1. It’s great to see a budget request to extend the Race to the Top competitive grant program. Here’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan:
“If a state is getting consensus [supporting its grant application] but doing it by driving the status quo, we won’t be that interested,” he said in a telebriefing. “But we’re confident that we’re going to have a set of states that are able both to push a strong reform agenda and get all the adults working together. Those are the states we’re going to invest in.”
The states (and, now, districts) that want the money have to sign up to get more of their students into college. They also have to rationalize the evaluation of teachers, tying their pay to student progress, andmake it possible to gather standardized data about students. The states are scrambling to participate in this competitive grant program, and that’s driving reform. It’s a big deal that these aren’t block grants handed out evenly to each state actor.
2. It’s also great to see the second stage of the competitive broadband grants program run by the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture going public. DOC’s NTIA will be prioritizing “projects that will deploy middle mile broadband infrastructure with a commitment to offer new or substantially upgraded service to community anchor institutions.” This is the “comprehensive communities” emphasis. Ag’s RUS will be focusing on funding last mile projects. Total for this round: $4.8 billion.
3. Massachusetts: it’s just one seat.