Obama's Education Opening

President Obama laid out his education agenda in a well-received speech this week that had him siding, in the main, with school reformers. He called for higher standards, more charter schools, merit pay, increased accountability and eliminating bad teachers. The question is whether and how Mr. Obama will back up his ambitious rhetoric.

In Washington, D.C., for example, Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is at loggerheads with the teachers union over a new contract. Ms. Rhee wants to reward teachers who improve student test scores with higher pay and fire teachers who persistently fail to meet performance benchmarks. Washington is among the nation's worst-performing school districts, and everyone agrees that an effective teacher can make all the difference.

Associated Press

Michelle Rhee.

In his speech, Mr. Obama said that good teachers should be "rewarded with more money for improved student achievement" and that states and school districts should be "taking steps to move bad teachers out of the classroom." The President added: "I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences." Does this mean that the Administration will speak up for Ms. Rhee?

The President also lamented that many states limit the number of charter schools "no matter how well they're preparing our students." In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein are attempting to persuade lawmakers to renew mayoral control of the schools. The reform has facilitated a five-fold increase in New York charter schools, notwithstanding union opposition. There are currently 23 charter schools in Harlem alone, which is more than existed in the entire system prior to mayoral control.

On a visit to New York City last month, Mr. Obama's Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, complimented Mr. Bloomberg's "extraordinary courage" in taking control of the city's schools. But in the next breath he referred to the head of the teachers union as a "strong, strong voice for reform" and someone who the Administration is eager to work with.

If nothing else, this raises questions about whether the President's commitment to reform extends beyond lip service. Will he fight for changes even when fellow Democrats and liberal interest groups resist them? Recall, too, that when Mr. Duncan recently spoke in favor of continuing a federally funded D.C. voucher program that allows poor kids to attend private schools, Democrats in Congress ignored his plea. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama remained silent and then signed a spending bill that phases out the program.

The stimulus bill throws an unprecedented $100 billion at the nation's 14,000 school districts, but it subsidizes the status quo and demands little from recipients in return. The Milwaukee school system is receiving millions of dollars for additional school construction though it has excess capacity and stagnant enrollment. Detroit Public Schools, according to a recent Detroit Free Press story, "stands to reap $530 million -- $355 million with no strings attached -- from the federal stimulus package that will hand Michigan nearly $7 billion over two or three years. . . . In all, the state and local school districts could have at least $2.5 billion to spend as they see fit." (Our emphasis.)

Detroit graduates a mere 24% of its students and has a history of corruption. Audits in 2001 and 2004 found $2.5 million missing or misspent, and the city's schools superintendent was fired in December for incompetence. How does shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars more into such a system advance Mr. Obama's reform agenda?

The President said his Education Department "will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars: It's not whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works." Voters should hold Mr. Obama to that pledge.