If you're not sold that Duncan's RTTT "high high bar" wasn't so mountainous after all, here's NEA prez Dennis Van Roekel's take on the announcement:
The list of finalists is intriguing and we encourage the Department of Education to spend its money wisely by focusing its resources where collaboration with key stakeholders already exists. We have no time to waste and educators must be at the table if we are truly going to turnaround our nation's struggling schools.
Eh, at least this wasn't a full out endorsement of the sixteen choices?
But here's another thought. As Mike speculated, there's gotta be some politics at play here, and maybe that's partially why Van Roekel is "intrigued." After Obama poked the unions in the eye over the Central Falls, RI controversy, the RTTT finalist list is probably making Van Roekel feel a bit more comfortable that Duncan will sway to political pressure. That's much more troubling.
