Obama seeks $1.35 billion more for schools to "Race to the Top"

Obama seeks $1.35 billion more for schools to "Race to the Top"

From Mark Silva, "The Baltimore Sun":http://www.baltimoresun.com/: WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama, delivering a schoolhouse pitch Tuesday for a $1.35-billion expansion of his signature educational plan, promised to "raise the bar'' for what public schools expect of students and teachers. "Nothing will make as much of a difference as the way we educate our sons and daughters,'' Obama said, after meeting with schoolchildren at an elementary school in Falls Church, Va. "The countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow, and I refuse to let that happen on my watch.'' Under the Obama administration's ""Race to the Top" program":http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html, states are competing for a share of $4.35 billion in federal funding aimed at spurring public schools to make student achievement the core of their programs. That includes potentially evaluating, and paying, teachers according to how well their students perform. [...] Obama said today that the apparent popularity of the "national competition'' is "a sign of how much states and schools believe this nation will benefit them.'' By expanding the program, the president said, "we're going to raise the bar for all our students and take bigger steps toward closing the achievement gap that denies so many students, especially blacks and Latinos, a fair shot at their dreams.'' "Continue at The Baltimore Sun":http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/do-it-yourself/sns-parenting-obama-boost-standards,0,2721932.story for the full article.