Race to the Top Going Nowhere, Everywhere at Once

January 13, 2010

Michigan’s Race to the Top effort has turned into what one superintendent calls a "Keystone Kops" scenario that has made educators frustrated, confused and feeling as though they are getting the bum’s rush.

In its mad dash to submit an application for what might amount to $400 million in federal funding, the Michigan Department of Education has changed the rules again and again as it tries to appease competing concerns of school boards and union leadership.

First told they must sign a "memorandum of understanding," or MOU, for a reform plan they’ve yet to see, school a nd union officials now have a four-day reprieve, a second memorandum and a promise that they will first see a "summary" of the state’s plan to enact wide-ranging reforms.

"It’s been very frustrating, and I don’t mind being quoted on that a bit," said Mona Shores Superintendent Terry Babbitt.

Muskegon County school districts stand to get an estimated $3.1 million in federal funding if the state wins a competitive grant. Muskegon Public Schools would gain the most, more than $1 million, while North Muskegon would get $17,150.

Although the grants are not huge sums, superintendents say in this economic climate they can’t afford to turn away any revenue, especially when it’s going to cost them to implement the state’s Race to the Top reform legislation.

But their heads are spinning from the instructions, new instructions and newest instructions for complying with the state’s application. Oakridge Superintendent Tom Livezey said a half-hour before his school board’s meeting Thursday he was rewriting a resolution required by the state.

"It has definitely been rushed through," Livezey said of the state’s plan.

The state originally required each district to have signatures of the superintendent, school board president and teacher union president on an MOU by today. But with teachers unions balking at the reform plan’s apparent trumping of their bargaining rights, the state on Tuesday removed the requirement for a union signature.

Still believing the signatures of union representatives endorsing the reform plan were needed for the grant application, the state education superintendent on Wednesday negotiated a new MOU to preserve — and some believe even strengthen — union bargaining rights. There was the added concern that charter schools, which don’t have teacher unions, would be the only schools with three signatures on their MOUs.

The state on Wednesday promised a summary of the reform implementation plan by tonight and directed districts to send a "message of intent" to sign an MOU by today. Districts now have until Tuesday to submit one of the MOUs with two or three signatures.

The trouble now is that although union leadership refused to sign the first MOU, school board and administrator associations are advising their members not to sign the second one.

On Thursday, the Montague school board released a tersely worded statement that it "reluctantly" agreed to sign the MOU.

"The lack of clarity regarding the details of actions that schools will be required to perform should they accept (Race to the Top) funding is appalling," the statement reads. "The state and federal departments of education would never allow school districts to respond to their inquiries with such scant detail."

Montague Superintendent Dave Sipka said the federal government put the squeeze on states by not releasing application details until Nov. 15, and tacking on a Jan. 15 deadline. Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the Race to the Top reform legislation, passed as part of the state’s application, on Monday.

The reforms the MOUs agree to are significant, including allowing state takeover of low-performing schools, implementing teacher merit pay, certifying school administrators, raising the dropout age from 16 to 18 and evaluating teachers and administrators based on student performance.

Although school boards are held to implementing the reform law, local superintendents empathized with union leadership being forced to publicly endorse reforms they historically have opposed.

Reeths-Puffer Superintendent Steve Cousins said his district will submit an MOU without pressuring its union to sign.

"We’re not going to hold this over their heads," Cousins said. "I think they were painted into a corner by the state."