Concerns Over President Obama's Education Initiative

The president announced "Race To The Top" grants that would allow states to apply for more than $4 billion in grants.

The AEA is not happy over some of the guidelines and wants them changed. The AEA agrees with Pres. Obama that education needs to be reformed, but does not agree on how to get there.

"We have to do everything possible to make that child successful. That is our responsibility," says Superintendent Brendley Clark of Dreamland Academy.

Clark hopes the state will qualify for "Race To The Top" federal grant money.

To be eligible, states must track student performance and link data to teacher pay.

"If a teacher has been in the classroom for ten years and students are on an ongoing basis and are not learning, then why are you paying this person?" says Clark.

Arkansas Education Association President Donna Morey disagrees with those criteria.

"Teachers should be evaluated on multiple criteria, not just one," says Morey.

The AEA also says the initiative places an unhealthy focus on the benchmarks.

"We are over testing kids and we feel like students and teachers are more than a single test score," says Morey.

Other criteria, like lifting the caps on the number of charter schools could make it harder for Arkansas to apply because state law limits the number of open enrollment charters to 24.

"We are in disagreement on emphasis on charter schools. We don't think they are the silver bullet," says Morey.

Morey wants the U.S. Department of Education to consider other guidelines for states to qualify for the "Race To The Top" grants, such as magnet schools.

"Magnet schools have worked effectively for the gains," says Morey.

Gains that would give Arkansas a better shot at federal money which would then benefit schools like Dreamland Academy.

The AEA will work with the State Department of Education in applying for this money, but since the application hasn't come out, yet, it's hard to tell what that will involve.

So far, the criteria for "Race To The op" are just proposals. The U.S. Department of Education makes them final in October.

The Arkansas Department of Education released this statement: The Arkansas Department of Education is in the beginning stages of putting together thoughts for our application for Race to the Top grants. We are definitely planning to apply and are very excited about the potential this opportunity presents, but it is too soon to be talking about what all the state's application will involve.