Building on the many March madness analogies of late (Andy) and (Ed Week), it seems that the West has been shunned in the Race to the Top, much like the Pac-10 in basketball this year (not a single Pac 10 team even near the top 25). Of the 24 states west of the Mississippi, only 2 states Colorado and Louisiana made it into the final round of RttT and it is hard to think of Louisiana as a western state. Western states were once thought to be the states where progressives had their greatest influence. Unfortunately, for years there has been little progressive policies when it comes to the approach that western states have taken towards public education. The western states were simply too far behind to catch up in the sprint leading up to the Race to the Top.

 California perhaps sprinted the hardest of all states in vying for RttT funding. In a whirlwind of special session activity, the state passed a set of policies to attempt to make them more competitive in the race. They removed a barrier between student and teacher data in the states developing longitudinal data system, adopted some meaningful school choice policies including the ability for parents to petition for new school governance for low performing schools, and implemented bold turnaround strategies for the bottom 5 percent of schools. But the only area where California may be considered ahead of other states is in their approach to low performing schools and charter schools. Unfortunately one of the areas where the most policy work still needs to be done is teacher policies, and unfortunately for California teacher policies (rightfully so) were the most important category for RttT points (138 out of 500 points). So, while California’s new policies are mostly headed in the right direction, it seems that the judges saw it as too little to late.

 The other major barrier to California having a viable RttT proposal is being highlighted around the state today in the “Day of Action” as thousands of students, parents and faculty from K-12 and higher education take to the streets to protest the devastating budget situation that schools in the state face. And K-12 schools have taken the largest hit. The state’s Legislative Analyst Office recently reported that per pupil funding in K-12 has fallen 11.3% since 2007-08. This is likely the largest reduction of all states and this is with the large influx of stimulus funding. Just think how much worse it can get when the stimulus funding runs out. In the coming weeks, districts across the state will tell us how bad it is when they issue tens of thousands of pink slips to teachers. 

Will the Sprint Become a Marathon?

So, what happens next in states like California that came up short in round I? Do they continue to make improvements to the their education policies in hopes of being more competitive in round II, or do they take a Texas approach and walk away from the federal game. If the second round were the end of the road, then you could understand why states that did not do well in round I would walk away. But, these policies are not going away after round II of Race to the Top is over. There is the $1.35 billion in the President’s budget to continue Race to the Top. There is $3.5 billion in School Improvement funds to support the school turnaround portion of the RttT agenda. And then there is ESEA reauthorization which will emphasize the same type of policies. So, states like California should not be discouraged. They should acknowledge that they are headed in the right direction, but still have a lot more to do to catch up to these states who have been working on education reforms for the last decade instead of cramming it all into a 3 month special session. These policy reforms are going to be a marathon, and giving up is not much of an option