The question on the National Journal's Education Expert blog is:

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., defied the White House and shook the education community with his decision last week to cut from the administration's education reforms to pay for $10 billion in federal aid to avert teacher layoffs (see related story here). The jobs money is part of a military supplemental package passed by the House last Thursday. Now it is up to the Senate, which returns from recess on July 12, to pass the bill out of Congress. The White House has threatened to veto the measure if the $800 million cut from the education reform programs -- Race to the Top, the federal Charter Schools Program and the Teacher Incentive Fund -- is not restored.

Are the education reform programs appropriate places to cut? If not, what are better alternatives and why?

Arthur Rothkopf responds:

The action by the House of Representatives to pay for keeping teachers at the expense of Race to the Top competitive funding, teacher incentive grants, and charter school support is totally misguided. The White House should be commended for issuing a veto threat if these reductions are kept in the final appropriations legislation.

ARRA included almost $100 billion in education-related stimulus funding, the vast bulk of which went to supporting the status quo in K-12 education. The true education reform elements of ARRA, accounting for about five percent of the total, are the ones targeted for reduction by the House-passed legislation. It is these reform elements that have the potential to turn around K-12 education and bring new ideas and concepts into the current stagnant system. Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation and teacher incentive grants are causing states and localities to re-examine their practices and to seriously consider dramatically improved data systems and teacher pay-for performance, among other innovations. As a result of RTT, things are beginning to change on the ground for the better - this is not the time to go back. Competitive grants made sense in ARRA and they make sense in the future.

And more from Chester Finn and Lisa Graham Keegan.