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Race to Top: Will union objections hurt Fl’s chances for grant money?

Since the Race to the Top grant competition was announced in July, Florida has been considered a strong contender to win some money, thanks to decade-long reform efforts (that mesh with the federal view on how to improve schools).

But, as we’ve written several times before, the grant seeks not only states willing to make “bold” changes but also those able to show widespread support for their planned reforms. That means teacher union backing would be good.

But Florida (obviously) doesn’t have it, so does that hurt its chances?

Well maybe, suggested U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

He said the U.S. Department of Education, as it begins evaluating the applications, will be looking for states where there is “great alignment among adults,” from superintendents to teachers to union leaders.

“We’re basically investing in states where the management team…is working together,” Duncan said this afternoon. The department wants places where there is a “collective willingness to change the status quo.”

Hmm. Not sure Florida would count for that, with the Florida Education calling the FL DOE’s plan “fatally flawed” and urging it to delay its application until June, and the State Board of Education chairman, in turn, calling the union “selfish.”

On the other hand, Duncan said that the feds want Race to the Top winners to be states where folks are willing to drive “a reform agenda” and that union support (or a lack thereof) wouldn’t doom its chances because “no one factor is going to make or break an application.”

Duncan also repeated what he’d said previously as far as how tough it will be to win money: “There are going to be more losers than winners.”

Florida, which handicapped itself as one of two very strong contenders (Louisiana was the other one) to win a grant, should know in April if it’s a winner. Or a loser.

The state’s application requests $1,141,622,870 to implement all the planned Race to the Top reforms.