California misses out on Race to the Top funding for schools
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By Sharon Noguchi
snoguchi@mercurynews.com
Posted: 03/04/2010 06:27:36 PM PST
Updated: 03/04/2010 06:58:29 PM PST
mercurynews.com
In a striking criticism of the state's school reform efforts, California was shut out Thursday in its bid for a piece of the Obama administration's $4.35 billion in education stimulus funding known as Race to the Top.
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia made the final cut for the first round of stimulus money, offered as an incentive to improve education for the poorest and most lagging students.
News of California's absence was an extra blow on a day that students and teachers turned out in the tens of thousands across the state to protest cuts to education. The state's failure to even make the first cut disappointed educators who pushed hardest for reforms and said the country's most populous state is too important to ignore.
"How could the feds decide not to go with a state that has 6 million kids?" said Don Iglesias, San Jose Unified School District's superintendent.
Although the federal Education Department won't explain until next month why it bypassed California, many had anticipated the state's failure. Despite pressure from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state couldn't persuade teachers unions and even the PTA to back its Race to the Top effort, leading to watered-down reforms.
California likely lost points for not going far enough to tie teacher compensation and evaluation to student performance, said Linda Murray, former superintendent of the San Jose Unified School District and superintendent-in-residence of the Education Trust-West, a reform advocacy group. And the state also may have suffered in the competition for cutting funding to schools amid its unprecedented budget crisis.
Schwarzenegger had called the Legislature into special session last fall to work on changing state law to give parents more school choice and to improve how it tracks student performance.
"We need to be more aggressive and bolder in reforming our education system," the governor said Thursday in a written statement.
He promised to seek additional reforms and to apply for a second round of funding in June. But it could be a tough battle, with Democrats lining up behind the state's teacher union and other education groups that have fiercely resisted many of the measures demanded by the federal government.
Wary of federal demands connected to the money, fewer than half the state's roughly 1,000 school districts had signed on to the receive the funds. In Santa Clara County, 21 of the county's 31 districts applied.
David Sanchez, president of the state's largest teachers union, criticized the competitive nature of the grant. "We believe that all our students are winners and deserve funding," he said. "It shouldn't have to be a select group getting money."
Race to the Top awards funds to participating districts, but half the grant would be controlled by states' governors. Sanchez found that problematic. Furthermore, he said, "districts need ongoing resources, not one-time money."
Next month, federal reviewers will return all states' applications with comments, and announce who will receive the first round of money. The selection process was so secretive that even the identity of the 49 judges has been kept under wraps. "They have them in the witness protection program," Iglesias quipped.
Besides Washington, D.C., the finalists include Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee.
In one respect, California appears to be a good laboratory for one Race to the Top goal: lowering the achievement gap. An Education Trust analysis of national test scores in January concluded that the state was one of five with the worst track records in closing the gap that separates black and Latino students on one hand and white and Asian students on the other.
Iglesias said reviewers seemed to discount evidence of California's progress. He said San Jose Unified is working hard on goals that mirror federal priorities, and has seen some success at elementary schools and now is moving to improve secondary schools.
The district could use additional federal funding to pay for teacher training, improve data use and help lagging students.
Likewise, in the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District, "many of the reforms in Race to the Top we have already been doing," Superintendent Barry Groves said.
California likely will begin refining its application to apply for second-round funding. That application, due June 1, will give the also-ran states a chance at more federal stimulus money to be awarded in September.
"We're going to have to work on sitting down with teacher union leaders," said Kathy Gaither, state undersecretary of education, "and encouraging their cooperation on reform."
Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775. |
