The state recently approved a variety of changes to education laws in Michigan to qualify for up to 400-million dollars in extra school funding through the Obama Administration's Race to the Top program, although it's not yet clear exactly what effect those reforms will have on local districts. Benton Harbor Superintendent Carole Schmidt says that she'll be interested to see how it all shakes out:
Although she doesn't know what the reforms will do to Benton Harbor, Schmidt thinks they will affect schools everywhere in one way or another:
Among other things, the new laws raise the drop-out age to 18 from 16, and allow the state to take over the bottom five percent of school districts. However, officials at the Michigan Department of Education told us this week that a formula still hasn't been worked out for determining what that means. A process for naming the bottom five percent is considered a "work in progress" at this point, and it's not known whether Michigan will actually be awarded any of those race to the Top dollars.
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