(From The NY Daily News, July 30, 2010)
By JOE WILLIAMS
After losing out in round one, New York now has another shot at winning $700 million in federal education funding through the Race to the Top competition – thanks in large part to the Senate Democrats in Albany.
And frankly, had it not been for the leadership of Senate Majority Leader John Sampson and his fellow senators, there’s no way New York would even still be in the race for federal dollars.
Now we just have to finish the job.
It may come as a shock to any New Yorker who’s read a newspaper in the last year that the Senate Democrats have us this close to winning the federal money (think: the embarrassing Senate “coup” or the current budget stalemate), but the truth is that the Senate stood up for the state’s students and pushed through reforms that were widely unpopular. Unpopular with whom? Entrenched special interests, particularly the teachers unions (primarily, the city’s United Federation of Teachers and the New York State United Teachers).
Moreover, they demonstrated that Democrats in New York can be the primary drivers of education reform – something Republicans typically lay claim to.
For that, again, they deserve tremendous credit.
When the applications for the first round of the Race to the Top were due this winter, New York stood pat. The state didn’t pass any significant new reforms, believing that it had done enough to bolster student achievement. Meanwhile Delaware passed legislation to tie student growth to teacher evaluations and Tennessee created a new system for intervening in failing schools.
The result: New York was named a finalist, but when the scores were added up, the state finished 15th of 16 finalists – well out of the running for any of the federal cash. Delaware and Tennessee won $100 million and $500 million, respectively.
New York’s big defeat served as a wakeup call for Sampson and his Democratic caucus, and they decided it was time to get serious about winning the second round of the competition.
This spring, the Senate introduced legislation to lift the charter school cap and supported measures to utilize student performance in teacher evaluations; New York lost major points in both areas in the first round.
In the weeks leading up to the June 1 deadline for second round applications, the powerful teachers unions made several attempts to undermine the spirit of education reform. And there were several moments when it looked like they would succeed.
Fortunately, Sampson and the Senate Democrats stayed true to the competition, and the state passed both the charter cap lift and the critical bill tying teacher evaluations to student performance.
But the work isn’t done.
Now the state is in a position to win, the commitment the Democrats demonstrated for reform needs to be matched by elected officials, school districts and unions across the state.
That’s because federal reviewers will judge New York not only on the scope of reforms passed, but also by the political will and resources the state is ready to expend to make these reforms a reality.
At the moment, there linger serious doubts about whether New York will live up to its promises to provide funding parity to charter schools or implement its ambitious teacher evaluation regimen. Recent indications have been that charter schools are going to get another deep and disproportionate cut to their funding this year.
There are 700 million reasons why the state cannot afford to turn back on reform now.
The Race to the Top competition was designed to encourage states to not only pass ambitious education reforms, but also follow through on them. To date, Sampson and his colleagues have stepped up. Will other Democrats follow their lead and ensure that these reforms are now implemented? Will the state’s elected officials, district leaders and teacher unions help New York win the race?
As the sobering state test scores released this week remind, nothing short of New York’s education future is at stake.
Williams is the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform.