President Barack Obama spoke at Wright Middle School in Madison last month and urged our nation to make improving K-12 education a national priority.
The president underscored the critical link between improving education and our nation's future economy. He called for our schools to push all students to achieve at higher levels.
The president also spoke about our need to raise the bar for student achievement and to close existing achievement gaps. He is offering the states $4.35 billion in competitive "Race to the Top" grants to try to spur improvement.
His call for reform comes at a critical time for our schools. Our graduates face an increasingly competitive world. The future of our state rests on our ability to prepare our students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed.
In recent years, however, the real struggle in Wisconsin has been in maintaining the quality public school system created by previous generations. Our public schools operate under a financial system that chokes reform and chips away at quality.
With so much money on the line, Race to the Top has received a lot of attention. As Wisconsin prepares its application for some of the money, it needs to keep some key points in mind.
First, if Wisconsin is successful in its bid - and some reports have us on the list of least likely states to succeed - we would only be eligible for a portion of these funds. Moreover, because these are one-time dollars, they would not be enough to fill the large gap between what is needed to maintain our schools and what is provided by the state.
The estimated one-time grant for Wisconsin would be between $150 million and $250 million. In comparison, the most recent state budget reduced the state investment in school aid from the previous two-year budget by nearly $300 million.
Also, just as Race to the Top is not a silver bullet for financial support, neither is it educational reform. True educational reform is comprehensive and has a long-term impact on the quality of education, requiring sustained effort and years of work.
Race to the Top can, however, be used as a stepping-off point for this kind of reform.
The Obama administration has highlighted four pillars of reform:
• Adopting standards and assessments that are benchmarked internationally and prepare students for success in college and the workplace.
• Recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals.
• Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve.
• Turning our lowest-performing schools around.
These are fundamental concerns that must be addressed by our state regardless of federal incentive. The Race to the Top application process should be an opportunity to make progress toward these goals.
The cornerstone of any successful long-term educational reform is a collective vision embraced by the community, educators and political leaders from both ends of the political spectrum. The call to education reform gives us an opportunity to bring stakeholders together and determine a comprehensive vision for education in Wisconsin.
The "absolute priority" is a comprehensive approach to education reform, which includes sufficient support in the education community to be successful. It takes true leadership to bring about this dialogue and help stakeholders come to a consensus on the future.
I urge the governor's office to work in partnership with the education community and others in the state to make the most of this unique opportunity.
We should see Race to the Top neither as a chance to plug financial holes nor as a "flash in the pan" education reform effort. Instead, it should be viewed as a platform for advancing a collective vision of education that captures the imagination and support of Wisconsin residents and will result in the kind of comprehensive reform Wisconsin needs.
True education reform is not a race, but a collective journey.
Underwood is the dean of the School of Education at UW-Madison.
