Obama offers ‘Race to the Top’ school fund

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dangling the promise of $5 billion in grants, President Barack Obama pressured states to embrace his ideas for overhauling the nation’s schools, ideas that include performance pay for teachers and charter schools.

To get the money, state officials may have to do things they, or the teachers’ unions, dislike. But in a recession that is starving state budgets, the new “Race to the Top” fund is proving impossible for some states to resist.

Already, seven states — Tennessee, Rhode Island, Indiana, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Colorado and Illinois — have lifted restrictions on charter schools so they can compete for the money.

“Not every state will win, and not every school district will be happy with the results,” the president said Friday. “But America’s children, America’s economy, America itself will be better for it.”

Broadly speaking, the president wants states to do four things he considers to be reforms: toughen academic standards, find better ways to recruit and keep effective teachers, track student performance and have a plan of action to turn around failing schools.