Cuomo proposes two new Race to the Top-style grants for NY

state of the state

January 5, 2011

Cuomo proposes two new Race to the Top-style grants for NY

by Maura Walz, at 4:33 pm

Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed two new competitive education grants during his State of the State address today.

Two more Races to the Top could be coming to New York — this time courtesy of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

In his first State of the State speech today, Cuomo proposed creating two new competitive grant funds for state school districts, worth $250 million each.

The first grant would reward districts that boost students’ academic performance. The second would go to districts that find ways to cut costs that don’t affect the classroom.

It’s not yet clear if the addition of the grant competitions would alter the state’s current formula-based education model. But the governor was critical of the model, which he said gives districts no incentives to improve.

“Competition works,” Cuomo said, pointing to the state legislature’s passage of a charter cap lift bill as part of its (eventually successful) bid to win Race to the Top funds.

Cuomo’s plan would follow the lead of the federal government, which the governor said has “actually been more innovative in this area.” The U.S. Department of Education still doles out most of its money to states according to formulas, but under President Barack Obama has also begun granting billions of dollars based on the outcomes of competitions.

The state’s current formula — set after a landmark court win by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity in 2007 — doles out funds to school districts based on the number of students each serves. The formula gives districts more money for serving impoverished students, those learning English, and other high-needs students.

Geri Palast, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, said that the governor should tread carefully in building an incentive-based funding model. ”I think the notion of moving away from a formula is very dangerous, actually,” she said.

Heavily impoverished school districts — which tend to rely more on state funds than districts with wealthy tax bases — have already taken disproportionate hits in their funding because of state cuts, Palast said. She argued that changes to the state funding formula must be made with an eye toward ensuring an equal starting line for needy students.

“I’m not opposed to incentives; I think incentives are great,” she said. “But they have to be incentives on top of provisions in the law that provide for kids’ basic needs.”

Cuomo will not be the first governor to call for tying education funding to accountability measures. When former Governor Eliot Spitzer entered office, he promised to tie a pool of funds won through the CFE lawsuit to districts’ efforts to introduce a handful of innovations such as reducing class size and lengthening the school day.

But the state’s accountability program, known as Contracts for Excellence, failed to accomplish several of its goals. Class size in New York City, for example, has increased, and critics continue to contend that the city has used the money it received through the settlement not towards reducing class size, but rather to partially backfill money lost through system-wide budget cuts.

I noticed that…

Cuomo’s two RttT-style grants:

Here are my concerns.

“The first grant would reward districts that boost students’ academic performance.”

This will open up the doors for more bogus credit-recovery programs in schools that want to grab the reward at the cost of the children’s education.

” The second would go to districts that find ways to cut costs that don’t affect the classroom.”

Get rid of all those administrators at Tweed, eliminate all those A.P. positions at many of these small schools. You don’t need 4-5 A.P.s to run a school of less than 500 students. Get rid of the campus-wide schools where there are 6 – 8 principals in a school building where it used to be run by one principal running a mid to large comprehensive middle/high schools. Reduce class size where teachers would have a maximum of 18-22 students instead of 34 students. That’s how you cut costs that won’t affect the classroom.
John G

My initial response is a very big smile. Finally, someone has arrived who may put pressure on the city’s DOE to show improvement or show cost cutting that does not effect the classroom before extra money can be had.
(But I read in the nydailynews that these grants would be coupled with Ed funding cuts (the grants being just a way to recoup some of the losses), so we shall see. The new Gov unveils his education plan ($) in a speech on February 1st (during which I, for one, will be playing the Cuomo drinking game), so we shall see.
Brooklyn Teacher

#1 Excellent points, thank you to the commenter with the name ”I noticed that…”

#2 I’m confused, Governor Cuomo is offering money to districts who spend less money? How is that even worthy of a grant? How about the money for SMALL CLASS SIZE that the schools were legally required to receive, but did not? Furthermore, there is nothing more despicable that those who champion competition as education reform. In New York City public schools and charter schools are pitted against each other competing for space within the same building,( the public school suffering the most) while the students in both schools compete for use of the cafeteria, auditorium, library and school yard.

Gross.
Invictus

I take this proposal with a big, cautionary tale. In order to qualify, as “I noticed that…” commented, it can open to massive cheating by districts in order to qualify. Furthermore, this sort of reward performance strategy is not much different than NCLB and RTTT ideas, that they all students need to show gains…..and if they are unable to show gains as a district? After all, even The Supreme Leader’s and now the Dearly Departed Leader Klein manipulation of date that showed improvements in the past 8 years evaporated this past Summer, then will the districts be punished for what is just honestly not possible?

Andy needs to face it, the State owed NYC millions through the lawsuit and if Tweed received the millions, what real improvements did they show for such a huge amount?

NYC districts are entitled to the money won through the lawsuit and we need not to apply for it again through some ‘bogus’ improvement proposal.

Give NYC the money that they earn and stop playing games, Andy.
Mustafa

What is he going to ask Wall Street to give back?

Are we dealing with another politician that wants to balance everything on the back of the working class?
Invictus

Fat cats feeding off tax payer dollars have the gall to play ball on for both sides of the court. Not unheard off but nevertheless, b-lsy. Thinking about the WI in 2012 or later, keep on dreaming Andy, surely you bought the opposition of many working class community Downstate.
Empire of Illusion

Fudging the stats IS the name of the game
queens parent

Educating children is not a competition. In the game of education there should be NO losers because those losers are somebody’s children. So if a district doesn’t educate and show progress they will get less money. And they still have children to educate only now with less money to do it. How does this help? And a really rich charter school who does show high scores, they will get more money to spend on what? Probably something unnecessary like out of state class trips. Sorry but I am horrified by this. Each school district should get the money they need for education, whiether they show progress or not. If they are not showing progress then maybe the school needs a change in leadership or teachers or curriculum But withholding money is NOT the answer.
Michael Fiorillo

Education is a well-established right under federal, state and local law. Since when must people be forced to compete for their rights?

The practical intention, and ultimate result, of this will be to shoot the wounded.
John G

Just to clarify: by district they mean the entire nyc doe. We all want bloomy to get more $$ into the classrooms and out of Tweed, right? This grant would put financial pressure on him to do just that. He’d be competing with other districts to cut the fat out of the NYCDOE. If he didn’t there would be political hell to pay b/c it would be seen as Bloomy not cutting out the fat and Bloomy not winning a grant.
Invictus

John G, what the Supreme Leader and the now certified Dear Leader consider fat is not the technocrats that line the payrolls of the DoE but the underlings. When there is a ‘revolution’ the group that pay the dearest are not the political leadership but the masses. Don’t bet of the Supreme Leader telling the now certified Dear Leader to do what is logic and right but do the exact opposite.
Michael M.

Brace for more unfunded mandates out of Tweed.

e.g. Tweed used to pay for Regional Offices, then requiring principals to budget for School Support Organizations.

It’s called account(ing games) -ability.
Mama Bear

If competition works, then why didn’t Bloomberg and New York State hold a race to see who the taxpayers thought would be the best chancellor. Instead, we’re going to punish students who aren’t in high-performing districts? Which came first? The money or the high-performing districts?

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state of the state

January 5, 2011

Cuomo proposes two new Race to the Top-style grants for NY

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