Icet: No Race to the Top Appropriations

Reader Comments (5)

We appreciate your willingness to stand firm on your principles regarding local control and sovereignty. I hope the rest of our legislators are willing to stand with you. Thanks for all you do for Missouri!

Excellent news. I've been reading through the RTTT documents also, and can verify everything Gretchen wrote in her article, and more. Thank you Gretchen for bringing attention to the dangers of this program, and Rep. Icet for recognizing it. Van Harvey

I want to thank Representative Icet for doing the right thing by not funding the governors request for RTTT. Icet has been a real asset to Missouri as Chairman of the House Budget Committee. This program would not only present a budgetary nightmare for Missouri, over time, but would also present a huge federal usurpation of power, violating our states sovereignty and selling out, our children. Thank God for the men and women, like Allen Icet, in our state legislature willing to stand up and do the right thing, whether or not it is the popular thing.

I too have researched this Race to the Top and currently working to stop further government take over of which this program also allows health care options to come into the schools for the children. It reaches out to the social groups in area --mental health, welfare, planned parenthood--and involves them with the children. This is not a mini-country for the Federal Government to step in and rule. The State Education department should be ordered to back off the government involvement and get back to teaching reading, writing and arithmetic so that our kids can read when they get out and look for a job. College degrees are a dime a dozen and many are working in McDonalds or WalMart. I am thankful that elected officials such as Rep Allen Icet has seen fit to stand up and say NO. Just one more big entitlement program but this time it is the state and our kids are thrown in for good measure. NO to Race to the Top funding.

Dear Mr. Icet: As the author of "Race to the Takeover", I thank you for your attention to this matter. This mandate will not help in educating our children; it will only increase bureaucracy and federal control. If you read the 775 Federal Document and the 300 page state document, it is evident the federal government wants eventual total control of curriculum and staffing. Parents, taxpayers and legislators have been left out of this process. Thank you from many concerned citizens for using common sense. Why we are even applying for a mandate that is vague, unconstitutional, and financially unsustainable is beyond me. It is time for the legislators to follow your example and make sound constitutional and financial decisions. Gretchen Logue