Council In the News Index

Mass. Loses Federal 'Race to the Top' Education Funds (Lowell Sun)

By Matt Murphy, mmurphy@lowellsun.com
03/30/2010 06:35:32 AM EDT

BOSTON -- Massachusetts lost out on $250 million in federal Race to the Top education funds yesterday when the Obama administration announced it had selected just two states -- Tennessee and Delaware -- for the competitive awards aimed at rewarding innovation and turning around failing schools.

State education officials said they are disappointed not to have been selected in the first round of funding, but promised to come back later this year with a stronger application for the second phase of Race to the Top that promises to hand out significantly more money.

The prospect of winning this grant had been held out earlier this year as the reason to act quickly on Gov. Deval Patrick's education-reform plan, which won Legislative approval in January.

"Obviously, we're disappointed," state Education Secretary Paul Reville said. "It was not the result we were hoping for, but it is very early going, the first inning of a nine-inning game, and they've left a lot of money on the table."

The Obama administration announced the two winners yesterday afternoon, selecting only Tennessee and Delaware to receive $600 million in federal education grants. Massachusetts had been included among the 16 finalists for the competitive grants.

That leaves $3.4 billion in remaining Race to the Top grants that could be awarded to 10-15 states in the second round of the competition, according to federal officials.

"I'm optimistic," Reville said. "Clearly, we have a set of strategies here that have spelled success for our students. I think we're where we want to be. It's a question of what was valued in this competition."

When the final scores were tallied, Massachusetts finished 13th among the 16 finalists, beating out only Colorado, New York and the District of Columbia in the scoring of its application for funds.

The loss in the federal competition comes on the heels of an announcement that Massachusetts is once again ranked number one in the country on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test of fourth- and eighth-graders in math and reading.

In a conference call with reporters, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Tennessee and Delaware stood out in their applications because of their commitment to a new educational strategy that touched 100 percent of their students and had the support of every interested party, including those states' teachers unions.

"We received many strong proposals from states all across America, but two applications stood out above all others: Delaware and Tennessee," Duncan said. "Both states have statewide buy-in for comprehensive plans to reform their schools. They have written new laws to support their policies. And they have demonstrated the courage, capacity and commitment to turn their ideas into practices that can improve outcomes for students."

In January, Patrick and Massachusetts lawmakers rushed to pass an education-reform bill that would expand access to charter schools and give administrators in failing schools broader authority to restructure staff and curriculum in order to improve student performance and shrink the achievement gap.

The timetable for passage of the reform plan was pegged to the deadline for the Race to the Top application.

The plan, however, met resistance from unions who objected to giving superintendents new power to make teachers reapply for their positions. The charter-school expansion was also limited to the lowest-performing school districts in the state.

In just some of the comments from the panel that reviewed Massachusetts' application, the state lost points because it was unclear that it had the full commitment of teachers unions and districts throughout the state to implement its reform proposal. The comments also cited a lack of incentives for teachers to work in challenging, underperforming districts, and said the state lags in its evaluation of teachers.

Reville said he and his staff plan to study the feedback on its first application and come back with a stronger proposal for how it will use Race to the Top money by the time the second application is due on June 1.

The state will start back at square one with its second application, competing again against states across the country, not just the first 16 finalists. Massachusetts, of course, will have a smaller hurdle to clear in improving its application over a vast majority of those states.

While disappointed by the news, some advocates of the Massachusetts reform bill said this should not be viewed as defeat for education reform here. In fact, the reviewers of the Massachusetts application gave the state credit for taking many steps to innovate its education system before the Race to the Top competition was announced.

Republicans, however, embraced the defeat as an opportunity to take a swipe at Patrick, who held out the grants as a reason to pass education reform.

"While this news could be considered disappointing, the High Tech Council and our partners did not work to overhaul the state's education system solely to win a one-time federal grant." said Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council. "The reforms Massachusetts made earlier this year, if properly implemented on the state and local level, will have long-term, meaningful benefits for students, teachers and our economy."

"Gov. Patrick expected us to jump through hoops and was very critical of the Legislature for not finishing this issue last fall," said House Minority Leader Brad Jones, R-Reading. "It appears that the Patrick-Murray Administration, despite the extra time, was unable to put together a strong and compelling application."