phTitle Governor Calls Special Session to Ready California to Compete for Billions in Recovery Funding for Education
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phMainContent (August 21, 2009) To improve the state’s education accountability system and turn around struggling schools, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday called a special session of the Legislature and proposed legislation necessary for California to compete for the largest pool of discretionary funding for education from the federal economic stimulus package.
On July 24, 2009, President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined federal requirements for states to compete for $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” dollars available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). But under current law, California is ineligible to apply. Billions in future federal education dollars are also expected to rest on a state’s ability to meet Obama Administration education reform requirements.
At a news conference, the Governor remarked that the Obama Administration’s reforms are policies that he has stood behind since taking office – and will help provide a better education for California’s school children. He insisted the reforms be passed by October to ensure California is competitive for the newly-available money.
Reforms to ensure California is eligible to apply and be highly competitive for Race to the Top funding include:
- Linking Student Achievement and Teacher Performance Data. Having linked data will increase transparency around how California’s students, teachers and schools are performing. With this information, the specific needs of students, teachers and schools can be better addressed.
- Measures to Turn-Around Struggling Schools. Turning around struggling schools increases the overall quality of our state’s education system.
- Repeal California’s charter school cap – an unnecessary barrier to innovation.
- Give parents more freedom to choose the school that best serves their children by both authorizing open enrollment for students in the lowest-performing schools so they can attend any school in the state – and removing the cap on “districts of choice” so any student in the state can attend school in a participating district.
- Focus efforts on the 5 percent of schools that consistently underperform, helping ensure all California students can reach the state’s academic standard.
- Measures to Help California Recruit and Retain High-Quality Teachers and Principals.
- Reward teachers who are consistently doing the toughest jobs. Alternative pay schedules highlight effective teaching practices and creates incentives to improve our education system.
- Measure student progress to help identify what works in the classroom. Every child is different and looking at both growth measures and overall achievement scores provides a better picture of student progress over time.
- Improving Accountability for Schools. Modifying how the state uses data to measure performance will help more accurately track the progress of students, teachers and schools on an annual basis – so that California can make continuous improvement in our education system from year to year.
To track Recovery Act funding coming to entities in California visit www.recovery.ca.gov. |