Race to the Top, Or Race to the Middle?

Rachel Sheffield / May 18, 2010

It appears that Race to the Top (RTTT)–the government’s latest attempt to dole out federal dollars for state education budgets–is turning into more of a wild goose chase. Politico reports:

The idea seemed simple: Hold a contest for states to compete for billions in federal aid, right at a moment when school systems are battling budget problems. To win the funding, schools would have to convince Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s team that they were prepared to instill more teacher accountability and tougher standards to help students learn.

But simple is rarely the case when the federal government gets involved.

The first round of the competition awarded grants to just two states–Delaware and Tennessee–out of 41 applicants. And increasingly, more states are signaling that they may not submit applications for round two grants, which are due on June 1^st. So far, Massachusetts, Virginia, Kansas, California, Indiana, Vermont, Wyoming, and South Dakota have indicated that they may not apply for RTTT grants in round two. This despite a written plea from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to governors in an attempt to convince more states to apply. In this April 21^st letter to governors, Duncan wrote: (more…)