Where Walker & WEAC Agree

If I told you one of Wisconsin's political power players recently acted in such a way that our state missed out on millions of federal grant dollars and claimed that part of the reason was that there too many "strings attached" to the money, who would come to mind?

If you said Scott Walker, you'd be wrong.

Teachers unions often resist school reforms - JSOnline (my italics)

With its Race to the Top competition, the federal government dangled the prospect of a share of $4.35 billion for those states ready to enact reforms, especially related to improving teacher and principal performance.

Eyes on that prize, states launched plans tying teacher pay and promotions to student achievement, giving state officials more control over local schools and overhauling data tracking and assessment systems.

Then the game got tricky: Teachers unions had to be on board.

In the end, only 11 states and the District of Columbia ended up with money from the program this year. Wisconsin got nothing.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council had helped kill or watered down critical parts of the state's proposal, with the president of the teachers union attaching a letter to the application that one participant described as "grudging." In the end, only 12% of the union's local leaders endorsed a plan that might have brought in more than $250 million in school funding to Wisconsin.

So Scott Walker continues to be vilified for his part in stopping the high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison and the federal government's decision to take back the $810 million that Wisconsin was going to get for the project.

Maybe I missed it, but I can't seem to recall the same level of outrage over WEAC's role in Wisconsin's failed bid for Race to the Top money.