According to research from Missouri Education Watchdog, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) agreed to surrender Missouri’s education voice under Obama’s “Race to the Top” scheme. Race to the Top was a contest in which states agreed to let the federal Department of Education, via two puppet organizations, run all of the state’s education systems. In exchange, some states were awarded money, but others were not.
Chris Nicastro, chief rock in the DESE box, applied for the grant. To increase her chances of “winning,” Nicastro agreed to surrender control of our schools even if Missouri failed to win a grant.
Missouri failed to win the grant. Surprise!
How do we regain control? It won’t be easy. We’ll need the Missouri legislature to pass a law, then we’ll need permission from the US Department of Education. Arne Duncan won’t grant that waiver, so we’ll need to elect Mitt Romney and hope he appoints an Education Secretary who believes in local governance and state sovereignty.
Let’s get started. Ask your State Rep, State Senator, and incoming Speaker of the House, Tim Jones, to make it their top priority getting restoring local–or at least state–control of Missouri’s schools. Ask Attorney General Koster and incoming Attorney General Ed Martin to investigate Chris Nicastro’s abuse of her office.
And even before all of that, check out this fantastic presentation from Missouri Education Watchdog.
Missouri Education Watchdog – State of Education in Missouri
Related articles
* [Missouri school districts could struggle with new evaluations](https://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/22/3671707/missouri-school-districts-could.html) (kansascity.com)