The Obama economic stimulus plan comes under a bit of fire in this bold op-ed by Checker, Mike and Rick (Hess), posted on National Review Online. They wonder whether such a package will be good for education reform and they suspect the answer will be "no." A state budget bailout (which almost surely will be part of the above-mentioned plan) may very well end up hurting school reform efforts, they write. Since states spend one-third to one-half of their funds on education, a federal infusion of cash to the states would probably translate into a lot of money for public school classrooms. This seems to be a good thing, of course. But, they point out, this kind of a bailout may very well spare administrators from making the difficult (and overdue) choices about how to make school systems more efficient and effective. Tough times often serve as a means to force leaders to identify priorities and trim fat. A federal bailout of school-system budgets would remove that opportunity, they write, and everyone will miss the chance to create leaner, more efficient schools.
