More Dollars for Race to the Top?

by Frederick M. Hess  •  Jan 19, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Cross-posted from The Enterprise Blog

http://www.frederickhess.org/2010/01/more-dollars-for-race-to-the-top

President Obama and his team have recently made it clear that "a new era of responsibility" has dawned and the time of fiscal recklessness is past (yes, he also announced this "a new era of responsibility" a year ago in his inaugural address, but apparently this time he means it). And in next week's State of the Union address he's going to signal that he's now ready to tackle out-of-control spending. So, naturally, as reported in the Washington Post, this morning the president is heading out to a Fairfax County school to announce a new $1.35 billion education initiative.

This money will expand the federal Race to the Top (RTT) program, an interesting, and interestingly timed, gesture, for at least three reasons. First, as Andy Smarick points out in his new Education Next article (and has pointed out previously in his Stimulus Watch reports), there is little reason to be confident that stimulus-related spending has thus far done anything more than subsidize the status quo. Second, RTT's staunchest advocates have made it clear that they think the promise of this grant program depends upon its selectivity and the administration's willingness to fund only states that are serious about transformative change. Maybe I'm slow, but it strikes me that adding more money to the kitty makes that a tougher job. Finally, the first wave of applications to RTT are due today. Might it not make sense to, oh, I don't know, wait a couple days to see what the first wave of proposals look like before calling for another billion-plus in borrowed funds to expand the program?

Now, some observers are inevitably put off when they hear any concerns voiced regarding RTT. After all, it has been one of the few federal initiatives in the past year to attract bipartisan support and that can be celebrated by both Democrats for Education Reform and David Brooks. So, in deference to delicate sensibilities, I won't rehash the various concerns here. I'll only note that there are yet-unanswered questions about whether states and districts will comply with the spirit of this grant program once they get their dollars, and whether the handful of headline-grabbing changes—which RTT has undeniably, and helpfully, encouraged (to charter school restrictions and state data systems)—will reflect the bulk of the consultant-crafted state proposals when it comes to the majority of the law's 19 (!) mandated "priorities."

One other thought worth contemplating as the president calls for new dollars. Just today, CNN Money did a new story reporting "More and More States on Budget Brink." The story cites both the substantial cuts that loom for states and the reluctance of state officials to squarely address these. Here, I truly fear that RTT has done far more harm than good. Dozens of state departments of education have been fixated on chasing RTT grant dollars and the joyous work of crafting new programs. The Department of Education estimated that it would take at least 680 hours just to assemble these grant proposals, and Sam Dillon has reported that many state officials regard that as a ludicrously lowball estimate.

Rather than focusing on how and where to cut, and how to use the fiscal crisis to make possible the kind of rethinking that our schools need, state education leaders have been only too happy to dream up expansive jargon-laden proposals and fan the illusion that winning RTT grants will forestall the need for states to make unpleasant cuts. It's looking like RTT has slowed the likelihood that already timid state-level education leaders would address the need to tackle unsustainable spending. But it also looks like the president's new proposal means we may have at least another year to test that hypothesis.

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