Race to the Top Update
As many of you may have read, yesterday was the deadline for Florida
districts to submit their signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
to the State DOE for participation in the Federal Race to the Top
grant.
Pasco, like most districts
signed and submitted the MOU, but did not get the union to agree to
sign. No one yet knows how the lack of union buy-in will affect
the State application, but unions around the State stand ready to
reconsider if certain changes are made.
Teaching is critically important work, and most educators can’t
imagine doing anything else; it’s our calling. So when the U.S.
Department of Education announced Race to the Top – the nation’s
largest competitive education grant program – and called upon
education stakeholders to work collaboratively to develop proposals,
The Florida Education
Association (FEA) and local unions like USEP looked forward to
partnering with the Florida Department of Education
and local school boards
to secure the grant and improve public education in Florida.
However, we were sorely disappointed last month when the Florida
Education Commissioner Eric Smith released the content of the Race
to the Top Memorandum of Understanding (MOU),
a legally binding agreement
that state and local education stakeholders must sign if the
state is to be eligible to compete in the Race to the Top grant
program.
The MOU failed to include input from FEA and other education
stakeholders.
FEA President Andy Ford urged Commissioner Smith to sit back
down at the education reform table. He did, briefly, before
summarily rejecting the modifications.
As a result, FEA reluctantly advised local unions against
signing the agreement.
The Florida MOU is a minefield. It
is very prescriptive in nature, and once the union signs the MOU,
the union cannot just back out at any time.
When unions sign the
MOU, they are agreeing to negotiate items such a performance pay,
evaluations based upon student performance, and required lesson
study, to name just a few. If unions go to the table and are
unable to reach agreement,
the result can be impasse, which allows objectionable conditions to
be imposed upon teachers against their will.
That’s the final step in impasse in Florida, and that’s the
risk USEP and most unions across the state are not willing to take
at this time.
The state plan would require
all participating school districts to implement new education
programs that would be underfunded, even with Race to the Top
dollars. Many are untested, and instead of piloting these programs,
every school in every participating district would be required to
adopt them. The plan requires further standardization, more tests,
administered more frequently, and doesn’t provide funding for
existing programs – the ones we know are working.
Many schools are already participating in successful research-based
initiatives right now that are working, but
if they are not part of
Florida’s Race to the Top plan, they could be cut.
FEA’s and USEP’s decision has prompted
stories accusing FEA and
local unions of obstructionism. These so-called
“obstructionists,” the ones Commissioner Smith claims are
jeopardizing our children’s future are kindergarten teachers handing
out supplies they bought with their own money, science teachers who
bought butterfly gardens online when the school budget was cut, and
thousands of other teachers whose simple words of encouragement echo
in their students’ ears for years to come.
These are the professionals FEA and USEP are standing up for. That’s the reason Florida’s education leadership – the Florida Department of Education, the Association of District School Superintendents, the Florida School Boards Association, and the FEA – must continue the conversation. The second phase of the Race to the Top applications isn’t due until June. We have a professional and a moral obligation to start working in the collaborative spirit of the Race to the Top grant, and forge an application worthy of our students’ future