Crist leads lobbying trek to Washington to seek $1 billion for Florida schools (WTH??)

Florida's education team, led by Gov. Charlie Crist, will make its pitch Tuesday in Washington for why the state should get a whopping $1 billion piece of a $4 billion federal grant intended to reward states for pursuing aggressive school reform.

Of the finalists in the Race to the Top program, Florida is asking for the most money.

"I am confident our past and present progress in increasing student achievement and school accountability will present a very persuasive case for Florida's success," Crist said in a statement released before the trip.

Florida is competing against 14 other states and the District of Columbia. Five-member delegations will give 30-minute presentations this week followed by an hour of questions from federal education officials.

Most of the delegations will walk away empty handed: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said the government will give out about $2 billion during the first round of the program, most likely to a handful of applicants.

This is what the GOP has become? Charlie Loafers in Florida begging for a billion more in FL school funding. His twin sister Slick Perry in Texas - while trying to sound like a Tea Partier - using billions in Obama $$ to fill his budget gaps. Arnold in CA begging for another cool 15 bil.

PATHETIC.

I always wonder, what does all this money buy?

It certainly doesn’t improve education, people were better educated in reading, writing and arithmetic when there was only a one room school house with a blackboard.

Heck, President Lincoln is said to have only had 18mos of formal education....

Being born on a farm in rural Hardin, Kentucky didn’t inhibit Abraham Lincoln. Working on his father’s farm and digesting all the literature he could in his spare time, Lincoln’s self-taught education was probably better than anything he would have received at school.

Lincoln had to work twice as hard as someone from a wealthy or well-connected family to attain his post as a lawyer in Illinois, and later as a congressman for the state. Without a formal education behind him, his oratory skills and debates won him national recognition. In his debate with Stephen Douglas in 1858, he won the backing of the Republican Party and a nomination for president. With a drive that knew no limit, he began his crusade to become the first Republican President of the United States.
http://www.biographyshelf.com/abraham_lincoln_biography.html

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