Tennessee education “races” for funds
Illustration by Margaret Cross
March 26, 2010 • written by Macy Linton
Filed under News
- Tennessee can breathe a sigh of relief.
Well, almost.
The State, whose Department of Education has been dreading the inevitable exhaustion of stimulus funds, was recently named a finalist in Phase I of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program.
Race to the Top (RTT) is the $4.35 billion initiative for the educational section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly known as the stimulus package. RTT is novel because rather than automatically offering money, it pits states against one another in a competition for funding.
In an attempt to keep America competitive with other nations, RTT requires competing states to adopt 19 new standards before ever seeing a penny, including easing up on laws that restrict charter schools and tying teacher and principal pay– and school assignments–to student test scores. In addition, each state must come up with meaningful state-decided reforms to improve the quality of its education.
16 finalists were announced in early March, with the South making up the largest percentage of the states. Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and, of course, Tennessee made the list.
The finalists headed to the D.C. to present their plans in mid-March, but Tennessee still has to wait until April for the ultimate decision.
According to the State’s governmental website, Tennessee requested $501.8 million in funding from the federal government.
If received, half of the prize, $250.9 million, would go to local school districts under the existing Title I statute (the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is aimed at helping low-income families). The other half would be utilized to fund struggling schools, to build higher standards for teachers, to track student growth, to invest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs, and to make sure the funds are properly distributed.
“We’re proud to put forward Tennessee’s very best proposal for meaningful reform in public education,” education,” Governor Phil Bredeson said.
At Bartlett High School, the administration has its own ideas about how it would like to spend the money.
“We hope to get about a million dollars (from RTT). The first thing I would do would be increase the coverage of security cameras,” Principal Malcolm Hawkins said. “I would spend money on professional training to increase the value of the faculty. We’re a strong school, and I think that’s because we get along. Spending on programs that would help us relate better would be a wise use of money.”
While Tennessee seems mostly excited about the opportunity, some states were decidedly less optimistic. In a rejection of federal control over State issues, Texas quit the race before it even started.
“Texas is on the right path toward improved education, and we would be foolish and irresponsible to place our children’s future in the hands of un-elected bureaucrats and special interest groups thousands of miles away in Washington, virtually eliminating parents’ participation in their children’s education,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said about his state’s decision not to enter.
Race to the Top has been heavily criticized as one more step in America’s attempt to achieve “Big Government,” as well as for not being competitive enough and for shutting down a popular voucher program that showed promising improvements in test results for minority students.
The federal government will not say why some states made it and others did not. States are encouraged to send in applications for a second round of funding (Phase II), which will take place later in the year.
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