Some Strings Attached

The AP reports that the next round of education stimulus spending will have significant strings attached. Specifically, schools will be required to adhere to President Obama's imposed educational goals:

The Obama administration is ready to hand out more stimulus dollars for schools, but this time, strings are attached. ...

Now [Secretary of Education] Duncan is making it tougher to get the rest of the dollars because the administration wants states to adopt President Barack Obama's vision of reform.

States will have to fill out a far more detailed application that demands information on Obama's broad goals — tougher academic standards, better ways to recruit and keep effective teachers, a method of tracking student performance and a plan of action to turn around failing schools.

For example, states will be required to identify their lowest-achieving schools by name and tell the department how, or whether, officials have tried to turn the schools around. ...

Similar strings are attached to a separate $5 million competitive grant program in the stimulus, nicknamed the "Race to the Top" fund, that Obama was promoting in Wisconsin last week.Obama has already coaxed several states to rewrite education laws and cut deals with unions as they compete for the grants.

And states can't even apply for them yet; those applications are expected later this week.