The federal government’s “Race To The Top” educational reform program has the title for a great reality television show, and New Jersey provided that dramatic ending to a questionable season that involved billions of dollars in prizes.
New Jersey’s Star Ledger is reporting that what appears to be a clerical error on the part of New Jersey could well have been the deciding factor that kept hundreds of millions in federal monies from New Jersey’s poorest school districts. According to the article available here, New Jersey failed to attach educational budgets for the years 2008 and 2009, items they did attach in the previous round of funding.
NJ scored 18th in that round which only awarded funds to Delaware and Tennessee, in the most recent round NJ scored 11th and missed by three points gaining access to desperately needed funds. The failure to attach the supporting budgetary documents were worth 5 additional points.
Time will tell if the “Race to the Top” program will be as ineffective as the “No Child Left Behind” program with one focused on awarding money and the focused on demanding money with unfunded mandates. Many educators, civil rights groups, and average Americans question the validity of both programs as having catchy titles, little substance beyond nationalizing public education.
Many states, including Indiana, Kansas and Vermont, opted not to partake in the competition for different reasons, some citing a loss of local control, others claiming to have already established higher standards, and some as dysfunctional as New Jersey with no cooperation between teacher unions, administrators and government leaders.
The concept of creating a competition, with all the elements of time, rules, and regulations, was harshly criticized by some of President Obama’s strongest supporters. The NACCP, Lawyers for Civil Rights, and the Schott Foundation for Public Education were just a few groups that signed on to framework that promoted incentives but discounted competition amongst states.
The argument put forth in the document, available by clicking here, is that “If education is a civil right, children in “winning” states should not be the only ones who have the opportunity to learn to learn in high quality environments.” The document goes on to question the legitimacy and effectiveness in making the disbursement of federal funds a “competition”, and promoted a more conservative approach that was based on incentives that would allow for a more equitable allotment.
Published prior to the most recent announcement of Phase 2 winners, the framework for incentives also raised the question as to how many children will actually benefit from the hundreds of millions awarded. Now, with a total of 12 awards over both phases, 4 of the winners have the some of the smallest populations in the country: Washington D.C., Rhode Island, Delaware, and Hawaii.
New Jersey, with the 9th largest population in the nation, would have benefited much better from this approach as it appears in the race to the top we left a crucial attachment behind on some bureaucratic desk….or maybe the dog ate it.
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