also resorted to the four-day plan.
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