newjerseynewsroom.com

State loses out on as much as $400 million in federal aid

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

UPDATED

The state government came out a loser Tuesday in the final round of competition for federal Race to the Top aid, a set back that cost New Jersey the opportunity to gain up to $400 million in badly needed education funding.

"While I am disappointed that New Jersey, having been chosen as a finalist, was not ultimately selected as a recipient at the end of this highly competitive process, our commitment to bold, meaningful reform remains firm,'' state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said. "This process has allowed us to move quickly and vigorously to craft much-needed education reforms, while securing the unanimous, bipartisan support of the legislature for the plan embodied in our Race to the Top application.

"This fall we must act swiftly to implement the education reforms the people of New Jersey deserve and demand to transform schools in our state that are failing, improve the quality of education for every New Jersey child and challenge the status quo wherever it is necessary," Schundler added.

New Jersey was ranked 11th going into the final round. Its final score was three points short of the lowest ranked state to receive funding, Ohio. It is the second straight that the state government has failed to finish in the money.

The U.S. DOE said Race to the Top aid will impact 13.6 million students, and 980,000 teachers in 25,000 schools.

The other winners are Georgia, $400 million; Maryland, $250 million; Massachusetts, $250 million; North Carolina, $400 million and Ohio, $400 million.

"These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children," Secretary Duncan said. "Every state that applied showed a tremendous amount of leadership and a bold commitment to education reform. The creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking. We set a high bar and these states met the challenge."

While peer reviewers rated the 10 aid recipients as having the highest scoring plans, very few points separated them from the remaining applications. The deciding factor on the number of winners selected hinged on both the quality of the applications and the funds available.

The 10 winning applicants have adopted what is described as rigorous common, college- and career-ready standards in reading and math, created pipelines and incentives to put the most effective teachers in high-need schools, and all have alternative pathways to teacher and principal certification.

New Jersey's effort was clouded by a last minute dispute over the application involving Gov. Chris Christie and the New Jersey Education Association, the statewide teachers' union. NJEA leaders and Schundler agreed on a compromise application but the governor set the pact aside and the union pulled out its support.

"That application had pledges of support from close to 400 of our local education associations, as well as from NJEA," Barbara Keshishian, the union's president said. "Yet Governor Christie chose political gamesmanship over the best interests of New Jersey's students and taxpayers. He broke with his own commissioner and submitted his own application, and when it made the list of finalists, he openly boasted that he didn't need the support of NJEA and its members, despite our helping to craft an application designed to bring real reform to New Jersey's schools.

"His irrational, ideological hatred of NJEA — which led him to throw his own Commissioner of Education under the school bus for cooperating, rather than conflicting, with NJEA — has led to utter failure, and the loss of desperately needed funds for our public schools,'' Keshishian added. "Maybe this costly lesson will convince Governor Christie to realize that collaboration is preferable to confrontation when it comes to building consensus around sound public policy."

The governor's office had no comment on the loss of the aid or the NJEA accusations.

Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said of loss of the opportunity for school aid, "Certainly this is disappointing news for New Jersey's education community. I trust Commissioner Schundler did his best in presenting the administration's proposal.

"New Jersey is still in line for $270 million in new federal aid, which after today is more important than ever,'' Sweeney said. "With the new school year about to start, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that the investments we are making in our public schools this year are being maximized.

"There will be plenty of time for Monday morning quarterbacking once the full set of ratings is released and we can see exactly where this proposal fell short,'' the senator added. "Until that time, however, it's going to be hard not to wonder if the alleged lack of communication between the governor and Commissioner Schundler has had expensive consequences."

"We had many more competitive applications than money to fund them in this round," Duncan said. "We're very hopeful there will be a Phase 3 of Race to the Top and have requested $1.35 billion dollars in next year's budget. In the meantime, we will partner with each and every state that applied to help them find ways to carry out the bold reforms they've proposed in their applications."

A total of 46 states and the District of Columbia put together education reform plans to apply for Race to the Top in Phases 1 and 2. Over the course of the Race to the Top competition, 35 states and the District of Columbia have adopted rigorous common, college- and career-ready standards in reading and math, and 34 states have changed laws or policies to improve education.

Every state that applied has already done the hard work of collaboratively creating a comprehensive education reform agenda. In the coming months, the U.S. DOE plans to bring all states together to help ensure the success of their work implementing reforms around college- and career-ready standards, data systems, great teachers and leaders, and school turnarounds.

In addition to the reforms supported by Race to the Top, the U.S. DOE has made resources available through reform programs like the Investing in Innovation Fund, the Teacher Incentive Fund, and the School Improvement Grants under Title I.

Through all of these programs, the U.S. DOE will be distributing almost $10 billion to support reform in states and local communities.

"As we look at the last 18 months, it is absolutely stunning to see how much change has happened at the state and local levels, unleashed in part by these incentive programs," Duncan said.