EDITORIAL: Cut red tape for right reasons
The Daily Advertiser (excerpt)

A proposed law, this one at the state level, would move Louisiana closer to the philosophy embraced by Race to the Top, the controversial local-state-federal initiative to improve the education of disadvantaged students.

Race to the Top is funded with the notorious federal stimulus money, but even aside from that, some Louisiana officials aren't sure it's the right thing to do. Some of them are asking for a time out. Others think that, as far as their nerves are concerned, Race to the Top is at grate level. When they talk about it, they use their outside voices. But if the proposal fails to accomplish its purpose, if it sinks unmourned into the vast graveyard of ineffective educational policies, it still will have left us a rare legacy.

At first glance, these waivers seem a funny way to ensure that schools will do a better job of educating low-income and minority students. Surely tougher standards, not relaxed standards, are the way to accomplish the goal here. But to keep their waivers, schools will have to show each year that they are making progress as they try to reduce the achievement gap between impoverished and affluent, and between minority and white. The message is that Race to the Top and state initiatives are merely means to an end. If you can do the job without Uncle Sam — or Uncle Barack, or Uncle Bobby — looking over your shoulder, knock yourself out.