THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT IS THREATENED WITH BLACKMAIL/EXTORTION!

The definition of extortion and it's pseudonyms is as follows per Roget's Thesaurus.
Definition: intimidation for money; money to quiet informer
Synonyms: bribe, bribery, exaction, extortion, hush money, milking, payoff, protection, ransom, slush fund, tribute

Yesterday president Obama continued his "modus operandi" of intimidating anyone who disagrees with his stated and implied policies in an interview in the Oval Office

President Obama is leaning hard on the nation's schools, using the promise of more than $4 billion in federal aid — and the threat of withholding it — to strong-arm the education establishment to accept more charter schools and performance pay for teachers.

The pressure campaign has been underway for months as Education Secretary Arne Duncan travels the country delivering a blunt message to state officials who have resisted change for decades: Embrace reform or risk being shut out.

"What we're saying here is, if you can't decide to change these practices, we're not going to use precious dollars that we want to see creating better results; we're not going to send those dollars there," Obama said in an Oval Office interview Wednesday. "And we're counting on the fact that, ultimately, this is an incentive, this is a challenge for people who do want to change."
Part of his change is the allocating of 100 million dollars to the Secretary of Education to push Obama's education agenda. More than has ever been given to that cabinet position, even in the profligate later years of the Bush administration!

The effort has helped Obama enlarge the federal role in an arena dominated by state and local governments, but there is deep skepticism about his approach. Congressional Republicans say the initiative, coupled with another $650 million for school reform under Duncan's control, is wasteful.

"We just took a big old checkbook with a $5 billion total behind it and handed it to the secretary and said, 'Write a whole bunch of checks,' " said Rep. John Kline (Minn.), the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee. "I'm uncomfortable that we're doing that."

Obama says the money will be distributed to states that can demonstrate results backed by data that show student scores and teacher performance are improving.

"It's not based on politics, it's not based on who's got more clout, it's not based on what certain constituency groups are looking for, but it's based on what works," he said. "Now, what we're also doing, though, is we're saying this is voluntary. If there are states that just don't want to go in this direction, that's their prerogative." Source: Washington Post
Liberal translation: MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY!

I thought the tax money he is spending came from all states. Not just those who go along with his programs! I have no objection to his attempt to get our children better prepared for life through good education.
But the simple fact is that every time monies are appropriated for "school and education". The teachers union and bureaucrats get the lions share of the money, and student still learn more about diversity, one worldism and every thing but the basic three "R". And no amount of money will change this fact!!

State officials will lose a great deal of their authority over the financing and delivery of health care under the House and Senate health bills, particularly in the area of Medicaid.

In the House bill, "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" (H.R. 3200), Congress would expand Medicaid to reduce the number of people without health insurance. But this expansion will create new inequities among and between the several states that administer the program. The House version also expands the federal role in the administration of Medicaid that will reduce the states' sovereignty and position as "laboratories of democracy."
And it appears that the Obama administration will extend that reduction of equal rights for all states by restricting money for education to those who do his bidding, sounds all most DICTATORIAL!!