District Faces Trepidation Over Education Funding

January 18, 2010

As the deadline approaches for Colorado to join the race for $4 billion in federal dollars toward education, Poudre School District has joined about 74 districts from the state in getting behind Colorado’s application for the federal Race to the Top program.

The school board voted 5-2 Tuesday to participate in the program. If selected, Colorado could receive $200 million to $400 million that would be distributed among participating districts.

PSD school board members expressed hesitation in signing on for the program, citing concerns that the plan didn’t offer specifics about how districts would implement the requirements in schools and that the door would be open for teachers to be treated unfairly.

"Race to the Top is a better branding of public policy than No Child Left Behind," said board member M.L. Johnson. "It’ s fraught with problems. It’s just unbelievable that public policy worth billions of dollars would be proposed with no outcomes and no metrics for achieving the outcomes specified," he said. Johnson and Patrick Albright were the two board members to vote against allowing the district to be part of the competition.

The Race to the Top grant, announced by President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last spring, requires competing states to outline four goals for closing the achievement gap in schools and improve failing schools. The deadline for Colorado to apply for the grant is Tuesday.

In their applications, states must outline standards and assessments they will have to prepare students for college and the workplace; data systems they will use to track students’ academic growth; how they plan to recruit and retain effective teachers and principals in schools; and their plans to improve failing schools.

Greg Grote, president of the Poudre Education Association, said he was concerned about the district signing on to the state’s plan because he felt there were too many questions still unanswered.

He said PSD schools aren’t plagued by the same issues as other districts in the Front Range and that much of Colorado’s plan caters more to those districts.
"Our needs at Poudre are different than the needs of Aurora or Denver schools," he said.

Grote also expressed concern about closely tying student performance to teachers, saying there are many factors besides who is in front of the classroom that determine student success.
State Sen. Bob Bacon, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, which helped draft the state’s approximately 300-page application, said working o n the application was difficult because school districts in Colorado are autonomous.

"We’re all behind it even though we have gotten behind it with reservation and trepidation," he said. He said the plans for improvement in Colorado’s application will be an improvement for students regardless of whether the state is selected as a grant recipient.

"It’s a way to do what’s right for education regardless of whether or not we wind up getting the (money)," he said.

The state’s application will include a letter of support from the Colorado Education Association, the state-level teachers union. Deborah Fallin, director of public relations for CEA, said while many local groups have chosen not to support their school district’s decision to join the race, the proposal paves the way for improving student performance.

On Friday, Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law a bill requiring the state to monitor schools or programs where public school teachers and principals are trained.