Race to the Top -- October 1st??

The clock ticks down on the Governor's imposed deadline of October 1st for the Legislature to write and pass legislation to address the issues outlined in the federal Race to the Top program. In fact, we have essentially 2 weeks left. Meanwhile there are two proposed Senate bills that might accomplish the task (SB X5 1 and SB X5 2).

The federal program has received press in a number of places including Time magazine. Arne Duncan, Sec. of Ed has suggested, "Is California going to lead the race to the top, or are you going to lead the retreat?" The essential requirements that California would have to meet to qualify for the Race to the Top funding would include two things:

• Linking student achievement to evaluations of educators
• Addressing the performance needs of the lowest-achieving 5% of the schools in the state

Other issues that seem to be "on the plate" both at the state and federal levels and have some linkage to Race to the Top, include such items as:

• Open enrollment options (statewide) for parents that have students in low-performing schools
• Possible reconstitution of individual schools and districts that don't appear to be performing well
• Raising the "cap" on the number of charter schools allowed
• Sharing of data between educational agencies
• Adoption of national curriculum standards (rather than state)

These are obviously all public policy issues that have "far-reaching" effects. October 1st seems awfully close to have a reasonable debate on these matters -- for the potential of one-time federal funds. Stay tuned!!