Cutting California from 'Race to the Top' is bad for the country
One in eight American children lives in California, where the budget crisis has already hit public schools hard and resulted in teacher layoffs.
Blowback
As I started reading The Times' March 4 article, "California disqualified from receiving federal school funds," I hoped the story would examine the devastating impact the Obama administration's decision to disqualify our state from a round of "Race to the Top" grants would have on our schools and children. Instead, The Times devoted much of its story to finding explanations for why California was cut off from the first round of grants; the idea that reform-wary teachers unions deserve blame underlies many of the comments in the article. Those of us involved in education (I conduct research in mathematics education) are all too familiar with this type of finger-pointing, which does little to create public discourse about critical issues.
Everyone in the U.S. should care about the state of public education in California, and here's why: Roughly 1 out of every 8 children in the United States lives in California. The 6.9 million school-age children here outnumber the total populations of all but 12 states. This fact should have given U.S. Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan some pause before making his decision.
It is hard to pinpoint the true costs of cutting off our schools from this money, but I do believe they are great. One major setback we can identify easily is the loss of our newest and often most energetic and passionate teachers, who work at the schools that need them most yet are the first victims of funding cuts.
Teachers are our front line. We ask them not only to teach our children core subjects (and hopefully some art and music as well), but they are also responsible for identifying children in need and students with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and less understood needs such as autism. Parents call on teachers to challenge and inspire their children. But how can they have the time, energy and resources to do so in the current environment?