The New York Times reported that today President Obama joined Colin Powell to announce to the Chamber of Commerce a plan to combat droupout rates. His plan seems to fall in line with the Republican organization he was addressing. Here is the description, quoted from the Times.
"In his budget presented to Congress for the 2011 fiscal year, Mr. Obama proposed creating a system to improve how states evaluate the success or failure of schools. For the first time, the administration will ask states to identify the schools that perform the worst and have graduation rates of 60 percent. To qualify for the School Turnaround Grants, the school districts would need to agree to a series of criteria, including: firing the principal and at least half the staff; reopening as a charter school; close the school all together and transfer students to better schools in the district."
My concerns reading this this are that teachers are being blamed for conditions they have no control over. I am concerned that this is another attack on the teachers' unions, after the latest school funding guidelines requiring teacher evaluations to be tied to classroom performance on standardized tests. I don't see how these policies will encourage people to teach in schools that have low income populations and slow learners. It also punishes principals who may be qualified, but who don't have the school funding to accomplish their goals. This appears to be another step in the direction of appeasing Republican demands.