Reason Magazine: Katherine Mangu-Ward- 'Federal Education Policy with Former Assistant Secretary of Education Bill Evers'

Source:Reason Magazine- interviewing former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, Bill Evers.

"Does the Obama Administration want to create a national education policy akin to France's Ministry of Education?  According to Bill Evers, Former US Assistant Secretary of Education and current Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, that is exactly what they are attempting to do.

Evers sat down with Reason Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward to discuss current federal education policy, the role of the Department of Education, and synonyms for "school vouchers."

From Reason Magazine

This idea that the Obama Administration, President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants the Federal Government to take over the public education system in America, is bogus. (To be nice)

What President Obama and Secretary Duncan want to do at the Federal level is set up a system where all public educators are judged by the job that they are doing. Not by how long they've been doing them.

Be able to pay good educators more and low-performing less or eliminate them.

Provide as much public school choice as possible including charter schools, so students aren't forced going to bad schools just because of where they live. But there parents would be able to decide for themselves where to send their kids to school.

And the President and the Department of Education wants to help (not force States and Localities) set up this type of education system along with what they are already doing in education reform.

Not even Republicans in Congress or Republican presidential candidates, are arguing that the U.S. Education Department wants to take over public education in America. No serious person on education reform believes that. That would be a 2T$ monster that you would be leaving the Federal Government in charge of of public education. And we all know the Federal Government doesn't have a good record in managing large budgets, just look at their own. This country is just too damn big for that, 310M people spread out over 3000 miles long and that just Mainland America and 2000 miles wide. What the Education Department wants to do is set up a system of choice and teacher standards. Where teachers are not only qualified to teach the subjects they teach but are required to do a good job teaching them in order to keep their jobs. But they wouldn't be fired, hired, demoted or promoted by USED. Local government's would still do that.

The Education Department would just like to see a education system like this in place. What they want to do is build on what No Child Left Behind attempted to do back in 2002, but with less regulations and mandates and more resources and a broader vision of education reform. Education reform shouldn't be about mandates, regulations and control especially not Federal control. But it should be about choice, merit pay and making sure that all of our public schools have enough resources to do a good job instead of getting resources whether they have enough or not based on the community where they are in. With wealthy and middle class communities have plenty and low- income communities barely survive. Every President has their own owns ideas when it comes to education reform and send them to Congress, as well as the states and localities. Doesn't mean they want to force everyone to run education based on what they think should be done. But instead give school districts and states more option and resources to educate their students. President Obama is no different.