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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (28379)	3/30/2010 8:02:48 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Bay State loses in first round of US grants for education By James Vaznis Globe Staff / March 30, 2010 boston.com The Obama administration bypassed Massachusetts yesterday in awarding the first grants for school innovation, a loss of $250 million for a state widely viewed as a national leader in education excellence. Delaware and Tennessee won first and second, respectively, in the Race to the Top competition. Massachusetts ranked 13th out of 16 finalists, putting it below Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana but ahead of Colorado, New York, and Washington, D.C. Massachusetts may have lost points for requiring union consent on enacting some plans to overhaul underperforming schools and for not changing state law to allow for unfettered growth of charter schools, according to the scores and written comments released yesterday by a five-member review panel. The state will have an opportunity to reapply in June for a second round of funding for the remaining $3.4 billion in grants. But Massachusetts’ absence from the first winner’s circle is being perceived by some education advocates as a possible knock against the state’s recent move to reinvigorate its 17-year effort to overhaul public education. “I’m obviously disappointed,’’ Governor Deval Patrick said. “But there’s a second round, and we expect to be competitive in that round. . . . I’m very, very proud of what we’ve been able to do with education in the Commonwealth.’’ In preparing its application, the Patrick administration pushed the Legislature to pass a controversial bill that called for opening more charter schools in the state’s worst districts, and gave superintendents and a state education commissioner greater powers to turnaround failing schools. The governor and key legislative leaders praised the bill, which was signed into law in January, as aggressive, promising it would close a persistent achievement gap among students of different socioeconomic backgrounds. But a five-member panel that reviewed Massachusetts’ application appeared to have reservations about the strength of the new law because of the level of union involvement and limited charter school growth. The panel also found the state’s requirements for evaluating teachers and principals to be somewhat weak and doubted the state’s willingness to adopt national academic standards. The Obama administration has been strongly pushing national standards, which the Patrick administration has said it will not support if they are lower than those in Massachusetts. The Bay State did earn high points for boosting student achievement and for its commitment of making education funding a high priority. Patrick has avoided cutting the bulk of state education aid as he addresses revenue shortfalls. Delaware received about $100 million and Tennessee about $500 million. Both states scored points for their commitment to enacting national academic standards and for developing plans that would reach 100 percent of students in their states. By contrast, Massachusetts’ proposal would only reach about 70 percent of the state’s schoolchildren. US Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a telephone press briefing yesterday that Delaware and Tennessee had enacted laws and policies that demonstrate they have the “courage, capacity and commitment to turn their ideas into practices that can improve outcomes for students.’’ After enacting the 1993 Education Reform Act, Massachusetts emerged as a national leader in bolstering public education. The law ushered in a uniform set of standards on teaching most academic subjects, required high school students to pass a new standardized test to graduate, and allowed for the opening of charter schools, which now number more than 60. Following that push, Massachusetts has ranked first on national standardized tests through the years and scored competitively on international tests in math and science. “We have been a leader for a long time and there are a lot of states that want to assume the mantle and are doing things that are quite bold,’’ said Jim Stergios, of the Pioneer Institute, a conservative leaning research group. Some education advocates in Massachusetts said they suspect the Obama administration went with only two first-round winners as leverage to goad other states into pushing their efforts even further. State Education Secretary Paul Reville said the state will rework its applications, based on the comments of reviewers. Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, defended union involvement, hoping the federal government will see the merits of the state and districts working with teachers. Yesterday’s announcement brought disappointment and prompted finger-pointing in the Legislature, where the promise of $250 million in additional education aid had been held out as a carrot to help coax balky lawmakers into backing the major education overhaul. Many lawmakers had been reluctant to support the package because it paved the way for more charter schools, which have long been opposed by teachers’ unions that wield considerable influence in elections. “I was disappointed, very disappointed, because I think we had all been led to believe that our application was in very good shape,’’ Senate President Therese Murray. House minority leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., who was among the 35 House lawmakers to vote against the overhaul, blamed Patrick for not capitalizing on his close ties to Obama to help Massachusetts qualify for the aid. Federal education officials have said that political influence would play no role in their decision-making. Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has been pushing for the funds to help improve Boston’s struggling schools, said he was “somewhat disappointed.’’ “We just have to continue to work harder at it,’’ he said. Michael Levenson, David Abel, and Andrew Ryan of the Globe staff contributed to this report. James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com. © Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.