The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 5 Utah school districts are applying for Race to the Top money under the Federal Department of Education program that lets districts completely bypass their state office of education and seek federal money. From the Federal announcement:
‘Race to the Top helped bring about groundbreaking education reforms in states across the country. Building off that success, we’re now going to help support reform at the local level with the new district competition,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We want to help schools become engines of innovation through personalized learning so that every child in America can receive the world-class public education they deserve. The Race to the Top-District competition will help us meet that goal.’”
This is a colossally bad idea for these districts as they will certainly come under direct strings from the Federal government and lose what limited protection the state office of education can provide to them where those strings apply. From the article:
The Granite, Ogden and Provo school districts plan to seek $20 million to $30 million each; the Morgan County School District will likely apply for $5 million to $10 million; and the Washington County School District plans to apply for $30 million to $40 million, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
If you live in one of these school districts I would encourage you to speak with your school board members and help them change their minds.
It should not be up to the Federal Government to dole out large awards of money which come from the entire nation (or increase national debt) to fund a few select winners. Money that funds education should be as local as possible so the people paying for the education take an interest in the actual results of education.
I am glad that my children are done with their public school education & that my grandkids who live in the Granite District are being homeschooled.
I guess the school boards in Washington County should go into a Government Class and hopefully in that class they will learn that the Federal Government has wrongfully grabbed school lands that could be used to supply to our local schools the money they need. They’re called school trust lands. Why would you want The Federal Gov. to get more control of our monies….?
What are the mandates/requirements connected with these grants?
I don’t think those will be revealed until the awards are made. There is a 100% guarantee there will be mandates. You don’t get federal funds without them.
What are these districts thinking? I was encouraged to not see Alpine on that list. I agree with Oak, federal funds always have strings…more like tentacles that wrap and strangle true education.
I am grateful that most of my grandchildren are in charter schools, but my understanding is that Charters have to go the way of the state, so we need to be vigilant about abolishing and preventing Common Core in any form!!
Charter schools are public schools. They just have a little more freedom than district schools because parents have more authority to run the schools. This can be good or bad depending on the direction of the school and the way it’s governed. Charters are subject to all the strings of federal and state regulations because they take public money to run them. One reason they were created is to compete with private schools and draw people away from independent education toward government controlled education.
Many people think charter schools are private. They are not. Charters are public schools. They are free to the student. What’s that mean? They are paid for by tax dollars. They make the gov’t bigger. Charters have to follow all the federal and state guidelines as public schools. The teachers are trained in the same universities and professional development centers.
Free online schools and programs for homeschoolers which give parents money and ‘stuff’ each month for signing up are not much different. They are govt funded, gather data, have to follow Common Core and other public school laws. When public schools, public charters, and free online schools and programs all line up for the same federal and state money and have to follow the same guidelines, there is less and less real choice in education. It’s like choosing between door number 1, 2 or 3 when they all lead to the same thing, the outcome that Progressives want you to choose. Do a little digging. There are more doors to choose from.