WASHINGTON — States are jockeying for a new $5 billion pot of education money even before the contest has begun.
The Obama administration opens the competition today for grants it wants used for ideas such as charter schools or judging teachers based on student test scores. Applications are due in January, and the first round of grants will go out in April.
Fewer than half the states are likely to win the money, and several have rewritten education laws and cut deals with unions to boost their chances.
“States have been doing some things to get in the ballpark,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. “Now states have to think about how they win. We’re going to reward excellence here.”
President Barack Obama’s agenda is controversial; national teachers unions, typically Democratic allies, have chastised him for relying too heavily on test scores and charter schools when the administration first proposed rules for the competition.
Their criticism is tempered now.
“The department worked really hard to find the right balance,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Unions had argued that student achievement is much more than a score on a standardized test, in part because only about one-third of instructors teach subjects and grades that are actually tested.
In response, the Education Department changed the rules to say that teachers and principals must be judged on several measures.
Colorado Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien has been leading the state’s Race to the Top efforts. On Friday, she and Colorado Education Commissioner Dwight Jones will brief the State Board of Education on the findings of work groups that have been developing the state’s strategy to win.
Denver Post staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer contributed to this report.
