By Ben Wolfgang
President Obama on Monday opened up taxpayers’ checkbook for education and continued a hallmark of his presidency — working around Congress to dole out billions of dollars in grants to individual states and districts, as long as they enact the kinds of changes the administration wants to see.
But some analysts say the White House’s penchant to “throw money out there and hope it sticks on something useful” often doesn’t work, and there are signs that some of the money hasn’t fully achieved its purpose.
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Thus far, some specialists say, the approach hasn’t been an abject failure, but hasn’t been a resounding success, either.
“I think they have a mixed record, frankly. Race to the Top was a little different because instead of giving everybody a little bit of money, they insisted that individual states tell them what they would do with the money,” said Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution who specializes in the economic analysis of educational issues.
“There are other examples where they throw money out there and hope it sticks on something useful, and that almost never works,” he continued.
Race to the Top, the administration’s signature education initiative, awarded more than $4.3 billion to 19 states, each of which submitted reform plans. The Education Department also directly awarded Race to the Top grants to five individual school districts, effectively bypassing states.
The effectiveness of the program, Mr. Hanushek said, remains to be seen as many states still are implementing their plans.
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