'Race to the Top' School Funding Has States Rethinking Education Reform

WASHINGTON -- When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan picked only two states as winners in the first round of a national competition for education money, he meant to spur unsuccessful states into action. Demonstrate the bar is high, he said, and people will try to reach it.

Two weeks later, as some of the finalists prepare their second attempts for Race to the Top money, it's unclear if that's the case. Several of the finalists publicly declared that they might not reapply, and others plan to resubmit slightly tweaked or even pared down versions of their original applications.

"I have not been told we're going to change anything," said Matt Cardoza, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education. The state's application placed third in the first round of Race to the Top. "We're going forth with our application and will push what's in it even stronger."


But some education reformers question whether a competitive grant program, like Race to the Top, will really bring substantive changes to the nation's schools. It may be that in the quest for money state education departments are fashioning their round two applications to what they think the federal government wants to see.

"A funny thing happens with federal regulations," said Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform, which lobbies for more charter schools and school choice. "You have to create a formula for a federal grant program -- perfunctory boxes are checked off."

States are competing for $4.35 billion of stimulus money Congress set aside for education last year. Duncan's office awarded the first $600 million to Tennessee and Delaware in late March and expects to pick at least 10 new winners in September.

Several states, including Georgia, lost points in the first round because they failed to gain support from teacher groups and unions for proposals to tie teacher pay to test results and create new standards for teacher evaluations. Such measures are popular with both conservatives and the administration, but loathed by unions and some Democrats. The first round's two winners both cited unanimous union support.

Georgia scored 433.6 out of 500 possible points in the first round, slightly more than 10 points behind Tennessee, which received $500 million. And although many predicted the failure of otherwise strong applications would give teachers more bargaining power, it appears to have changed little.

"Without us, how are you going to make these reforms work?" asked Jeff Hubbard, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, a 40,000-member teacher advocacy group.

In Florida, lawmakers pressed ahead last week with several reform measures despite teacher opposition. The most controversial proposal would eliminate tenure and tie a portion of educators' salaries to their students' standardized test results.

The state, considered a favorite in the first round of competition, will likely need the teacher pay measure to remain competitive in the second round, a Florida Department of Education spokesman said. State officials hope to make up for the lack of teacher buy-in by trying to raise scores in other application categories, said Tom Butler with the state education department.

"Obviously union support would certainly help," Butler said. "We've known that from the start. [But] we really did pretty well. We don't want to go away from that."

The reform bill now sits on Gov. Charlie Crist's desk. The governor, currently in a tough Republican primary for the state's open Senate seat, suggested he could veto it because of public outcry. Several state lawmakers on the other hand said they had assurances Crist would sign it and blamed misinformation for the lack of popularity.

Officials from other states said they will rethink their applications -- though in most cases by paring down rather than bulking up.

Race to the Top's rules call for smaller grants in round two. South Carolina, which originally requested $300 million this winter, is limited to $175 million. The state will now refocus its application on ways to improve the lowest tier schools, South Carolina's education chief, Jim Rex, said on Friday.

"The second application won't be a sliver of the first one," said Rex, who at first threatened to quit the competition after South Carolina placed sixth in round one. "It will be a very different application."

Still, "it's a lot of money," he said.

An Education Department spokesman declined to comment on states' specific plans -- such comments are legally prohibited.

"We set a high bar in round one with Race to the Top and we meant it," said Justin Hamilton of the federal education department. "This isn't called Race to the Middle. We hope all states apply for round two."

Applications are due June 1.