The Race to the Top

The primary issues on my mind, as co-president of the West Sonoma County Teachers Association in these past two months, has been whether to sign the MOU with District and opt to apply for Obama’s proposed Federal Race to the Top Funds. The signature would support the District in pursuing the grant application for RTTT. Our union leadership had been in close negotiations with the Arnie Duncan, Secretary of Education, about the final wording of the program. In late October hopeful signs were coming from Washington. The Department of Education had agreed to change the wording about teacher evaluation. The RTTT legislation would not require testing results as the sole measure of teacher success. Instead as the CTA had requested, testing results would become one of many measures to evaluate teachers. The CTA then opened the door for local CTA Chapters to sign the Memorandum of Understanding in applying for the funds.

Since then several factors have entered the mix. Most importantly the final word on what participation on RTTT will require is not complete. Last Monday, January 4th, Casey Shea and I met with Keller McDonald to talk about the pros and cons of signing on to participation in Race to the Top. We had formal letter supplied by the CTA to the district prepared to make all rules that impacted teachers negotiable. On Tuesday, January 6th I went to our local Sonoma County Educators Council meeting. Both the Santa Rosa Teachers Association and the San Rosa School District decided not to sign. Although many districts in the state had already signed on to the plan, conversation at the meeting started to run against the proposal. Then Larry Allen received an email from David Sanchez, President of CTA. Mr. Sanchez recommended “Do not sign the MOU.”

Since the district had to make a decision by this past Friday, I immediately emailed Keller McDonald and told him that the prospects looked grim for our local to sign on for RTTT. Your Rep Council met at El Molino High School on Thursday. A proposal to sign on with the District for Race to the Top Funds died without having a second to demand a vote. I emailed Keller later that evening. In the morning Keller wrote back to say that the district would not be applying for Race to the Top funding. In his words “To apply without the support of the Association would be like rolling a snowball uphill.”

On Saturday morning at the Redwood Council meeting of Northern California Association members Dean Vogel, Vice President of the California Teachers Association, spoke and gave an eloquent overview of the problems inherent in the entire Race to the Top Proposal. The problems are also endemic with the Obama Administration’s entire approach to educational reform. Look for the article in this newsletter: The Three Pillars of Race to the Top.