State legislators vow to qualify for U.S. education grants : State : Ventura County Star

State legislators vow to qualify for U.S. education grants : State : Ventura County Star:

"Since U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan began circulating proposed guidelines for the program in late July, most of the attention in California has focused on Duncan’s threat to withhold funding to any state that does not allow the use of student test scores as part of its evaluation of teachers. Duncan has specifically cited California as among the states that wouldn’t qualify.

But lawmakers and education officials speaking at a special legislative hearing on the program Wednesday described the issue as a “tempest in a teapot,” in the words of the legislator who wrote the law that includes the language Duncan cites as objectionable."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, vowed lawmakers will do what is necessary to prevent Californians from becoming “bystanders in the Race to the Top.” Echoed Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles: “If we have a firewall, let’s remove it. If we don’t have a firewall, in plain English, let’s just say so.”