SEA's Decision for Declining Federal "Race To The Top" (RTTT) Funding
Much has been made of the fact that the Strongsville Education Association (SEA) did not agree to provide a necessary signature on the Strongsville City School District’s Race To The Top (RTTT) Application.
While the SEA indeed verifies that we did not provide the necessary signature, we take issue with other claims that have been presented, as well as the Board and their Superintendent’s interpretation thereof.
The Superintendent has consistently provided a $300,000 figure as an estimate of the total amount of grant money for which Strongsville could have been eligible over a four-year period. Our sources indicate that we would have received $160,000. While the Superintendent’s repeated misrepresentation of situation is questionable, it is not at the heart of the issue.
The most important issue is the prudence of the decision not to participate in RTTT. The Superintendent’s criticisms have implied that the RTTT dollars could be used for badly needed supplies and technology. Yet, every document from the federal government has clearly stated that is not the case.
The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of districts in the area, in a collaborative decision between teachers and administration, chose not to participate in RTTT. Moreover, some of the few that did submit an application have since rescinded that application.
Most notably, the Brunswick City School District has decided to forego the $300,000 it was in line to receive. http://blog.cleveland.com/brunswicksuntimes/2010/09/brunswick_schools_pass_on_race.html In the end, the administration decided that the implementation of the Federal Government’s mandates would be more costly than the amount of their grant. “The allocation of RTTT funds would not cover all of the expenses we would incur over the next four years to fully and effectively implement the plan,” said Michael Mayell, superintendent of Brunswick City Schools.
In the end, the acceptance of RTTT dollars carried with it the potential for two evils: (1) having a local school district’s autonomy compromised by demands in return for dollars from the Federal Government, and (2) having to pay out of the local taxpayers’ pocket to meet these insufficiently funded mandates.
When judging the Strongsville City School District’s lack of participation in RTTT, citizens must ask themselves the following question: Do we want to pay out of our own pockets to have the City of Strongsville’s schools beholden to the Federal Government’s mandates?
