Throwing good money after bad

Other than Mark Richt NOT firing his defensive coordinator and receivers coach at Georgia, this is the stupidest idea I've heard all week...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is handing out money for teachers who raise student test scores, the first federal effort to reward classroom performance with bonuses.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings planned to announce the first of 16 grants, worth $42 million, including $5.5 million for Ohio, on Monday. The government has not announced the other grant winners.
Using the old-fashioned incentive of cash, President Bush's program encourages schools to set up pay scales that reward some teachers and principals more than others. Those rewards are to be based mainly on test scores, but also on classroom evaluations during the year.

This dumb scheme designed to make the Republicans appeal to the soccer-mom vote will do nothing to encourage teachers to teach. It will encourage teachers to give out the answers to the standardized tests. This is just a continuation of No Child Left Behind. Testing isn't the most important thing in childhood education, learning is.

Let schools compete for education tax dollars and I guarantee you actual learning will take place because parents will be the judges, not some soulless educrat in Washington writing politically correct standardized tests.