States Opt Out of School Funding (US)

June 2, 2010

More than two dozen states reapplied Tuesday for millions of dollars in "Race to the Top" education grants, but nine decided to sit out this second round of the competition.

For them, the hurdles to win a share of $3.4 billion proved to be too high. Some wary of relinqui shing their tradition of local control. Teachers unions fought legislation that would tie faculty reviews to student performance. And local lawmakers were unable to pass bills to improve their states’ chances in the contest.

Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Oregon, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming all sidelined themselves, joining a handful of states that didn’t bother applying the first time around.

"The problem is one of the criteria is to adopt a common core set of standards — academic set of standards — to get the points you need to be competitive, and we can’t do that," Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" Tuesday. "We’ve had a great set of standards here in Virginia for 15 years, and we think that common set of standards ought to be a floor not a ceiling. And they would require us essentially to reduce the quality of Virginia standards, and we just can’t do that."

But five new states – Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada and Washington – also jumped into the competition for the first time. In all, 35 states and the District of Columbia submitted applications for Tuesday’s 4:30 pm deadline.

"This took a lot of hard work and political courage,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. “It required administrators, elected officials, union leaders, teachers, and advocates to work together and embrace a common reform agenda. Every state that applied now has a blueprint for raising educational quality across America."

The department intends to select winners over the summer, before the September deadline to disperse the funds. Depending on the size of the winning states, 10 to 15 applicants could win Race to the Top grants.