CNSNews.com | Obama Education Grants Politicized, School Choice Advocates Say

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Fred Lucas

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(Photo Courtesy of U.S. Department of Education)

Politics may have played a role in the awarding of some Obama administration education reform grants, say pro school-choice groups that believe the reforms did not go far enough.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Tuesday that nine states and Washington, D.C. qualified for “Race to the Top” grants in the second phase of a program that rewards states for promoting charter schools -- public schools run by non-governmental entities, which tie teacher evaluation to student performance.

With 18 states vying for a $3.4 billion pie, the department awarded grants to the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island. Only Delaware and Tennessee received grants in the first phase of the program.

“These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children,” Duncan said. “Every state that applied showed a tremendous amount of leadership and a bold commitment to education reform. The creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking. We set a high bar and these states met the challenge.”

However, while accountability standards were raised, teacher unions have played an inordinate role in determining a state’s reform plan, said Robert Enlow, president of the Foundation for Educational Choice.

“(The Obama Education Department is) seeking plans with strong, clear support from teachers’ unions, which makes me think they are asking people who have been in charge of the poor quality of education to be in charge of the new reformed quality of education,” Enlow told CNSNews.com. “I applaud the intent of Race to the Top. But the devil is in the details. Can the current group of people who got us into this mess get us out?”

He cited Indiana, which had a strong reform plan, but failed to get the full support of the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA), despite a plea from Tony Bennett, the state superintendent for public instruction.

“It is clear – from the reviewers’ comments of the two RttT [Race to the Top] winners – that one factor is crucial to a successful application: Strong statewide support from the teachers’ union,” Bennett wrote in the April 8 letter.

In a letter of response, ISTA President Nate Schnellenberger told Bennett the union would not support the state's reform plans.

The inclusion of states such as Hawaii and Maryland, and the exclusion of states with marked improvement such as Louisiana and Colorado makes the grants suspect, said Jeanne Allen, the president of the Center for Education Reform, who said the competition ends “not with a bang but with a whimper with a majority of competitors winning --10 of the 18 -- and many, it appears, for political reasons, as these states offer little or nothing to fundamentally improve schools and learning for all children.”

“This program is supposed to stimulate and is getting credit for stimulating charter schools, accountability and performance of teachers,” Allen told CNSNews.com. “It is not backing up those statements. The money didn’t necessarily go to states that do all those things.”

The U.S. Department of Education has requested another $1.35 billion from Congress for a third phase. A total of 46 states have put together education reform plans in order to qualify for grants since the program began; 35 states adopted new standards while 34 states changed their laws or policies to improve education.

Washington, D.C. and Florida deserved the grants, Allen said -- especially the nation's capital, because of teacher contract reforms in D.C. While Florida has had strong accountability standards, Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a tenure reform bill this year, complicating important reforms, Allen added.

“Awarding money to states like Maryland and Hawaii, which have done little to nothing to provide enhanced opportunities to children to close the achievement gap, diminishes the impact of this competition,” she said.

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CNSNews.com | Obama Education Grants Politicized, School Choice Advocates Say

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