"Familiar old battles are holding up state's Race to the Top effort"
With a deadline approaching to apply for up to $700 million in federal aid for public schools, state legislators are still debating how to proceed.
That debate reprises long-running disagreements between the California Teachers Association and education reform groups, fought out by their respective surrogates in Sacramento.
It may make for grand political theater, but millions of schoolchildren stand to lose if they can't reach a sensible compromise.
There's no question that California schools are struggling. Too many high school graduates require remedial math and English classes in college — if they pursue a higher education at all. Drop-out rates are unacceptable, with at least one in five students not finishing high school. The state has fallen near the bottom nationally in funding and academics, receiving a D grade in student achievement in Education Week magazine's school survey this year.
None of these problems will be eliminated by Race to the Top, the U.S. Department of Education's $4.35 billion grant program. California's potential share — $350 million to $700 million — is less than 2 percent of what the state spends on K-12 education annually.
What an infusion of federal money could do is restore some of the teaching positions eliminated by budget cuts and pay