Updates on the Race: 12-17-2009

UPDATED!

NATIONAL
List of Contending States Grows (Education Week Politics K-12 blog)

37 States to Apply in Round 1 (Education Week Politics K-12 blog)

Will Local Teachers' Unions Sign Off On State RttT Plans? (Education Week Teacher Beat blog)

A RttT Scorecard (National Council on Teacher Quality)

A Race to Nowhere (Education Week - Bridging Differences blog)

FLORIDA
Editorial: Districts should embrace teacher merit pay and RttT (Orlando Sentinel)

KENTUCKY
Districts sign off on RttT (The State Journal - Frankfort)

MAINE
In for round 2 (Maine School Management Association)

MASSACHUSETTS
RttT bill weakened, critics charge (Boston Globe)

Commentary: Whose needs come first in schools? (Boston Globe)

MINNESOTA
Teachers' union may withhold support for state application (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

NEVADA
Legislative attempt to qualify for competition (Las Vegas Sun)

NEW YORK
Governor Paterson: Raise charter school cap (New York Post)

OHIO
Troubled waters? (Flypaper)

WISCONSIN
Editorial: Legislature right to snub governor's 'school scheme' (Capital Times - Madison)

Six school districts targeted for RttT (Kenosha News)

Bill would strengthen state's hand to intervene in low-performing schools (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

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Past Updates on the Race to the Top

Updates on the Race: 12-08-2009

CALIFORNIA:
State can't seem to put one foot in front of the other (Education Week)

District officials wary of Race to the Top (The Press-Enterprise - San Bernardino)

HAWAII: ED official pushes solution to teacher furlough debacle (Honolulu Advertiser)

ILLINOIS: State 'fine tunes' application (Chicago Current)

INDIANA: Disagreement over using student test scores to evaluate teachers (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette)

LOUISIANA: Teacher evaluation reform central to state proposal (The Advocate - Baton Rouge)

MINNESOTA: Star-Tribune editorial says state 'must compete' (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune)

NEW JERSEY: Led by lame-duck governor, state now WILL apply in round one (NJ.com)

NEW YORK: State senate ed chair asks for clarification of state's eligibility (NY1)

WISCONSIN: Gov. Doyle meets with ED counsel, former Boston sup Payzant on mayoral control (Chicago Tribune)

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Past "Updates on the Race"

Stricter charter oversight in MN

As a charter school board member in Minnesota, I have to say, it's about time.  

According to a story in today's StarTrib,

Legislative changes affecting the special breed of public schools will increase oversight, close loopholes and clean up unclear language that had made it easier for some schools to get away with sloppy management or outright theft. Charter school sponsors will have stricter guidelines -- which could drive some away -- and the state will have more power to withhold taxpayer money or to shut down a school that breaks the law.

The minutes of our board meetings are public record, so I don't feel guilty about saying that I think we could use a lot more oversight, or at least training, in our financial decision-making. We don't have anything illegal going on like the charter school director who walked away with $1.4 million, but it just sort of feels like the blind leading the blind. Apparently our authorizer has barely come around to check on us except to make token yearly visits - that is until we got audited this year and the state had to get involved.

In New York this never would have happened, because the system is much more centralized.  There are only two charter authorizers in the state of New York, and their standards are very rigorous.  I've heard terrible stories about some of the many Minnesota charter authorizers.  

So apparently the state is putting pressure on authorizers: 

Some authorizers have gone "above and beyond the law" watching over the finances and operation of their charter schools, but others rarely even visit schools, said Chas Anderson, state Education Department deputy commissioner. "Without a strong authorizer, it's really hit or miss whether a charter school is going to be successful."

Now, all of a sudden, our authorizer has started to pay attention.

Stimulus Watch: Front-Loading and Favoritism

Michael Griffith, senior finance analyst at the Education Commission of the States, has authored a fascinating policy brief detailing where states are beginning to invest the State Fiscal Stabilization Funding portion of the federal stimulus money. As of May 8th, the U.S. Department of Education has approved preliminary applications from governors of nine states (CA, IL, ME, MN, MS, OR, SD, UT, WI).

The ECS brief notes that the applications provide assurance that the state will: (1) fund both its K-12 schools and institutions of higher education at or above FY 2005-06 levels, and (2) identify how much of the stabilization funds it will expend in FY 2008-09, FY 2009-10 and FY 2010-11.

Here are the results:

• FRONT-LOADING OF FUNDS - "States are allowed to use their Education Stabilization Funding starting this fiscal year (FY 2008-09) through fall 2011. The expectation was that states would spend some of their funds to finish out this fiscal year but would use the bulk of funds in FY 2009-10 and FY 2010-11. However, these first nine states have greatly front-loaded their spending. On average, the nine states are spending 55.0% of their Educational Stabilization Funds to complete FY 2008-09." The states of California, Illinois, Oregon and Utah will have spent down all of their stabilization funds and will have none remaining by FY 2010-11; on the other end of the spectrum, the state of Mississippi will reserve 52% of its funding for FY 2010-11.

• K-12 FAVORED OVER HIGHER ED - "Over the past three years states have spent an averaged 76.9% of education funding on K-12 programs and 23.1% on higher education. While the average expenditures from the nine states with approved applications hews close to traditional expenditures (80.1% on K-12 and 19.9% to Higher Ed), each of the nine states planned expenditures varies greatly." Wisconsin would spend all of its stabilization funding on K-12, while neighboring Minnesota will spend 38% of its funding on higher education.

The decision most states have made to front-load these funds is no doubt driven by fiscal crises, partially due to the recession but also by poor budgetary choices made by states over time. That K-12 garners most of these dollars reflects existing spending priorities wherein higher education takes a backseat -- perhaps because tuition is seen as an available revenue stream to make up for state stinginess.

The teacher becomes the student

I went snowboarding for the first time today! I didn't break anything personally, but we had three casualties among the students. The kids inducted me as a "real Minnesotan" now that I have participated in winter activities. (Even though I spent much of the day on my buttocks.)

Not what I looked like today