Lessons from Race to the Top winners
The big news in education earlier this week was that Delaware and Tennessee were the winners in the first round of the Department of Education's Race to the Top competition. These states will win $600 million -- $100 million to Delaware and $500 million to Tennessee -- out of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund.
The more interesting question is why these two states won, and why California came in a dismal 27th out of 40 states that submitted applications for funds in this round. Education Week is reporting that support from all stakeholders -- most notably the teachers unions -- proved to be the essential ingredient for a successful application. However, the magazine also speculates that being a swing vote in Congress also didn't hurt:
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del . . . are the ranking minority members in the subcommittees in their respective chambers dealing with K-12 policy, and both are considered leading moderate voices on education who have worked well with Democrats in the past. In fact, in an interview with the Washington Post's David Broder, Secretary Duncan singled out Alexander and Castle as the two Republicans who had offered ideas that were incorporated into the administration's ESEA [the Elementary and Secondary Education Act]blueprint.
Of course, the Obama administration has stressed repeatedly that politics would play absolutely no part in Race to the Top and set up a process intended to keep just these sort of considerations out. But the fact that Tennessee and Delaware apparently submitted such stellar applications might be a lucky break for the administration as its works to get GOP support for its ESEA ideas.
Along with the winning applications, the Department of Education also released the comments and reviewer scores on unsuccessful applications, including California's. Analysis of the state's
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