BW’s Andy Smarick and Juliet Squire take a look at state departments of education in a new Fordham paper. This is a big issue. The reality is if you re-ran the Race to the Top competition today states would still need the same consulting support they did in 2009.  While the jury is still out on the RTT competition overall, that’s clearly an area where it didn’t build durable change. And in my experience SEAs spend a lot of time on activities they are not strong on and where third party vendors can do a better and more efficient job and they don’t spend enough on core state priorities that the agencies should be leading.

In the Detroit News BW’s Chad Aldeman takes a look at how Michigan is making retirement plans worse for many teachers in the name of making them better. More on those issues at Teacherpensions.org.

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