Governor Ritter was absolutely right in detecting “some flaws” and questionable objectivity in the judging process that deprived Colorado of millions of desperately needed Race To The Top (RTTT) dollars.
No mystery as to the villain of the piece either. Said local education reform advocate Van Schoales “It seems pretty clear to me that in Colorado, if the CEA would have supported this, then Colorado would have likely won.”
National reform leaders were equally stunned and even more blunt “Colorado was robbed” said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. Frederick Hess, director of education studies at the American Enterprise Institute agreed with Governor Ritter that the process was flawed: “the fact that Colorado could pass Senate Bill 191 and get dinged on teaching means there was a fundamental problem with the way the criteria was set. It suggested it was more about grant-writing, presentation skills and union buy-in than reform”.
Any doubt about the close link between the RTTT rebuff and CEA displeasure over SB-191 was dispelled by Democratic representative Mike Merrifield’s bizarre demand for an apology from the bill’s supporters.
A broader national perspective was added by an April Washington Post article prophetically titled “In Race to the Top, It Helps to Wear the Union Label” which noted that political appointees set the rules, select the reviewers, name winners, and allocate dollars in all RTTT competitions. The article further noted that the politically powerful National Education Association (NEA)- parent to CEA- is chief among the interest groups influencing the RTTT process.
As further example of the shabby political dealing that sadly infected the RTTT process, one can contrast Bill Ritter’s highly principled support of SB-191 with the rank opportunism of Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist. When the Florida legislature passed a sweeping teacher quality bill the President of the Florida teachers union (FEA) bluntly warned that the state’s application for Round Two RTTT dollars was doomed if that bill became law. Crist – knowing the political potency of the FEA and already reinventing himself for his upcoming Senate run- promptly vetoed the bill.
Who says bad behavior doesn’t pay? When the RTTT results were announced there was Florida in the Winners Circle in line for several hundred million dollars- much of which by right should be coming to Colorado.
Conversely we see evidence of good behavior being punished – not just in Colorado’s painful loss of funding, but also in the political retribution being meted out by CEA to those Democratic legislators who had the temerity to vote for SB-191.
Prominent among them is State Rep. Christine Scanlon (D-Dillon) who has been utterly abandoned by CEA in her tough re-election fight as “payback” for her yes vote on SB-191. Even in an election year where Democrats will have to struggle to hold their majorities, CEA apparently thinks it more important to send a message to Democrats who cross them.
It’s not exactly news that politics is hardball, particularly where money and power intersect. Thus its not necessarily a coincidence that nine of the ten RTTT winners voted Democratic in the last Presidential election – owing in significant part to major money and manpower provided by teacher unions.
Hopefully the lesson to be learned from all of this is not that Coloradans should think twice before advancing any education reform that might annoy CEA. The passage of SB-191 was a bi-partisan act of character and courage that represents one of the brightest chapters in Colorado’s long and arduous struggle to redeem the educational future of its children. To allow the RTTT setback – however distressing and unfair – to derail or even slow the cause of reform would be a tragedy.
It is far better that we should rally around the optimism and idealism of freshman State Senator Michael Johnston (D-Denver) who wrote SB-191 and now wisely says that “this would have been nice money to have, but there is nothing that will cease to exist without the funding.” How true. The needs of our children, the determination of our parents, and the imperative for our state and country still exist and constitute an unchanging summons to action for all of us.
William Moloney’s columns have appeared in the Wall St. Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Baltimore Sun. He is a former Colorado Education Commissioner (1997-2007). EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
