School grant loss stuns Colorado
Ritter 'extremely disappointed' about Race to the Top denialby Joe HanelHerald Denver Bureau
Article Last Updated; Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:00AMDENVER -
Ritter 'extremely disappointed' about Race to the Top denialby Joe HanelHerald Denver Bureau
Article Last Updated; Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:00AMDENVER -
Colorado has again lost an Obama Administration competition for school reform, despite the Legislature's passage of a teacher tenure bill that turned Democrats against each other.
Gov. Bill Ritter was "extremely disappointed" and said the people in Obama's Education Department who judged the applications don't understand the West.
Except for Hawaii, no state west of Tennessee was among the 10 winners. Colorado finished 17th out of 19 finalists.
The loss means Colorado will miss out on a $175 million Race to the Top grant to fund some of the reforms it has already passed.
"We are undaunted about what we believe to be the right reform agenda for the state of Colorado," Ritter said.
Race to the Top encouraged states to set high standards for students, and then use tests and data to hold teachers and school districts accountable for student performance.
Colorado officials thought they had done all that. Over the past three years, the state has become a national leader in adopting high standards for students and using test score data to help track individual students' progress, Ritter said. The teacher-tenure bill passed in May was the boldest in the country, he said.
That bill caused a civil war among Democrats when the main teachers' union fought it. Under the bill, teachers would not get the job protections of tenure unless their students performed well.
House Education Committee Chairman Mike Merrifield was a lead opponent of the tenure bill.
"I'm disappointed and frustrated that we passed seriously flawed legislation that was sold by many advocates as the way to get Race to the Top funding," said Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs.
Colorado was counting on Race to the Top money to help implement reforms the Legislature had passed, Education Commissioner Dwight Jones said.
"We are still in a position to get the results that we want. What Race to the Top was going to do for us is to accelerate that reform agenda. So it does slow down some of those pieces forward, but we'll still figure this out," Jones said.
When the Race to the Top competition was announced in 2009, Democratic senators and Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien had said Colorado's education reforms had made the state a favorite to win.
But only Delaware and Tennessee won the first round earlier this year.
Tuesday's Round Two winners were the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island.
Five judges, whose identities are unknown to Colorado leaders, scored the application. Two of the judges rated Colorado much lower than the other three.
"That leads me to believe that there are some flaws in how objective the measurements really are," Ritter said.
Ritter expressed his disappointment to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a phone call Tuesday morning.
O'Brien led the team that put together Colorado's application. She speculated that the judges were confused by Colorado's tradition of locally controlled school districts.
"They clearly in Washington have a tin ear about how we do things in the West," O'Brien said. "It's a real issue if the Western way of doing things doesn't seem to be understandable by people who have an East Coast perspective."
Duncan has requested $1.35 billion to pay for a possible third round of Race to the Top next year, he said in a news release Tuesday.
"We had many more competitive applications than money to fund them in this round," Duncan said.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
Gov. Bill Ritter was "extremely disappointed" and said the people in Obama's Education Department who judged the applications don't understand the West.
Except for Hawaii, no state west of Tennessee was among the 10 winners. Colorado finished 17th out of 19 finalists.
The loss means Colorado will miss out on a $175 million Race to the Top grant to fund some of the reforms it has already passed.
"We are undaunted about what we believe to be the right reform agenda for the state of Colorado," Ritter said.
Race to the Top encouraged states to set high standards for students, and then use tests and data to hold teachers and school districts accountable for student performance.
Colorado officials thought they had done all that. Over the past three years, the state has become a national leader in adopting high standards for students and using test score data to help track individual students' progress, Ritter said. The teacher-tenure bill passed in May was the boldest in the country, he said.
That bill caused a civil war among Democrats when the main teachers' union fought it. Under the bill, teachers would not get the job protections of tenure unless their students performed well.
House Education Committee Chairman Mike Merrifield was a lead opponent of the tenure bill.
"I'm disappointed and frustrated that we passed seriously flawed legislation that was sold by many advocates as the way to get Race to the Top funding," said Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs.
Colorado was counting on Race to the Top money to help implement reforms the Legislature had passed, Education Commissioner Dwight Jones said.
"We are still in a position to get the results that we want. What Race to the Top was going to do for us is to accelerate that reform agenda. So it does slow down some of those pieces forward, but we'll still figure this out," Jones said.
When the Race to the Top competition was announced in 2009, Democratic senators and Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien had said Colorado's education reforms had made the state a favorite to win.
But only Delaware and Tennessee won the first round earlier this year.
Tuesday's Round Two winners were the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island.
Five judges, whose identities are unknown to Colorado leaders, scored the application. Two of the judges rated Colorado much lower than the other three.
"That leads me to believe that there are some flaws in how objective the measurements really are," Ritter said.
Ritter expressed his disappointment to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a phone call Tuesday morning.
O'Brien led the team that put together Colorado's application. She speculated that the judges were confused by Colorado's tradition of locally controlled school districts.
"They clearly in Washington have a tin ear about how we do things in the West," O'Brien said. "It's a real issue if the Western way of doing things doesn't seem to be understandable by people who have an East Coast perspective."
Duncan has requested $1.35 billion to pay for a possible third round of Race to the Top next year, he said in a news release Tuesday.
"We had many more competitive applications than money to fund them in this round," Duncan said.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
