GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

The Obama administration is warning New York State that it could lose hundreds of millions of federal dollars if it doesn’t stick to its Race to the Top promises.

The stern warning comes in conjunction with a set of U.S. Department of Education progress reports summarizing implementation successes and setbacks in each of the states that won federal Race to the Top funds in 2010. Eleven states and Washington, D.C., shared a $4.3 billion pot of prize money.

Department officials said New York was doing better than Hawaii, which last month was deemed as being at “high risk” of losing its Race to the Top funding. But they said the state was falling behind after making progress in Race to the Top’s first year.

“New York has a chance to be a national leader or a laggard and we are only interested in supporting real courage and bold leadership,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. ”Backtracking on reform commitments could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars for improving New York schools.” (more…)

Here’s what David Cantor, the DOE’s chief spokesman, has to say about the United Federation of Teachers’ forthcoming proposal for how to reform mayoral control:

We are looking forward to a constructive discussion with the UFT about its proposals. Some of the union’s recommendations, however, would send us back to the days when making change was impossible. In particular, the union’s proposal for a central, political Board, with 13 members appointed by nine different elected officials but accountable to none, is an almost exact replica of the worst part of the old system.