California and Federal funding

California’s application Race to the Top (RTTT) is “in the mail” to Washington, D.C. – which is no surprise. For varied reasons, some districts have and some districts have not signed on to what, at this point, is an unclear but real commitment (i.e., a blank check on district obligations). While many of us would/do support reform of our public education system, I am not sure that RTTT has any promise to get it done.

It will be interesting to see the reaction of the feds to California’s RTTT application. On a national scale, I don’t hear California being mentioned as a likely recipient of RTTT funds – which actually makes sense. If the feds are watching they will see that California has used stimulus (ARRA) funds not to enhance things but to essentially “backfill” state deficits – the net effect being that ARRA has “bailed” the state out not local school districts, local communities, or local people. At the same time, there continues to be evidence that, by any measure, California has one of the lowest commitments of per student funding of any state in the nation (hardly a resounding statement of commitment to educational reform). The other part of this state discussion is already moved off to the 2nd round of RTTT funding (this spring?) – “maybe we will qualify for that.”

The Governor is in a tough spot. He is in his final months of office, and he has not been particularly successful at bringing disparate groups together for commonly supported solutions. Through an “accounting trick” the Governor is promising to “protect” educational funding while reducing the same funding by $250 per student ($11 million to us). What makes us think that we will even have an authentic, balanced 2010-11 budget BEFORE he leaves office as Governor? In a totally incongruous environment -- At the Gubernatorial appointed State Board of Education (SBE) meeting that is asking what “program improvement” school districts are doing to improve and reform the school system – local school district Superintendents are saying, “I am here today to report to SBE, but going home this afternoon to legally balance our budget and layoff staff.”

I don’t know about you, but as I look at all of this from a federal RTTT perspective, I wonder “how in the world” that we would ever expect the feds to make that kind of commitment and investment in California. I suspect that until we begin to show signs and take initiative in California of getting our own house in order, the feds will be slow to sign on to assist us.