Administration Plans $5-Billion Grant Fund to Improve Teaching
February 15, 2012 | Read Time: 1 minute
The White House wants to create a $5-billion grant program to encourage states to overhaul the ways they pay, train, and retain teachers, reports The New York Times.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan was set to formally unveil the Respect (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching) Project at a meeting with teachers in Washington on Wednesday. The plan is included in the president’s new budget proposal and will require Congressional approval.
Similar in structure to the administration’s Race to the Top effort in schools, Respect would fund innovative state-level programs in areas such as tenure, salaries, and professional development. Federal officials said the goal of the project is to involve teachers in designing ways to make the teaching profession more attractive to a new generation of educators.
The effort is supported by Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union. “It incorporates what we believe is necessary to transform the system,” he said.
