This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, August 17th, 2009. I'm Caleb Brown.

Four billion dollars in stimulus funds are in the hands of the Secretary of Education to fund

competitive grants among states to push for improved educational outcomes for kids.

Neil McCluskey, Associate Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom,

says the best lobbyists are in Washington, and that means whatever is intended by the

race to the top fund won't come out in the legislative wash.

The rest of the top fund is $4.35 billion that is under the discretion, the use is under the discretion that the Secretary of Education, it came through the stimulus.

So out of about a hundred billion dollars in the stimulus for education,

this is 4.35 billion that the Secretary of Education can use however he sees fit and the at least the the line he's using is that he's going to use it to encourage states to race standards and do good things.

Incentivize state education systems to do good things.

What is, how does the Secretary of Education interpret that?

Well, since the stimulus passed, they've basically been focusing on just a few things that they say they're

going to require states to do, or at least

encourage states to do, because if you read the draft regulations, it's very

questionable what is required, what's just encouraged, but what they're going to encourage states to do is

first and foremost have a longitudinal data system that tracks how students are doing

and that a state could conceivably evaluate teachers on or used to evaluate teachers.

So have some data system where you could say, well, a student learned X amount under Mrs. Y and include that

and how that teachers evaluate it. They also though want to want to encourage

states to raise caps on charter schools and to do a few other things.

And most importantly, depending on where you sit, also to encourage states to sign on to the Common Core State Standards Initiative,

which is a National Standards Initiative.

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