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waiting game

August 20, 2010

“No surprises” in New York’s second Race to the Top pitch

by , at 10:06 am

All that’s left is the waiting.

Federal officials could announce the winners of the second round of the Race to the Top grant competition as soon as next week. But before they do, teams from each finalist state, including New York, went to Washington, D.C. last week to make their case for a slice of the $3.4 billion in grant funds that remain to be doled out.

Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said yesterday that “no surprises” came from the judges during the state’s 90-minute presentation and question-and-answer session Aug. 10. Tisch said the reviewers focused on the meat of the state’s school reform plan, including the timeline for a new teacher evaluation system, the curriculum being developed for new national standards, and school turnaround strategies.

“I just thought it was a very fair, frank conversation,” she said.

Accompanying Tisch in D.C. were State Education Commissioner David Steiner and Deputy Commissioner John King, as well as Chancellor Joel Klein and teachers union chief Michael Mulgrew.

Tisch recruited Klein and Mulgrew for the second round to avert the troubles of the state’s first-round presentation, when judges focused on whether the state would be able to fulfill its promises without more union support. New York was one of three finalists to lose points after the interview round.

Tisch said the judges were “very interested” in Klein and Mulgrew’s attendance last week. Many of the state’s proposals are based on spreading Klein’s city reforms state-wide, and Mulgrew likely vouched for union support of the plan.

Klein said he thought the judges asked questions that were “thoughtfully related” to the state’s application. “The team worked together well,” he said about New York’s delegation.

The winners of the second round of the grant competition will be announced in late August or early September. As they did in the first round, federal officials will post a video of all finalist states’ presentations after the winners have been announced.

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  • Just The Facts

    Children not proficient in ELA and Math. UFT sleeping with the enemy. Corruption on the rise. Principals from hell. Pockets being filled. Yes, absolutely No Surprises.

  • richard mangone

    Are the transcritps of these proceedings available to the public? I am sure many would like to hear the interaction between Mulgrew and Klein if there was any. At the very least how the city and state presented their programs for RTT dollars..

  • Ellen

    “Tisch said the judges were “very interested” in Klein and Mulgrew’s attendance last week. Many of the state’s proposals are based on spreading Klein’s city reforms state-wide, and Mulgrew likely vouched for union support of the plan.”

    Is she kidding? What reforms? Are we talking about more students with disabilities failing? Are we talking aobut an ever widening gap in graduation rates? Are the judges competent? Do they read the papers or reports from Harvard or are the all NYC graduates?

  • http://www.SpecialEducationMuckraker.com Dee Alpert

    Ellen – the Race to the Top rules prohibited reviewers from looking at anything that wasn’t in the state ed. depts.’ applications. NYSED was free to lie through its teeth re its success in improving scores and graduation rates while decreasing between-groups gaps and the reviewers were supposed to have access to no outside information to use in evaluating such claims. Needless to say, our recent, ongoing scandal re NYSED’s very bogus testing system (grades 3-8 and Regents exams) was not disclosed in anything NYSED submitted, nor would these scandals have been in the materials the reviewers were provided with.

    It’s highly likely that US DOE and Duncan will wind up with egg on their collective faces when more NYSED scandals, including those re testing, hit the papers.

    At this point I think it’s fair to say – if one looks hard at what US DOE really does, based on things like US DOE Inspector General audit reports – that reality and the gross incompetence of state ed. depts. is hardly something the feds care about.

    The NYC DOE wasted or misused its entire Reading First grant according to a NYC Comptroller audit. NYSED gave Reading First grants to districts, including the NYC DOE, which shouldn’t have received them in the first place according to a US DOE OIG audit report. US DOE has, from what I understand, done nothing about it and certainly hasn’t put any real conditions on NYSED and NYC DOE use of future federal grant program funds.

    It’s all spin. Four years down the pike when the hard data starts coming in, it will turn out that Race to the Top has done nothing good for kids. It will also turn out that state ed. depts., and especially NYSED, and local districts, especially the NYC DOE, have misused and/or wasted much of this money.

    In other words, same old, same old.

  • http://www.classsizematters.org Leonie Haimson

    Maura: the presentations and questioning in the first round were webcast; will this round be available online as well?

  • Maura Walz

    Yep, they will — from the post: As they did in the first round, federal officials will post a video of all finalist states’ presentations after the winners have been announced.

  • Math teacher Bklyn

    This sounds like a political reality show. Ridiculous!

  • Peter

    Hundreds of millions of dollars (half to the state and half to school districts) spread out I believe over four years is substantial cash in these diffciult times.

    The video from the previous interviews was less than scintillating!

    Not to b cynical, one has to wonder whether the grant winner states are also key senatorial states in November.

    As the Congressional enthusiasm for RttT and other Obama programs wanes I suspect future programs will come with considerably fewer federal strings and more leeway for states.

    Those who yearn for a return to the “good old days” will be disappointed, “You can’t go home again.”

  • Vote NO

    “Hundreds of millions of dollars (half to the state and half to school districts) spread out I believe over four years is substantial cash in these diffciult times.”

    You’re joking right? If NY state won the full 700 million dollars That would provide funding to run the NYC school system for maybe……..”2 weeks!”

    It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens in the states which changed their education laws, and end up not “winning” any money. Which will be many of the finalists. There will be a lot of VERY ANGRY people in those states!

    After November 2, NOTHING Barak Obama wants, will get out of the Congress, The DEMS will have lost too many seats, and the GOP has no incentive to work with him, since they have a really good chance of defeating him in 2012. The public has turned against the massive amounts of government spending, and bailouts. Without more stimulus the economy will NOT rebound to help the DEMS in 2012. This recession was just too deep.

    When you look at Rttp, it is politically one of the most stupid things the Democrats could have done. They actually have increased government spending to alienate one of their most loyal voting blocs, public school teachers. Many teachers will NOT be there for the DEMS this November, and the GOPers may agree with Rttp, but they are not switching their votes over it. Obama, and the Dems have angered them over too many other issues.

  • Peter

    The current Obama policies began with Bush !, continued by Clinton and Bush 2 (see Diane Ravitch’s current book). Democrats are beginning to back away from his ed agenda, repubs far more supportive of the market-based, accountabiilty driven policies.

    Repub congressional victories will mean fewer ed dollars and a continuation/acceleration of these policies. Remember, teacher pensions, for current as well as retired teachers can be modified by a state constitutional convention, advocated by Cuomo, and health benefits, for current employees and retirees are subject to negotiations.

  • Vote NO

    Peter,

    Rttp, was NOT the policy of any previous President. Obama/Duncan are 100% responsible for that! That is the program which has alienated so many teachers. The use of federal dollars to influence state legislation so as to jeopardize the livelihoods of millions of urban public school teachers across the nation will result in a massive backlash against Obama, and the Democrats who supported it.

    As far as a GOP Congress, supporting reform agenda, the only way they can do it, is if they fund it. It is unlikely to happen, as their priority will be to cut most domestic spending. The ” trillion dollar plus” federal budget deficits have finally made the budget deficit a ” hot” political issue. Look at how difficult it was to pass the “edujobs” bill, they were forced to reduce money for the food stamp program. If the GOP takes either chamber of Congress, there will be massive cuts to federal spending for which the federal government will no longer have as much leverage over the states.

    Cuomo may want a Constitutional convention. Politically that is just not realistic. There are too many civil servants in this state counting on, or relying on those pensions, as well as many other consequences if a convention was called. In 2017, the voters will have a chance to decide whether they want it or not. Wiping out defined benefit retirement plans for future government employees is a remote possibility.

    As far as negotiating away benefits by the union, unfortunately many teachers already expect to be sold out by the current union leadership. However, just like Chicago, and Washington DC, even in NYC eventually there will be a “breaking point.” Where the current UFT membership says “enough is enough” and votes in new leadership, or at the very least votes down any contract proposal with such draconian givebacks.

  • Peter

    No Children Left Behind required conversion to charter or school closings for “failing schools,” schools that failed to meet AYP for a number of years as a precondition of accepting Title I dollars.

    Health benefits are not part of contract negotiations, they are negotiated by the Municipal Labor Coalition, welfare fund dollars are negotiated by individual unions.

  • Peter

    Take a look at teacher contract negotiations in Seattle,

    http://www.nctq.org/tr3/docs/analysis_of_seattle_contract_proposals.pdf

    This is pretty typical of what’s going on in urban centers throughtout the country, whether AFT or NEA.

  • Pingback: Round 2 Race to the Top winners to be announced tomorrow? - EdVANTAGE Blog - The Official Blog of the New York State Council of School Superintendents

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