There’s no way to ignore the big news of the week: Colorado lost Race to the Top Round 2. I can’t deny I called it wrong. Like every other observer out there, including many more skillful and attuned than I, my forecast was based on what should happen, not what one might expect given the vagaries of a rigorously bureaucratic grant review process. (Not to mention the “ugly politics” Rick Hess suggests as a result of the misguided focus of the review process.)
To start, there are a couple items I have to clear up. Despite any rumors to the contrary, I had nothing at all to do with this morning’s lead editorial in the Denver Post (“Way to go, CEA.”) And no, I did not put anything in Mark Sass’s coffee before he wrote “Screw the Feds.” Moving on….
In their insightful 2009 volume Liberating Learning, Terry Moe and John Chubb included an important chapter titled “The Politics of Blocking.” Therein they explained how teachers unions with their uniquely enormous capacity to fund a powerful political machine are more adept at stopping reforms they don’t like than they are in implementing changes on their agenda. The authors identify many points in the process at which legislation can be killed — from committee votes to the veto pen to courtroom challenges. One win and it’s done.
That’s why it was so remarkable SB 191 emerging unscathed with some minor concessions to be signed into law. But maybe there are a couple additional points in “The Politics of Blocking” Moe and Chubb might have mentioned. First, undermining efforts to obtain resources to fund the reform plan. It’s not entirely clear to what extent CEA’s refusal to sign on to the R2T Round 2 application (as opposed to say reviewers’ bias against, or inability to understand, systems of local control) hurt the effort. But it certainly didn’t help.
Second, and more significantly, it’s time to consider that Colorado might see the politics of blocking through implementation. Now that we know federal funds aren’t available, the Council on Educator Effectiveness figures to have a harder time overcoming its early inertia. Would certain elements represented on the Council pursue a “kill the clock”-style strategy while lobbying a new legislature to further water down or slow down SB 191′s implementation? For this reason alone, watching this fall’s state legislative and state board of education elections will be interesting.
Once the initial sting of injustice starts to wear off, maybe others will join me in seeing that maybe Colorado is just as well off without the $175 million in federal funds and strings attached. There are plenty of state and local school officials out there who are interested in revisiting the Common Core standards issue, for example. If the money isn’t there anyway, why can’t Colorado re-implement its own standards and add on the few Common Core bits seen as improvements — rather than the other way around?
The fallout from Tuesday’s stunning announcement is just beginning.
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