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There are many democrats who are not really happy with President Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan and his failure in the health insurance to deliver public opinion. However, there is one field where the president is getting it just right and that is the field of higher education. Similar to Bush’s No Child Left Behind policy, Obama’s Race to the Top program hopes to effectively bridge the gap between lower and higher income children.

This program offers administrators; teachers and students the right tools to make America once again climb to the top in education. In a move that speaks volumes of the timing, the Race to the Top program from the Department of Education offers an opportunity for States to earn a huge chunk of the $4.3 million funds at a time when most of them are struggling to make ends meet and balance budget.

Contrary to the free Federal Stimulus money offered last year to help people cope with the state budget tax blow, the Race to the Top funds is not for free. There are firm strings attached as states have to work really hard to access this much needed funds.

In a strategic move, President Obama seeks to initiate swift changes and reforms through state legislators by dangling the carrot of money in front of their noses at a time when they most need it to cope with the financial crisis. 

There are four different parameters based on which the applying states will be graded namely developing and training great principals and teachers, building data systems that measure the progress of students effectively, adopting common assessments and standards and turning around schools that have been low achieving.

In many states including Washington, a more powerful and result oriented legislation will have to be passed in order to push forward and go beyond basic education reforms of last year in order to be highly competitive for the award. To strengthen the application, Washington will have to gear up and allow interference of states in schools that have been consistently low performing, improve greatly the standards set for high school graduation, reconsider and work out the method of teacher evaluation and recruitment. For a single short session of legislation, this is indeed a great challenge.

Even if Washington or other states do not qualify for the Race to the Top program funds, Obama and his administration is not going to sit back. They are going to be tempting them with various education goals and prod them to move swiftly on the path of reform. Race to the Top is clearly only the beginning and there is much more to come. Other initiatives will be on the lines of making higher education accessible to all by investing in early education.

What President Obama could not achieve in health reforms, he clearly is on the education front. He is motivating states with both Republican as well as Democratic led governments, to work hard and outperform the rest.