RALEIGH — When North Carolina lost in the first round of grants from the Obama administration’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top education initiative, state policymakers did little to embrace the reforms Washington suggested would provide a better chance to win funding the second time around.
Indeed, the local officials shepherding the state’s application through Washington suggested they could sit on their hands and still collect the cash. State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison said in December, “When I first saw the [Race to the Top] guidelines, I though they were crafted for North Carolina.”
Harrison may be psychic. Despite a legislative session that enacted no significant school reforms, on Aug. 24 North Carolina entered the winners’ circle. The Tar Heel State ranked ninth among the 10 states receiving funds, getting $400 million over four years. North Carolina’s overall tally — 441.6 of a potential 500 points — landed us 0.8 points ahead of 10th-place Ohio and 3.8 points above No. 11 New Jersey.
Race to the Top was touted as a program rewarding states that intervened aggressively to fix failing schools. Instead, it’s looking more and more like a program valuing conformity over innovation, and hidebound interest groups over reformers.
For example, Race to the Top awarded points to states receiving endorsements from those champions of reform, teacher unions — up to 25 of the 500 points awarded collaboration among “stakeholders” — lawmakers, bureaucrats, businesspeople, PTA groups, and, you guessed it, unions. States also got credit for dumping their own accountability standards and adopting federal guidelines, even if Washington’s benchmarks were less stringent and neglected content relevant to local students (such as state history or civics).
The biggest howler, though, was the scoring for the state’s charter school policies. Remember, we were less than 3.8 points away from losing the race. With a lousy score on the 40-point section covering charter schools, North Carolina would have finished out of the money.
Even so, the reviewers gave us a stellar — and undeserved — perfect score of eight points in the category “equitably funding charter schools.” Reviewers unanimously lauded the statute requiring charter schools to get equal funding from the state and school districts.
That may be what the law says. But some district have not provided that funding, and, as Jim Stegall reported in the August issue of Carolina Journal, lawmakers and state school officials have advised districts to hang onto money charters are entitled to receive.
Charter operators have been forced to sue the districts to get equal funding — and they’ve won, with regularity. But districts continue to withhold money and Raleigh educrats continue to abet the lawbreaking.
The danger — no, the likelihood — is that members of the state’s education establishment will view victory in Race to the Top as an affirmation that the status quo is working. It isn’t, as thousands of students, parents, and teachers can confirm. As policymakers grow complacent, kids suffer. And that’s a loss for everyone.
This editorial appeared in the September 2010 issue of Carolina Journal.