Michigan Fails to Win Any of the Race to the Top Slush Money

Last month I wrote about the reasons why conservatives should oppose Obama's education policy initiative Race to the Top. A lot of people dismiss my criticisms as typical union objections and cheer anything that appears to take power away from the unions, but I wanted to make sure that people knew that there are real reasons for conservatives to actually join with labor unions in opposing Obama's education initiative.

To sum up what I wrote about last month, conservatives should oppose RTTT because it centralizes power in the federal government, the program is a corrupt give-away of taxpayer money intended to bribe states to change laws, the initiative was pushed rapidly to cope with the 'crisis' in education, the initiative attacks teachers, the initiative just throws new money at problems in education without really improving anything, and that the initiative was flawed from the start.

But, Michigan decided to rush through changes in our education system, changes that send more power to Washington, in the hopes of winning some sort of one-time only prize distributed from the 'stimulus money' slush fund that Obama runs. Teachers didn't sign on to the changes or support them, but our clueless governor and inept legislature did. And the result is that Michigan put in place these changes for nothing.

From The Detroit News:

Recent school reforms failed to win Michigan a shot at millions in federal funding Thursday, and officials must wait a month to see if more changes are needed to increase its chances. The state was one of 25 applicants that missed out on a share of $4.35 billion in the first round of Race to the Top education funding.

"This decision is not just disappointing, it is shocking," said David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Detroit Public Schools was counting on $80 million.

Michigan schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan said despite not making the cut in this first round of Race to the Top, the state will continue to implement the recently enacted education reform laws.

So, to sum up, Michigan's desperate ploy to grab a bit of stimulus money to use to jam through important changes in education by sending more control and power to Washington failed to win any money for our state... but sent more power and control to Washington and did who knows what else.