Race to the WHAT?

By Robert E. Jensen
The Desert Independent

January 10, 2010

BLYTHE, Calif – Lessons from Dr. Alan Jensen’s past chicanery in seeking an unauthorized four-day school week with the now-defunct AB 868 have apparently been gleaned by his successor, the less-than-candid Dr. Yul Whitney. In another move unauthorized by the Board as well, Dr. Whitney has signed off on a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of California in which Palo Verde USD will be participating in President Obama’s Race to the Top educational reform initiative. The memorandum is signed by Dr. Whitney and Board President Wellman but is dated January 5th.

The deadline for submitting this MOU and application was Friday, January 8th. However, no Special Board meetings were called during the holidays to grant Dr. Whitney permission to pursue this initiative and the paltry funds that come with it. Instead, the item is up for the Board for ratification in the upcoming Trustee meeting to be held Tuesday, Jan. 12 at 6:00 PM.

Action Agenda Item #10 reads as follows:

The Superintendent’s Office submits to the Board of Trustees for ratification a Memorandum of Understanding between Palo Verde Unified School District and the State of California. The purpose of this agreement is to establish a framework of collaboration, as well as articulate specific roles and responsibilities in support of the State in its implementation of an approved Race to the Top grant project. The term of this project begins on last signature and, if the grant is received, ending upon expiration of the grant project period, upon termination for non-compliance, or upon mutual agreement between parties, whichever comes first. Exhibit F.

To read the full MOU, please read Exhibit F by clicking HERE.

The Race to the Top grant is a provision of $700 million to the State of California to be distributed to low-performing schools as an incentive for federally-mandated reforms. Ken Young, Supt. of the Riverside County Office of Education, has cautioned school districts to be very wary of signing on with this program as the costs of implementing the requirements far outweigh the meager amounts of monies each district could glean. In his report, Racing Blindfolded, Supt. Young defined the problem:

"Before we go running off in a race blindfolded we need to make sure Race to the Top is not going to undermine successful local initiatives that have been built with and for our students and communities. It is not at all clear that this latest “education reform du jour” will deliver on its promise. We have strong concerns that instead, it will cause schools to get sidetracked by pushing schools to redirect their efforts and resources to this untested and incomplete model."

To read Supt. Ken Young’s full report, please click HERE.

A number of school boards in Riverside decided last week not to authorize their Superintendents to sign off on such an MOU. Alvord USD decided not to participate because of the large number of “hoops” that may need to be jump through. According to the Press-Enterprise daily newspaper, “Board members agreed the program left too many questions unanswered and may commit the district to ongoing expenses after the one-time federal money runs out. Board members estimated the district might get $65,000 a year if the one-time money is spread over four years.” Two other districts – Corona-Norco and Riverside USD also declined to sign on. Desert Sands USD would only receive about $200,000 if they applied and, again because of unknown mandated costs, has publicly denounced the program.

Mandated costs are not fun to deal with. When the state or federal government writes a law that tells school districts to do things a certain way, the district is commanded or “mandated” to do so. What is not fun is when these changes cost money and the state or the feds never provide the all necessary monies to do so.

A historical example of mandated costs is Special Education – Public Law 94-142 – that demands that the school districts provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education to every student – regardless of mental or physical handicaps. The Federal government has never provided enough monies to properly run Special Education and, as such, this mandated program has always taken huge gouges out of the General Fund in every school district.

The Race to the Top grant program may well have some very unpleasant surprises waiting for those districts who would sign off local control in order to get some extra federal dollars during these budget-shrinking times.

One would be allowing parents to send their children to other school districts if the local schools are unable to raise test scores. This will not affect PVUSD as we are quite isolated, but this could pose a problem for urban districts that abut each other. The loss of ADA would complicate matters with the inability to forecast budgets and properly staff schools.

One concept that would affect Blythe since there are no neighboring school districts (Ehrenberg, since it is in AZ, doesn’t count) is the District being forced to close an elementary school, lay off the staff and lease it to a Charter School organization. That Charter School could then hire back whoever it chooses at a lowered salary and fewer benefits as they like to run at a profit. The District could even open its own Charter School but this would also be a magnet for the “Best and Brightest” and leave the regular schools with the Below and Far Below Basic students; allowing them to further spiral downwards.

Reconstruction is yet another term that can come up. In this instance, only the Principal of a failing school is retained and all staff is terminated – regardless of tenure or seniority. The school could then hire back only those people it wants to retain.

Supt. Young also mentioned that this constitutes a movement towards a national curriculum. Should this happen and a single textbook for each course is mandated for each participating school, he stated that it would be natural for the federal government to assume the purchases as well. As if that would happen.

This is a frightening future. A national curriculum may sound good at first, but it takes away State and local control of the schools more precipitously than does George Bush’s legacy of No Child Left Behind. There is no mention of Federal control of education in the Constitution. For the past fifty years, the phrase “To promote the General Welfare” has been used as an excuse by the Feds to aid, abet and now – possibly control. The first intervention in education was in the days of the Health, Education and Welfare Department. Education in the 1960’s was limited to accounting for Lyndon B. Johnson’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1964 – which gave us all of the entitlement programs for schools mired in poverty - especially Title One. President Bush encroached further by demanding further requirements of schools such as Fully Qualified Teachers, API/AYP performance testing and goal-setting in order to receive Title One Funds. Palo Verde, by the way, is a School-Wide Title One District inasmuch as the Free and Reduced Lunch counts at all sites indicates we serve children of poverty.

So why did Dr. Whitney sign off on the MOU for further control by the Feds without authorization? That’s a good question each board member needs to ask at the upcoming board meeting. It’s also a good question that every member of the teaching community needs to ask as well this coming Tuesday.