Today the Governor announced that Pennsylvania did not qualify for the federal Race to the Top program, again. This is the second year for this competitive program. We came in 7th last year and only two states were given grants, this year, we came in 18th of 36 states competing with the top ten getting grants. There were three large shortfalls: we don’t have a quick certification program for people who want to teach after years in another profession, only a two year certification process is available; we don’t have a performance evaluation program for tenure and pay regulations; and only 128 of our 500 school districts were willing to sign on to the program. For a Governor who prides himself as an education champion, we aren’t doing very well compared to the other states. This federal program includes accountability standards, which has been the main sticking point for the districts to sign on. When I say districts I mean district teachers’ unions. We have poured hundreds of millions of extra dollars into public education since Ed Rendell has been Governor. The taxpayers deserve better than this.
-John
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