Race to the Top 2010

Race to the Top is a program receiving support under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This program will provide extra funding to states to create assessments for students to get them prepared for college and acquire the proper education in highschool. These will be standardized tests that will make sure students have gained the proper knowledge to succeed in college and after college.

This program was authorized April 6, 2010 and states were urged to apply for this extra funding. [click here for detailed information]

The New York Times covered this act in detail here. This act provides substantial financing for various states and the NYT offers an unbiased report and detailed outline of the program. However, after the winners were announced, the coverage shifted from unbiased to slightly suspicious.  This article concentrated not only on the winners, but the fact that the states awarded these grants were all on the east coast. The article goes beyond mere facts and goes a step further to arouse suspicion in the selection process.

Other sources that covered this act and the announcement of the winners were ABC News,  Politico,  and a few blogs including ‘FrumForum’ and ‘Examiner National.’

Liza Weidle, with Examiner National, covered the story with a positive tone, portraying the grants as a great addition to the economy and using quotes from prestigious people in education from the winning states. These quotes were all positive and thankful, and each showed their appreciation and excitement for the awarded grants. She wrote the story with the intent to show that these grants were the right thing to do for the country.

On the other hand, FrumForum covered the issue in a much less biased manner. The text remained unmoved, simply presenting the facts as they were, with the winning states and how much each was rewarded. FrumForum did not provide commentary on whether this act was positive or negative.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

February 17, 2009 marks a momentous day for public schools and education in our nation. President Obama signed The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. (ARRA)
With Americans in a slump about the state of the economy, President Obama enacted the ARRA to hopefully rejuvenate the economy and cradle the fragile jobs of citizens in the education field. As the act touches upon a multitude of subjects, such as energy independence, the national infrastructure, health care, and tax relief, it also has an important section on education.

The U.S. Dept of Education was given $100 billion to administer in the form of grants to all states, including Washington D.C., that have educational needs, such as loss of teachers’ jobs due to budget deficits, and a financial “income” for the states that are in need.
[Click here for the full report and the monetary distributions to each state]

In May of 2010, in addition to the money being reported to educational sectors in the United States, Education Secretary Arne Duncan requested that an emergency fund also be implemented to save the jobs of 300,000 teachers nationwide.

With this subject, the media is not quick to report financial information, for the fear of readers and viewers quickly tuning-out at the sight of numbers. One outlet that did report on this plan, however, was Fox News.com

FoxNews.com offers an in-depth description of the type of funding that was provided, and comments from government employees on the supposed effectiveness of the plans. The article features a negative take on it’s effectiveness, saying that the proposed plan has NOT in fact shown to be successful.

Although the act was implemented over a year ago, the states mentioned above are now reaping the benefits that were promised them under this Act and under the emergency supplement. Tennessee’s government page reports on their award of $67.8 million in a seemingly unbiased position. They offer no commentary on the effect the supplemental money will have on the state; rather they offer the facts as presented and distributed them.

This topic is generating billions of dollars and being allocated to a huge part of the nation’s success (education). The fact that this is not being covered by the media as a central topic is surprising. A lot of the jargon and numbers used it outlines and reports might have an effect on a reporter’s willingness to cover the topic.